So at least in case of Quark we should be happy, that Quark doesn't try to obfuscate the generated PDF, but to keep the structure of the original document.Īnd as Affinity is a newcomer in this market, they surely have a vital interest in making the move from other applications as easy as possible for their customers.Convert your PDFs to any file type you want for freeįree PDF to All Converter is a free piece of software designed to help users convert their existing PDF files to other, more accessible formats. I know that PDF has never been designed as an interchange format, but the designers of the different DTP programs have a big interest that nobody else can read their formats or create import filters for their native format, so a change from Quark to Indesign to Affinity Publisher or vice versa is made as difficult as possible. The Publisher seems to merge some of the objects - for me it looks more or less random and this merge is the cause of a lot of re-work to be done to the import result. The object structure of Quark files is mostly kept, multicolumn text is split in one object per column and paragraphs are also separated in different objects in PDF. If you take a document generated by Quark Xpress as PDF export and edit the PDF in Acrobat, you are able to see the structure of objects and to modify them. The PDF format stores text blocks and graphics in objects. The problem is that this information is not stored in the PDF to begin with so the Affinity products have no way to retain the information - it simply isn't there by the time it enters the program.Įven the context of a text box is foreign to PDF it really wasn't designed as an interchange format. Too many apply to little used options and not enough to ones users like me need. Keyboard shortcuts are always important to smooth and efficient working and in my view Publisher doesn't at the moment strike the right balance with its shortcuts. I would also like to see the option of a default setting for leading, for instance, instead of having to set in every single Text Style. At the moment if you have similar shades in the same swatch it's difficult to distinguish one from another because of the tiny square of colours. I would like to see the Swatches palette developed to allow for the naming of colours so that they can be identified more readily. Two other areas where I feel Publisher needs attention is in colour handling and typographical default settings. Additional features have meant that some formatting options, previously achieved with simple keystroke combinations, have become more long-winded, not helpful in an industry working to tight deadlines, where speed is of the essence. The beauty of Quark used to be its simplicity, but in recent times it's become bloated. I've been a Quark user since the late 1980s, mostly for producing newspapers, books, magazines and newsletters.
No mention either that I could find in any of the documentation. Bizarre default, though, because I would imagine most users would want to use art boards in exactly this way. If you mean that you use the area outside of the page/art board to place notes and other items, you can go to the View > View mode> Clip to Canvas to toggle being able to place items outside of the page boundary. I'm also not sure exactly what you mean about the art boards themselves.
You will be on to a winner if Publisher becomes an app that looks like it was intended for print, rather than one simply ported over from the web environment. Who in their right mind would print on black paper?
I find the default implementation of black backgrounds equally bizarre in an application aimed at those who work in print. Publisher still has quite a few rough edges, particularly with how it handles images and the bizarre implementation of the art-board, where normally I like to write text, try out different things and run text overflows during the editing process. I already use Photo and Designer, so Publisher would fit neatly into my workflow as an alternative to Quark.
For my now more limited use, upgrading is not a cost-effective option. I no longer use Quark as much as I used to and I'm still running its 2015 incarnation. As a long-time QuarkXpress user I am impressed with what I've seen of Publisher so far. You have indicated on another thread that importing InDesign documents will probably be added to a future version, so I can ask if the same will apply to Quark files?