Affinity Publisher StudioLink graphics suite integration

Approximately 2 decades ago I worked in the ICT at a major bank whose name shall remain unmentioned. I supported an international helpdesk where gorgeous young women from all over Europe worked for the country departments. While in groups of males often willy waving contests spontaneously emerge, women tend to engage in cleavage competitions. That basically was all the motivation that the support guys, like us, needed to happily work in that department. But I digress, what was I going to write about again?

Oh yes, I remember: suite integration. In the helpdesk the beauties had up to 38 programs open at the same time, mostly interfaces (based on Rumba for the initiates) to the company's mainframe. That caused the taskbar to be so crowded that it occupied over half the monitor screen. This was the ugly face of not integrating programs. In addition, all programs required the users to change passwords at a certain interval - some every fortnight, others monthly or two monthly. For security reasons of course, lol. No one can remember the mandatory continuously required changing of 38 passwords, so they were - of course - recorded in (online) Excel-files, printed and kept in the desks' top drawer for swift access - which was the result of a security measure, haha! I'm aware that this was a somewhat extreme situation, but extreme situations are often quite useful to imagine better ways on how to to go about things.

Affinity Publisher logo

Affinity Publisher has included the best way of program integration in the form of StudioLink. It merges the functionality of Publisher - the DTP program - with that of Designer - the vector drawing program - and Photo - the photo-editing program. There no longer is the need to open the programs separately and simultaneously; the functions of all 3 programs in Serif's graphics suite can be accessed from within a single program: Affinity Publisher. It makes obese taskbars part of a ridiculously primitive past and does away with frequent switching between the programs. The most effective time saver and efficiency booster that a software suite developing company could have invented.



How does StudioLink make Serif's graphic suite better than the rest?
This program integration combines all common and distinguishing features of Designer and Photo with those of Publisher, so that all DTP work can be done from within Publisher, a number of which are:

• The non-destructive editing that all programs in the suite feature
• The instant live preview of functions (no more guessing what an effect will result in by multiple trial and error clicks in many dialog panels)
• The undo functionality (1000 undos are standard)
• The history function that allows to go back to the very first command in a file and create different set of commands from any point
• The preview modes and before & after split screens
• The program's speed that easily outpaces the competition
• The infinite zoom capability
• The highly customizable fx and other control panels
• The customizable gradient colouring and transparency tools
• The placing of PSD, AI, PDF, JPG, TIFF, PNG or Affinity files with preservation of the layer structure of files capable of storing multiple layers
• Import and export to all major raster and vector files, including layered PSD, PDF and EPS formats
• Affinity Publisher has customizable RGB, LAB, greyscale and CMYK colour spaces, spot colour support, Pantone colours and an extensive range of ICC colour profiles
• 'Save with history' option so that you can review every step taken afterwards to edit a document if necessary

While this advanced functionality may persuade artists in the graphics industry to consider purchasing the programs in the Affinity suite, Serif recently decided to cut its program price in half! You have read this correctly: they give you a 50% discount, which means you buy a license for less than 28 USD per program, which includes 3 free upgrades. No subscription plunder model, if you are satisfied with a version, you can choose to use it forever without paying a monthly penalty until you stop using the program. If anyone still has doubts: Serif offers a generous 90 day trial period, which should suffice to try out the functions of the programs that you need.

This is one of the most persuasive offers I have ever encountered in the software developing business. An excellent incentive to leave the overpriced Adobe days behind. To top things off - most companies run forums where users go to remain oblivious to solutions for the problems they have, but in the Affinity forums the moderator crowd actually does its best to support users. For comparison, go visit the forums of QuarkXpress and InDesign to learn how to effectively frustrate and chase away users :D



Hasta luego online virtual folks.