Branding Spotlight: Affinity Publisher
An alternative to Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign
We are very excited to announce that our very own Jamie Holmes has found and vetted an alternative to both Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign when it comes to building our clients' templates. Not having an alternative for InDesign for Mac users has been a challenge for a few years now, but now both PC and Mac clients wanting to build a brand with us have a third option.
What is Affinity Publisher?
Affinity Publisher, by Serif, is a layout publishing software. It allows us to create all the templates you need in your brand, from flyers, newsletters, postcards, books, and more, so all you need to do is open the file and edit away! From a power perspective, it is much closer to the power that Adobe InDesign (professional publishing) has than Microsoft Publisher (desktop publishing).
Read more here: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/
Are there features Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign have that are missing from Affinity Publisher?
Nothing significant and frankly, Affinity Publisher is a much more robust program than Microsoft Publisher. With some of our larger files, such as listing presentation packages, the files are getting pretty big and Microsoft Publisher starts to have some performance issues or not all the images export to Acrobat PDF as expected. We have been much happier with the testing we are doing on Affinity Publisher for those larger files.
I use both a PC at work and a Mac at home. Can I use one template for both?
Yes! You would need to have the correct fonts installed on both computers.
How much does Affinity Publisher cost?
This is where the big benefit over Adobe InDesign comes in. The licensing fee for Adobe InDesign is a monthly fee of $20.99, but Affinity Publisher is a one-time licensing fee of $54.99.
In terms of how this compares to Microsoft Publisher, it is only offered through their Microsoft 360 plans, which is $12.50/month. It's fine if you already have the subscription for things like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but if you are running older versions of MS Office and don't have MS Publisher, it's one more monthly cost, and it quickly adds up!
Will you still support Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign?
Yes! When a client is working on a brand with us, we ask them which program they want to use and then we build the templates based on their preferences. We will now support all three programs.
My templates are already built, can I have them converted to Affinity Publisher?
Yes! And luckily Affinity Publisher has an easier import option than rebuilding files in Microsoft Publisher. Just let us know what templates you want in Affinity Publisher and we will give you a work order quote for that.
Affinity Publisher can open InDesign IDML files, so no conversion by us required! You may need to save your InDesign file as an IDML file first, however.
How hard is it to learn how to use?
It really depends on you. We have many clients who are comfortable using the Microsoft products or Adobe products and there is a change in terminology and keyboard shortcuts. From a workspace perspective, Affinity Publisher looks a lot like Adobe InDesign which can be a little disconcerting if you are now in another program that looks like another program you are used to using. It took us very little time to dive in and feel comfortable, but we are designers. For agents who are tech adventurous, this will be easy to pick up. For agents who aren't so comfortable, this is probably on par with learning Adobe InDesign. But the great thing about using our templates is that you aren't having to build a template, just edit. It is a whole different animal.
What about support?
Since we are just introducing our support of this product, we don't have our tutorials ready to go, but Affinity Publisher has quite a few already!
Check them out here: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/publisher/desktop/
You can also get help in the Support Community: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/
But of course, when we build a branding package, a guided tour and personal tutorial is included which is also recorded for your use later. This should cover about everything you need to know about using your files, but if you have questions later, you know where to find us!
Starting in July, The Lones Group will be including an Affinity Publisher template option for the Club Zebra Infographic. If you want to try that out, you would need to purchase Affinity Publisher, download the template from Club Zebra, and get started!
Call us at 360-527-8904 or email solutions@thelonesgroup.com today!
Curious about how your personal style can be represented in a professional brand? Book a branding consultation today!
