Affinity Publisher 2.6.5 — macOS

Version 2.6.5 of Affinity Publisher adds multiple-page spreads — think gatefolds, trifolds, and accordion folds that fold out in a print layout. It also brings a dedicated Reading Order panel for tagging PDFs with the right navigation order, which matters if you’re handing off accessible documents to a printer or posting them online. Small improvements, but they save time when you’re working on magazines or brochures that need to be more than a simple staple fold.

Before you download Affinity Mac

Here’s a quick walkthrough of what to check and expect. First, verify your Mac runs macOS 10.15 or later. The app works on both Intel and Apple Silicon. You’ll want 8 GB of RAM and about 2.8 GB free disk space during install.

After downloading the disk image, mount it and run the Open Gatekeeper friendly helper. You’ll be prompted to press Enter in Terminal to bypass Gatekeeper. Then drag the app to your Applications folder. That’s it — no license key or online activation to fuss with.

The interface ships in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, French, and Japanese. If you work with Pantone spot colors or need to import PSD, AI, or PDF layouts, those are supported out of the box. The Pen and Node tools for vector curves are the same ones you’d find in Affinity Designer, so if you already use the suite, the muscle memory carries over.

StudioLink lets you switch apps without leaving Publisher

If you already use Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo, the StudioLink integration in Publisher is the main thing to know about. It lets you switch between the three apps without leaving the Publisher document. Double-click a pixel layer and you're working in Photo tools. Edit a curve and you get Designer's Pen and Node tools. When you switch back, everything stays non-destructive. This works best when you have all three Affinity apps installed — you can toggle between them from the top toolbar.

On the macOS side, the app respects standard system features like trackpad gestures and the macOS file picker. Export uses the standard save dialog, so you can set up export presets and reuse them. The app also honors the system color management settings if you have a calibrated monitor profile set in System Preferences. That matters when you're proofing CMYK for print.

You can drag assets — images, PDFs, or text files — from Finder directly into a Publisher document. The app places them as embedded or linked, same as you'd expect from any layout tool. If you use macOS virtual desktops, Publisher behaves normally across them. No quirks with full-screen preview or tool panels jumping around.

Multiple-page spreads for brochures with gatefolds

Layout artists and editors working on multipage documents will appreciate the new multiple-page spreads. If you design brochures with gatefolds or accordion folds, setting up the spread in the document setup panel saves you from manually aligning pages. The foldable spreads are pre-configured for common fold patterns, so you don't have to guess page order.

Anyone producing PDFs for accessibility compliance — think government reports, educational materials, or corporate documents — gets real use from the Reading Order panel. Tagging headings, paragraphs, and images in the right sequence used to mean opening Acrobat Pro afterward. Now you can do it during layout. For small studios or solo publishers, that cuts out a round trip.

Small print shops and freelance designers who hand off PDF/X files to commercial printers will find the export presets useful. The app supports PDF/X-1a, X-3, and X-4, so you can match whatever the printer asks for. If you work with Pantone spot colors in the same document, the app keeps them intact through export.

Reading Order panel stays blank until you tag elements

One thing that trips people up: when you first open the Reading Order panel, it might show nothing until you manually tag elements. You have to select each frame — text, image, or group — and assign a role like heading or figure. The panel won't auto-detect your layout hierarchy, so plan on spending a few minutes per page for complex documents.

Another snag: the foldable spreads look correct on screen but print misaligned. Check your printer's PDF export settings before sending the file. Make sure bleed and margin guides are set in the document setup, not just the master page. The foldable spread presets include default margins, but you may need to adjust them for your printer's minimum margins.

If you import a PSD with adjustment layers, Publisher keeps them non-destructive, but they won't show in the export unless you flatten the layer or use the correct export preset. For PDF export, check the "Include layers" option is off unless you specifically want interactive PDF layers. For print, flattened is safer.

Lastly, if the app feels slow on an older Intel Mac, check that you have at least 8 GB of RAM free. The app uses more memory with large image files embedded rather than linked. Linking images keeps the file size down and improves responsiveness.

Nested masters speed up footer and header updates

Spend the first session setting up your master pages. The new nested masters let you build a base grid on one master and layer headers, footers, and page numbers on separate masters. That way you can update the footer across an entire book without touching every page. Use the dynamic guides and snapping grid from the start — they're on by default, but you can adjust the grid spacing in the view menu.

If you're coming from another layout app, take an hour to walk through the table tools. Publisher's table formatting is custom, so column widths and cell styles work differently than what you might be used to. Create a dummy table with sample text and adjust the styles until it feels natural. Then save the table format as a preset.

For documents that need linked text frames across many pages, set up the text flow before you place content. Draw a text frame on the first page, then click the bottom link handle to create a new frame on the next page. Publisher will chain them automatically. If you need to reorder pages later, the text reflows without breaking the links.

Another early habit: use the character and paragraph style panels to build a style sheet before you write the document. Every change you make to a style updates all text using that style. That's faster than formatting each heading by hand, and it helps with PDF accessibility tagging later — tagged paragraphs inherit their role from the style name.

Finally, check the export presets for your most common output. Set up one preset for print PDF/X-4 with bleed and one for screen PDF with compression. Save them with descriptive names. That saves you from reconfiguring the export dialog every time you send a file to a client or printer.

• Added multiple-page spreads — gatefolds, trifolds, and accordion folds — in the 2.6 release.
• Added a Reading Order panel for tagging PDF accessibility in the 2.6 release.

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon processor
• 8 GB RAM recommended
• Up to 2.8 GB of available hard drive space (more during installation)
• Display size 1280x768 or larger