Serif, the maker of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, is one step closer to completing its trio of apps for creative professionals with the desktop publishing app Affinity Publisher, now available as a free public beta. From the earliest days, Serif’s vision has been to build the Affinity apps as an unrivaled trio of sleek, super-modern apps that work with the latest technologies, are ultra-fast, and completely stripped of feature-bloat. With the launch of the Affinity Publisher’s public beta, Serif is on the cusp of realizing that vision.

Affinity Publisher is set to revolutionize desktop publishing in the same way Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer have shaken up the worlds of professional photo editing and graphic design. The app will boast full integration with Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, allowing owners of all three to edit vector designs and images inside one app in a stunning new way. Although not enabled in the current version of the beta, switching to Photo or Designer from within Publisher will be as easy as clicking a button in the app’s toolbar.

Affinity Publisher, which is free to download and try, is the result of thousands of hours of development by Serif’s award-winning team, which also launched the fully-featured vector graphics app Affinity Designer on iPad this year. Publisher includes advanced typography, linked text frames, master pages, facing page spreads, dynamic photo frames, tables, baseline grids, linked resources, end-to-end CMYK support, and much more. The beta is currently available on the Mac and Windows with an iPad version to follow later. This is an excellent opportunity to get an advance look at Publisher and provide Serif with feedback, suggestions, and requests on their dedicated Publisher forum.

If you haven’t tried the Affinity apps yet, see what the future of professional creative work looks like today by visiting the Affinity store where you’ll find the Affinity apps, workbooks, brush packs, and merchandise throughout the holiday season.

Our thanks to Affinity for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Just Press Record is the ultimate mobile audio recorder. Whether you want to capture ideas on the go or you’re a journalist conducting interviews, a student attending lectures, or a parent preserving your child’s first words, Just Press Record is a must-have app. With a single tap, the app seamlessly records, transcribes, and syncs audio to all your devices.

No matter what you’re doing, Just Press Record is ready to capture audio. The app’s big, red record button makes starting a recording easy, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s also an iOS widget, 3D Touch functionality, an Apple Watch complication that works even when your iPhone isn’t with you, Siri shortcut support, a URL scheme, and a separate Mac app with menu bar and Touch Bar support, all ready to go when you need them.

What makes Just Press Record feel like magic is its transcription, which can turn audio clips into editable text that you can share with other apps. Transcription also powers search, making it easy to find past recordings no matter how many you’ve created. Combine that with robust iCloud Drive sync, and your recordings and transcriptions are available everywhere you need them.

Just Press Record has tons of other advanced features too. You can connect external microphones to create high-quality, uncompressed recordings. There is extensive VoiceOver support, which has made Just Press Record a favorite in the visually-impaired community. There’s even a beautiful dark mode for comfortable capture of your late-night ideas.

Make audio capture your superpower by downloading Just Press Record from the App Store today.

Our thanks to Just Press Record for sponsoring MacStories this week.