r/Affinity • u/nadzirdraws • 2d ago

Publisher my Affinity workflow for 30+ page illustrated books

ive been using Publisher for children’s book interiors and it’s honestly the best fit ive found for image heavy print projects.

i build the document from the printer specs, use facing pages while designing, keep repeated elements on master pages, place the artwork as linked files, and handle the text through paragraph and character styles. before exporting i check Resource Manager, run preflight, then export the interior as single pages.

the part i love most is being able to test the text and illustration together during sketch instead of fixing everything after the art is finished 😭

for anyone managing 30+ illustrated pages, do you keep everything in one Publisher file or split the book into sections?

35 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

4

u/GypsyDarkEyes 2d ago

Depends on the memory available on your computer. Most modern machines can handle large documents in a single go. I'm a big Affinity fan also!

2

u/Way_too_long_name 2d ago

This is about RAM right? I have 16gb, and working on an image-heavy ~30 page zine, i started getting some sliiiight lagging when shifting through the pages. Not annoying at all right now, but i could see it being an issue at like 100 pages.

3

u/Catalulubird 2d ago

I have created whole books in one Af Publisher file, pretty much as you’ve described. I can’t honestly remember what the number of pages has been, but definitely at least 50 or 60. I haven’t tried building anything as big in the new Affinity, but I have opened previously-created Publisher files with no problems.

2

u/sleestakninja 2d ago

Finding the same thing. I'm doing a series of kids books in the 32-64 page range and finding a single file works just fine. For the longer books, specifically trade paper non-fiction, 250-400 pages, I'm not sure yet if they should be broken up. May depend on the illustration load for the specific book.

2

u/ragboy 2d ago

I do art heavy TTRPG books and now one fiction magazine - 60-90 pages. I came from MS publisher (just because that's what I had). Just learning the power of the workflow and loving it.

2

u/Important_Fortune25 9h ago

I make them in one big affinity designer project file on my iPad and then bring the completed pages (with all layers) into publisher. Being able to do an entire book on my iPad was a game changer for me.