Overview
Affinity Layout—formerly known as Affinity Publisher—is a professional page layout application built for brochures, magazines, books, reports, and any multi-page document you need to produce. This two-day course teaches you to create polished, print-ready publications from the ground up.
You’ll learn to structure documents efficiently, apply consistent formatting with styles, build reusable templates with master pages, and export files that meet professional print and digital standards. Whether you’re producing a company newsletter or a 200-page annual report, this course gives you the foundation to work with confidence.
Format: 2 Days | VILT or On-Site
Who Should Attend
- Marketing and communications professionals creating publications
- Graphic designers new to Affinity Layout
- In-house teams producing reports, proposals, and branded documents
- Anyone responsible for multi-page document production
What You’ll Learn
- Set up documents with proper margins, bleeds, and facing pages
- Work with text frames, linked text, and story flow
- Create and apply paragraph and character styles for consistent formatting
- Build master pages and templates for repeatable layouts
- Place and manage images, graphics, and linked assets
- Export press-ready PDFs and digital publications
Course Outline
Module 1: Document Setup and Navigation
- Creating new documents: page size, margins, columns, and bleed
- Understanding facing pages, spreads, and document structure
- Navigating pages, using the Pages panel, and reorganizing content
- Setting up guides, grids, and baseline grids for alignment
Module 2: Working with Text
- Text frames, artistic text, and frame linking for flowing stories
- Importing text from Word, RTF, and plain text files
- Text wrap options and working with pull quotes
- Find and replace, spell check, and text cleanup
Module 3: Typography and Styles
- Formatting text: font, size, leading, tracking, and kerning
- Creating and applying paragraph styles for body text, headings, and lists
- Character styles for inline formatting (bold, italic, hyperlinks)
- OpenType features, drop caps, and typographic refinements
Module 4: Master Pages and Templates
- Building master pages with headers, footers, and page numbers
- Applying and overriding master page elements
- Creating multiple masters for varied page layouts
- Saving and reusing document templates
Module 5: Images, Graphics, and Assets
- Placing images and understanding linked vs. embedded assets
- Fitting, cropping, and transforming placed content
- Working with Affinity Pixel and Vector content via StudioLink
- Resource Manager: tracking and relinking missing files
Module 6: Exporting and Publishing
- PDF export settings for print, digital, and archive
- Preflight checks: catching errors before export
- Packaging documents with linked assets and fonts
- Exporting for eBooks and interactive digital formats
Prerequisites & Technical Requirements
- No prior Affinity or page layout experience required
- Affinity Layout installed (latest version from Canva)
Customization Options
This course can be shaped around your organization’s publication types—newsletters, annual reports, proposals, catalogs, or marketing collateral. We can incorporate your brand guidelines, templates, and actual project files so you leave with production-ready skills specific to your work.