Getting Started

What is AP (Affinity Publisher)?

a publishing program for creating books, magazines and documents with professional layouts. AP is NOT a word processor, it is best to do your bulk formatting in another program like Word or GoogleDocs.

Opening AP and Creating a new project Preset

Opening Affinity and Creating a Preset.mp4

• Margins – The “safe zone” around the edges of a page where text should not go.
  • Inner margin or “gutter” should be between 0.5-0.75 inches to allow for proper reading in the finished bound project (I like 0.7 inches) Thermal bound paperbacks need more than sewn signatures.
• Bleed – The area outside the page edge that ensures print designs extend fully without white borders (not usually a concern for at home printers)

Master Page Setup

Master Setup.mp4

• I always recommend using RIGHT and LEFT chapter header masters
  • The more information you can detail to AP the fewer issues you will have later
  • I don’t use symmetrical margins so I need right and left pages
  • Text flow works better when you use both

Setting Up Our First Pages

0928.mp4

• Set up your first pages for Title, Artistic title, Colophon, Dedication page, and first chapter header
• if you want page 1 to start with your text → right click on the page (under the pages panel) you want to start numbering on and click start new section. under the section settings you can choose to renumber.

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https://blakbooks.wixsite.com/blak-books-bindery/macros← use this resource for initial bulk formatting from AO3. It’s a lifesaver

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Setting Character Styles and Paragraph Styles

Character and paragraph styles.mp4