Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad Quickstart Guide

Upon opening Affinity Publisher, you’re greeted with its Home screen. Use the icons on the left to create, open and manage documents.

Tap New and then New Document to create a blank document. When editing a document, return to the Home screen by tapping the button in the workspace’s top-left corner.

Return to documents you’ve created or opened but not closed by tapping Live Docs. Simply tap one’s thumbnail to continue working on it. You can also save and close documents from here.

If you’ve closed a document, tap Open and then Open Document to navigate to and reopen it. Tap Templates to use an existing document (saved as an .aftemplate file) as the starting point for a new one.

You can also explore professional Samples and get further Help with your app’s features from the Home screen.

Creating a document

On Affinity’s Home screen, tap New and then New Document.

On the New Document dialog, set the document’s dimensions and other attributes by selecting a preset. Affinity Publisher includes comprehensive print, press-ready and screen presets – and you can create your own.

You can customise settings for your document’s page orientation, vertical or horizontal page arrangement, colour format (such as CMYK or RGB) and profile, and margin and bleed measurements.

Pages

The Pages Panel allows you to add, navigate and rearrange pages, which are displayed as thumbnail previews.

If your document uses facing pages, they are arranged as spreads just like they’ll be when published.

Tapping a thumbnail shows the corresponding spread in the document view, ready for editing.

The Artistic Text Tool creates stylised typography, such as headlines and pull-quotes.

Dragging on a page provides instant control over artistic text’s initial size. As you do so, the live preview of a letter ‘A’ shows how your chosen font and size will render.

The Frame Text Tool defines areas through which paragraphs will flow.

Tapping within a frame creates an insertion point. You can then type in the frame or long-press on it and select Insert Filler Text to fill it with temporary content so you can preview its layout and formatting.

You can type into frames using the on-screen keyboard or a hardware keyboard, or place Rich Text Format and Microsoft Word files, including any notes and text styles, by selecting the Place Tool.

You can link text frames to flow long stories across multiple pages. Text automatically reflows when you add, remove or transform text frames.

Manually link text frames by tapping the triangle on an existing one and then tapping another text frame or dragging to create a new one. Text automatically flows from one linked frame into the next.

Using the shape tools

With a shape tool selected, tapping its icon a second time reveals Affinity Publisher’s full roster of shape tools, which includes the Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool and Triangle Tool.

Drag on the page to create a shape. Red control handles on a selected shape can be dragged to customise specific attributes, such as rounding a rectangle’s corners, curving a polygon’s edges, and positioning a callout’s tail.

Making a selection

Select objects directly on pages with the Move Tool by tapping them or dragging out a selection marquee around them. Or, you can select their entries on the Layers Panel.

If you prefer a marquee to only have to intersect an object to select it, use the Command Controller’s ⌃ (left) modifier. You can make this behaviour the default from the Tools section of the app’s settings.

Text is quickly navigated by holding two fingers on the on-screen keyboard and then dragging to move the insertion point. Select a word, line, paragraph or all of a story’s text by tapping it two, three, four or five times, respectively.

You can select discontinuous text ranges, e.g. to style multiple headings at once, using the Command Controller’s ⌘ (right) modifier.

Picture frame tools

With the Picture Frame Rectangle Tool and Picture Frame Ellipse Tool, dragging on the page creates a picture frame that you can fill with a photo, illustration or document by tapping Replace Picture on the context toolbar.

With the Move Tool, framed content is easily scaled using the slider next to the tools on the left, and (after double-tapping the frame) repositioned or rotated by dragging the content or its rotation handle, respectively.

Shapes drawn with a shape tool or the Pen Tool can be used as picture frames by selecting Convert to Picture Frame on the Edit menu.

Autoflow text

You can flow text through however many pages and linked text frames it requires by long-pressing on its frame’s Text Flow triangle, releasing, and then selecting Autoflow.

With your text in place, you can style small parts of it, create paragraph and character styles from those parts, and then quickly apply the styles to the rest of your text.

By using text styles, it’s extremely easy to try out different fonts, font sizes and other settings. As you do so, they’re instantly and consistently applied throughout your publication.

Autoflow images

Affinity Publisher can autoflow multiple images, too. Selecting multiple images via the Place Tool or dragging and dropping them from the Files app loads them onto the Place Panel.

Tap Toggle Multi-Select and then Select All on the Panel (the first and second buttons from the left) and then tap a picture frame or drag on a page. Affinity Publisher will autoflow the selected images into your document starting from that point. Each page remains fully editable after autoflow.

You can autoflow pages from PDFs too, by tapping Show All Pages (the third button from the left) and then Select All on the Place Panel. This allows you to integrate a multi-page supplement or advertisement from a client into your publication in seconds.

Design aids

Numerous design aids are available to help you create strong page layouts.

They include margins, which ensure content doesn’t encroach on the gutter and page edges; baseline grids to vertically align text across spreads; snapping to precisely align objects; and column guides, which support desirable design qualities such as balance and harmony.

Tapping Toggle Preview Mode (near the top right of the workspace) hides these and all other design aids and overlays, instantly giving you a clear look at your publication’s pages.

Also, tapping Hide UI (at the top right) hides Panels and toolbars to maximise your view.

Quick ways to help readers navigate

Use master pages when you want objects to be repeated on multiple publication pages, and combine them with fields for powerful, time-saving effect.

The Cross-References Panel allows you to insert phrases that refer to other parts of your publication. A cross-reference can contain fields that describe attributes of its target, such as its page number, chapter name, or even paragraph text, which Affinity updates as a document’s contents change.

Double-tapping Page Number on the Fields Panel adds a field at the text insertion point. The field displays as # on a master page and as an actual page number on publication pages to which the master is applied.

Tap Sections on the Pages Panel and divide your document into named sections. Then simply insert the Name field (from the Document Sections group) on a master page to display chapters’ names on their pages.

In a multi-page article that’s interrupted by, say, a full-page ad, insert the Next Frame field (from the Continuation group) and Affinity Publisher will automatically help readers continue to the correct page.

With all three Affinity apps installed, Affinity Publisher’s StudioLink technology seamlessly allows you to use features of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo without having to change apps and interrupt your workflow.

This is called Persona Switching. It means you can edit illustrations and photos directly on your publication’s pages.

To switch to a different Persona, tap the current Persona’s icon near the top left of the workspace and then select the required Persona from the menu.

Managing resources and sharing documents

The Resource Manager Panel lets you review all the images and documents you’ve placed in your Affinity Publisher document.

The manager indicates whether each resource is embedded, linked or missing. The choice of embedding or linking is made during document creation. Each option has pros and cons but you can change the decision for any resource at any time—including for individual resources.

To share your document, including its resources and fonts (if permitted by your licence), select Package from the Document menu to save copies of them to a folder.

Managing complex publications

Use the Toc (Table of Contents) and Index Panels to add references that help readers navigate and look up information. Preparing your document for these references is as simple as applying text styles and inserting index marks at keywords, respectively.

To provide citations and commentary alongside main text, use the Notes Panel to insert footnotes, sidenotes and endnotes. You also get great control over note formatting and positioning.

You can check your publication for problems by using the Preflight Panel, and then export it in the industry-standard PDF format by selecting Export from the Document menu.

Whether you want a press-ready PDF with printer’s marks, one that’s optimised for online delivery, or a PDF/X file for graphics exchange, you can select a built-in preset—or adjust advanced settings to create your own.