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Affinity Publisher Template and Beginner's Guide

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Affinity Publisher Template and Beginner's Guide

From

Nathanaël Roux

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$9.95

Presented here are an Affinity Publisher Template and Beginner's Guide useful to make PDFs for the DMsGuild!

Inside you will find the template with:

1 full color template in US Letter and A4
7 backgrounds options
3 frame style options
3 page decorators style options
44 paragraphs styles
6 character styles
Stat blocks
Class features frames for non-casters, half-casters and full casters
And more!

And the beginner's guide covers:

Importing and manipulating text
Importing and manipulating graphic files
Export to PDF from Affinity Publisher
And more!

Compatible with Affinity Publisher 1.10.+

You can find the InDesign version of the template here!

July 18, 2022 - Change log for v2.3:

Added center of columns guides to master page A
Added Text wrap to statblocks
Fixed the missing Text Frames from the Master
Repackaged everything

November 1st, 2020 - Change log for v2.0:

Converted from .afpub to aftemplate
Rebuilt all the paragraph styles from scratch
Rebuilt all the character styles from scratch
Removed unused paragraph styles
Updated guide
New license
New fonts
New page decorator

January 27th, 2020 - Change log for v1.1:

Added a Hyperlink style
Removed spacing after Heading 3
Removed spacing after Footer
Removed outline from Heading 1,2,3, 1 - TOC and 2 - TOC
Added 4pt spacing after DM - Core Metadata
New Paragraph Style DM - Epigraph
New Paragraph Style DM - Epigraph Source
Added 6pt space before and after DM - Core Bulleted
Added 6pt space before and after DM - Sidebar Bulleted
Updated the Next Style for most Paragraph styles
Switched DM - Footer to All Caps
New Paragraph Style DM - Sidebar Body 2
Fixed DM - Core Body

August 18th 2019 - Change log for v1.0:

New and updated background options.
New and updated frame options.
New sigil options.
New and updated page decorator options.
Print on Demand settings.
New Draft/Sample watermark layers.
A4 Version.
New text styles test file.
All text styles are now set to English: US spelling.
Column guides.
New License.txt (Read it!)

June 28th 2019 - Change log for v0.6:

Fixed the paragraph style DM - Chapter Title, Chapter Title - ToC, Heading 1, Heading 1 - ToC, Heading 2, Heading 2 - ToC, Heading 3, and Stat Block Title (Stat Block) so they show the correct font and font weight.
Changed the DM - Footer font to Noto Serif, to fix a display issue.
Switched most tables to Top Align to fix and issue with text longer than one line
Fixed an issue the sidebar text, it shouldn't use the "denominator" setting anymore.

Added center of columns guides to master page A
Added Text wrap to statblocks
Fixed the missing Text Frames from the Master

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Reviews (12)

Discussions (19)

Please log in to add or reply to comments.

Diego P December 01, 2023 11:51 am UTC

Hi. I am seeking clarification on the usage of the template for OGL, outside DM Guild: Are the trade dress identical to those used by DM Guild? If not, would using it or other included elements for homebrews violate the license terms in the OGL?? Also, do you have Affinity v2.0 specific template already available? Appreciate your insights. Thanks!

Nathanaël R December 01, 2023 11:58 am UTC

CREATOR

Hi, all the graphic elements in the template are mine and are not covered by the same rules as text on the DMsGuild, you are free to use them in OGL publications without violating the terms in the OGL. Sorry, no Affinity v2.0+ template.

Vito P August 07, 2023 2:57 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hello! Thanks for making this template. I'm starting on a homebrew and trying out this Affinity software. I just want to know if I'm missing something. Is there a premade Class Features template somewhere? Or should I make it myself with the headings and stuff provided?

Thanks!

Nathanaël R August 07, 2023 4:33 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hello Vito,
thank you for your purchase. There is no premade Class Features template, it's up to you to do it with the provided styles and tables.

Vito P October 29, 2023 9:20 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey Nathanaël! I've been using your template a lot more and have been enjoying it. I just ran into an issue with the text wrap. I'm trying to get text to wrap around a picture in my "Class Features" section. Images are wrapping in the stat blocks but not in the regular two column pages. Could there be a formatting issue here in the two column areas? I tried googling and asking around but can't figure it out.

Vito P October 29, 2023 11:15 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Nevermind! I figured it out!

For anyone else on this, I went to Master Pages, highlighted the text columns, went to Text >> Text Wrap >> unchecked "Ignore Text Wraps"

Stoyan G April 20, 2023 12:31 pm UTC

Does this work with Cyrillic?

Sam J January 07, 2023 10:07 pm UTC

PURCHASER

AM I missing something? I downloaded everything, followed the beginner guide and there just...is a file missing? The start up guide says to import a .aftemplate but that file doesnt exist and the other files I import that were part of the package dont show anything in Affinity. Can anyone help?

Nathanaël R January 07, 2023 10:21 pm UTC

CREATOR

My apologies the guide is not up to date. Open the .afpackage with Affinity Publisher (v1.x), go to File -> Export as Template. Then you can follow the guide's steps on how to add a new template.

Elliott B November 14, 2022 5:28 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hi. Will this be updated for Publisher v2 now that it is the only version of Publisher available?

Terrelle S December 29, 2022 11:22 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Yeah before i upgrade my Affinity, i would like to know as well, since the ONLY reason i have Affinity Publisher is to use to create D&D content and using this template is the most efficient way for me to do that right now.

Nathanaël R December 30, 2022 9:27 am UTC

CREATOR

At this time I do not have Affinity V2, so there are no plans to update this template for it. If I were to purchase Affinity V2 and make a template compatible for it, I would list it as a separate product and this one would stay as Affinity V1. I hope this answers your questions.

Benjamin B October 31, 2022 1:17 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hello! OK, one more question: the template is set up for page 1 to be the cover, and each other page to be a two-page spread, which read nicely as a book, but as a PDF I would like to offer each page individually. Is there an easy way to set that up with this template / transform an existing work into that?

John L October 04, 2022 7:54 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Using this for Affinity Publisher 10 and realizing that I'm confused. I'm trying to set it up as a template following the directions in the pdf guide. It specifically says to connect to the folder where the .aftemplate file is, except there is no .aftemplate file in any of these folders. There are .afpackage files for letter and a4, which both open in Affinity Publisher, but no template file.

Am I supposed to do something on my end to make this a template?

John L October 04, 2022 8:07 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Nevermind. I just went ahead and exported both .afpackage files as templates.

Richard E July 13, 2022 11:30 am UTC

PURCHASER

Just a note to buyers who have Affinity Publisher 10.xxxxxx.

Boy are you going to have to do some work to get this going.

You will get errors saying you need more fonts than it mentioned in the font.txt file.

Then you will need to download the DM Guild logo and put in in the templates folder as that will throw up a missing error unless you do.

And thats just the start. Borders needing to be relinked etc.

If you are not comfortable in doing things like this, then this is not for you.

I got mine working, but it was a challenge to figure out where all the errors were going, especially if you use the preflight option before you export a pdf.

Just giving a bit of a warning, and this probably needs a large upgrade for use with versions of Affinity Publisher

Benjamin B June 18, 2022 10:14 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Question: when I apply the blank master template, I still see the outline of two columns that are slightly different color -- how do I get rid of those? They don't seem like layers, so I can't select them -- what am I missing?

Nathanaël R June 19, 2022 10:38 am UTC

CREATOR

Those are column guides, they are a non-printable element (meaning they wont show up when printed or when exported). If you want to turn them off go to View -> Show Column Guides. If you want to edit them go to View -> Guides Manager...
I hope this answer will be helpful to you.

Benjamin B June 19, 2022 9:13 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thank you!

George S May 02, 2022 6:43 pm UTC

Hi, is this suitable for non DMsguild content that I would want to publish commercially?

Nathanaël R May 02, 2022 6:54 pm UTC

CREATOR

Yes, make sure you remove the DMsGuild logo and the DMsGuild legalese from the file before your publish outside.

Ellie L December 10, 2021 8:50 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I love this product! What a great way to make modules look professional. It would be lovely to have a base template for people who only intend to release digital versions of their modules. The two-page layout, with the page numbers on the alternating right and left corners, looks a little odd if you're scrolling through page-by-page as a PDF. A template with the page numbers in the middle would be fantastic.

Thanks again!

Benjamin B July 07, 2021 1:51 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hello, just purchased this, and I'm having trouble altering the background -- it says it's locked and when I choose "unlock all" or try to right-click and unlock, nothing changes. I'm looking for help from Affinity, but thought I'd ask you as well. Any ideas?

Benjamin B July 07, 2021 1:59 am UTC

PURCHASER

Oh, nevermind, I was trying to edit a page rather than the master page.

Christopher P April 16, 2021 11:38 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hey there! Thanks a bunch for this! I've been converting a rather large project of mine (~75 pages) over to using this template for a bit now. Something jumped out at me though:

One of the paragraph styles is "DM - Boxed Text". Within that box, there's no boxed text indented or header or anything like that. The first boxed text I can find in the PHB is on page 5 and the text within indents even on the first line. Sadly I am not familiar enough with this tool to figure out how to indent just the amount that "DM - Core Body Indent" indents for consistency.

Can a couple more options be added for the boxed?

Nathanaël R April 16, 2021 12:15 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hello Christopher,
The paragraph style "DM - Boxed Text" is originally intended to be used for read-aloud text. That said if you need to use it with multiple paragraphs and require an indented version follow these steps:
1. Right-click "DM - Boxed Text" and select the "Create style based on "DM - Boxed Text"" option
2. Name the new style "DM - Boxed Text Indent"
3. In Spacing (under Paragraph) in the "First line indent:" field input the value 0.213 in
4. Click OK

If you want to create a style variant which will automatically bold the words before a colon like on page of the PHB follow these steps:
1. Right-click "DM - Boxed Text Indent" and select the "Create style based on "DM - Boxed Text Indent"" option
2. Name the new style "DM - Boxed Text Indent + Bold"
3. In Initial Words (second to last option) check the "enabled box"
4. In the...See more

Christopher P April 17, 2021 3:07 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey there, thanks for the reply!

Got one more for you. I'm trying to start filling in stat blocks, but I am running into some issues.

First, when I drag a stat block (one column) onto a page, it doesn't automatically wrap everything around the table. I figured it was because it isn't inline, so I clicked the Inline In Text button to get it in the column. Problem is that it then doesn't center properly, always disproportionately on one side of the other and no way to snap to center of column. Any idea on how to do this efficiently?

Nathanaël R April 17, 2021 3:35 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hey,

I've never used Inline In Text button, I don't know how it's supposed to work. What you could do to have the stat block snap to the center of the column is edit the master pages and place a guide (click on the side ruler and drag a guide out of it) at the center of each of the 4 columns, that way when you go back to the document every pages will have the guides and the stat block should be easier to snap in place.

If you are still struggling with getting the text to wrap around the stat blocks, expand the content of the Stat block layer, you should see a Group, expand the content of the group, select the text frame (not the table), click "Show Text Wrap Settings" (should be on the left of the Inline In Text button) and pick the Jump text wrap settings

Christopher P April 17, 2021 4:17 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks, those two things did the trick! I added a center guide, reshaped my template so the box between the rectangles goes to the edge of the column and then I can snap it to center. The wrap rules made it so as I drag it into a column, it doesn't cover text, it is embedded in the text.

Christopher P April 18, 2021 4:47 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Sorry, got one more! The "DM - Chapter Title" paragraph format currently obeys the text wrap in the columns. Is there a way to make it so that particular text style doesn't? It simply extends across the page and other text wraps down below it? Long chapter titles are getting wrapped down when they should extend across the top of the first page (like PHB, page 11: "Chapter 1: Step-By-Step Characters"). I am pretty sure I could do this by creating a different type of text line, I am just curious if you know if there is a way to do this by editing the DM - Chapter Title paragraph style so it will flow throughout my entire document?

Nathanaël R April 18, 2021 4:54 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hi, simple answer is it not a setting currently available in the paragraph styles option, maybe one day in a future software update we will see it (people have been asking since 2018). One way to achieve the desired effect is to create a new text frame spanning both columns for the chapter title and give it a text wrap (or adjust the main text frame so it starts were the new one ends).

Christopher P April 18, 2021 5:45 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks, that's what I was guessing I'd have to do.

Much appreciate the help! It was frustrating getting started using this over Homebrewery for my 75+ page homebrew, but I gotta say, I can see how this is going to be a massive step up in being able to edit! Thanks!

Christopher P April 25, 2021 9:21 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey there, I've got another now that I'm done and trying to get the table of contents done. The first page for a cover is a single page whereas all other pages are pairs. Is there a way to turn the first page into a double (cover + TOC)? Whenever I try to insert a page after page 1, because everything is built on this pair of pages system, my entire document gets fucked.

Nathanaël R April 26, 2021 4:44 am UTC

CREATOR

Hey, I don't understand why you want to that, but I don't need to to be able to give you the solution: File -> Document Setup (Ctrl+Shift+P) -> In the "Start on:" field pick Left instead of Right.

Christopher P April 26, 2021 4:52 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks! That eliminates most of the problem, though there is definitely a bunch of cleanup. To try and explain in more detail.

I started on page 1 (right side of the first "spread") with my cover. On the second spread, page 2 is an introduction and page 3 is the start of chapter 1. Each spread is 2 pages from there on. On many of these, I added artwork with stains and all that. When I add a single page after page 1 (for a table of contents), pages that were on the left side of the spread go to the right and ones on the right go to the next left. Images, however, don't move with the rest, so the entire document gets borked. I ended up converting the cover page into the TOC and just slap in the cover after printing.

That said, when I went in and did what you suggested and then added a blank page as page 2, the right side of the first spread, the all of the following spreads were more or less in tact (though cleanup will be needed it looks like).

Big thanks for all...See more

Badger B March 06, 2021 11:26 pm UTC

PURCHASER

hey there, launched this today and I am told I am missing the following font:

CrimsonText-Regular

Can you please shed any light?

Nathanaël R March 07, 2021 6:30 am UTC

CREATOR

Hello,
CrimsonText-Regular used to be the main font used in the template, in theory it shouldn't be needed anymore, but if it shows up as missing you can download it from https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Crimson+Text

Badger B March 08, 2021 2:06 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thank you.

It was asking for quite a few fonts until I updated my download but yes that one was still missing.

Its now fine, your suggestion worked.

Thank you very much.

Benjamin P February 04, 2021 10:46 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hi, I was wondering if this template has been approved by Wizards of the Coast in a way where it doesn't infringe on their trade dress?

Badger B January 18, 2021 10:31 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hi there

Bought this item a while back but am finally able to get around to using it.

I launched the template and it game me a missing resource error.

The resource missing is the following on the new line below.

tLogoLarge.png

Please help

Nathanaël R January 18, 2021 2:08 pm UTC

CREATOR

Hi Badger,

thank you for your purchase.

It looks like you're missing the DMsGuild logo, you will find a link to download it on this page: https://support.dmsguild.com/hc/en-us/articles/217029188-Logo-and-Artwork-Questions

In the section "What are the rules for putting branding (logos, trademarks, etc.) on my DMsGuild title?"

Badger B January 18, 2021 2:23 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thank you and thanks for such a rapid response!

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