Advanced typography and table functions are part of the Affinity Publisher offering
A beta version of Affinity Publisher page layout software is now freely available for download and trial.
Software developer Serif has released a beta version of its Affinity Publisher page layout software to complement its existing Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo programs which respectively offer vector illustration and pixel-based image editing, and are lower cost alternatives to the established Adobe Creative Cloud/Suite tools.
Integration with the existing applications will in the finished commercial release allow users to edit vector illustrations and images as well as type and other page layout elements all in the one application.
The desktop publishing features of Affinity will sound familiar to Adobe users and include “advanced” typography, linked text frames, master pages, facing page spreads, “dynamic” photo frames, tables, baseline grids, linked resources and end-to-end CMYK working.
Serif managing director Ashley Hewson said: ‘From the earliest days of visualising the Affinity range, we planned an unrivalled trio of sleek, super-modern apps created to work with the latest technology – ultra-fast, with stunning power and completely stripped of bloat.’
He added that the beta release should not be used for important work and explained, ‘We are relying on beta users to let us know what works and what doesn’t. If there are any features that need adding, let us know. Even if we don’t get them in before we release version 1, you can expect plenty of free updates to come, just like with our other apps.’
The beta version of Affinity Publisher is for Macintosh and Windows only, with an iPad version planned to follow later.
