Magazine Workshop 2025

[Cassel]

@Carolyn Rye I see you also feel like adding a thin frame around the pages is tieing them together well.

@Connie Collier Interesting how that gradient will match the two pages. And yes, those simple designs are meant to be quick and "clean". Although you took a while to remember how to turn the text on your page, I bet you will remember next time!

@Ann Seeber IF you have major pixellation on text, check if the Anti-alias is set to Sharp, Smooth, or Off. Typically, if it is set to Off, it will be VERY pixellated.

@Krystyna Nicholls I am not sure if you are using PSP or Affinity, but in your cover page, we still see the grey template. You might want to size up your photo to hide that and get it to the edge of the page. The two-color effect on the third page is quite effective with the color you chose. 

@Jacques It is a good idea to use the guide, if you want to be precise in splitting the template. It works well.

@Ria Pieck - van Ee First of all, welcome to our Campus and to this workshop. You should not have any trouble catching up as the pages are so simple to make. If you have any photo that are "damaged", you can follow this webinar on YouTube that I led, a few years ago. But hopefully, you will have lots of great photos to share.

@Cristina Of course, templates are a great starting point, and depending on the user's "comfort" with the program, some will have to follow them closely, while others will create something different, like you do! 🙂

@Jen Brown It is interesting that I had never heard the word "mugrug". I always called them "coasters", but since English is not my native language, I just use what I learned! But I think that "mugrug" is much more descriptive!

@DianeM Adding a frame is great for displaying a white page in this forum, but you might end up liking it and keeping it too!

@Susan Ewart That is a fun oddity to document and share. That is the kind of story that is not usually told but make for great conversations!

@Art Kuiper Of course, man-made waterfalls are not uncommon and they deserve to be showcased too.

@Donna Sillia Yes that script will move the elements (including the photos) while not distorting them. That is why they will occasionally be overlapping. 

@Anja Pelzer Great use of the directional brushes/tubes.

@Rene Marker These templates are so simple that, like you, I might even skip the splitting and just place the photos on the page. The technique would likely be more necessary if the shapes were other than rectangular. You are working a lot with two programs at once! Good work.

@Corrie Kinkel Remember that you can always re-arrange the order of the pages to tell your story. And you also have access to additional templates as a DIAMOND member (I added them to the Day 1 page).

@Lynda DiGregor I am impressed of what that texture looks like when colorized. Great creative use of it!

@Anne Lamp It is common to take more time looking through photos and picking which one to use than to work on the page, especially with simple pages!

@Harmony Birch You are right that offsetting the large/small photos on both sides makes the page well balanced.

@Linda Rexford The two color title looks great.

@Euka What version of Affinity do you have? Are you still using version 1?

@Jeni Simpson When you clip a photo to a template, make sure you drag it until the template layer turns blue. Is that causing issues?

 

[Euka]

@Cassel  I was just about to edit my post - as I hate not being able to figure things out and after several hours of getting nowhere I decided today to download the trial version of affinity photo - following your tutorial worked seamlessly this time. My version is 2.2.1.. the one I just downloaded is 2.6.0.   To test I have 2 pc's side by side and did exactly the same thing at the same time ... 2.6 worked - 2.2 didn't.  I am happy now having solved my mystery!! I also think now that was why I have had trouble earlier so I will revisit there.

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 2/22/2025 at 4:09 AM, Cassel said:

@Jeni Simpson When you clip a photo to a template, make sure you drag it until the template layer turns blue. Is that causing issues?

 

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Thank you, Carole, it isn't turning blue, so I wiggle and jiggle until I see my photograph show in the layers palette. It is taking some getting used to, I'll get there, I know.

[Jeni Simpson]

Day 5
On that day at Mount Hope, near Roxburgh, I took heaps of photographs of things I can create textures from.
This is one of our native ferns. The fern, or koru, signifies rebirth in the Maori culture. 

[Jean Naumann]

I've had a busy couple of days, life has intervened! Big family party last night for our granddaughter Tilda who turned 18.  So, I've done Day 4 using photos from the photobooth last night. 

[Carolyn Rye]

Day 5. Using PSP.  We have so many photos of Bundy sleeping or resting.  He took over the house and we loved it. I took a bit of time breaking up the template into two smaller photos at the top.  I have never done this before and made a few errors along the way but, I think I eventually got it.

[Euka]

2nd page  -  a different area but an important one for the development of both Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.  

[Krystyna Nicholls]

  On 2/21/2025 at 5:19 PM, Donna Sillia said:

Day 5 - I used the 3600 template first, then used the cass script template resizer to convert it into letter size. When I resized it, the pictures were moved, but I decided that I liked it better that way. The background was ai generated for my calendar. The photos are from David. The font is Royal Thailand(there are several forms of the font in the file) from CF.

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Loving the background and the font.

[Krystyna Nicholls]

  On 2/21/2025 at 12:13 PM, Krystyna Nicholls said:

I am a bit behind with my posting for this workshop. Here is my Day 1 Cover Page. I have chosen the Land of Lights theme. I was a pretty awesome evening with the family seeing all these marvellous creations made out of paper and lights. 

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@Cassel I see what you mean with the photo template still showing. Thank you, I will make the adjustment. I am using PSP2020, not dived into the Affinity pool just yet.

[Krystyna Nicholls]

@Cassel I see what you mean with the cover page, the photo mask still showing. I will make the adjustment. I am using PSP2020 at the moment, not dived into the Affinity pool just yet.

[MoniqueN.]

In the background, I'm working on my magazine ,but forgot to look here to see what you "guys" are making 😉 Love what I've seen!

I wanted to make the magazine in real magazine size and not square, but only thought of it after lesson 4 and now I don't have the energy resize the templates and to start all over again. 🙂 

Will post my projects later this week.

[Jen Brown]

  On 2/22/2025 at 4:09 AM, Cassel said:

@Carolyn Rye 

@Jen Brown It is interesting that I had never heard the word "mugrug". I always called them "coasters", but since English is not my native language, I just use what I learned! But I think that "mugrug" is much more descriptive!

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@Cassel A coaster is the term the embroidery fraternity uses for round or square coasters. Coasters become mugrugs when they take on a more rectangular shape. The size I like is the 5" x 7" ones. In effect though mugrugs are coasters too.

[Jen Brown]

Day 6 - Page 6.

[Jenny MacKay]

I'm still catching up, so Day 4 & Day 5 together.

[Jenny MacKay]

I think I've caught up now with Day 6. I'm still using V1 and managing ok. 

[Jacques]

My day 6

(I used "New Mask Layer|Show Selection" to include the giant inset.)

 

Edited February 22 by Jacques

[Corrie Kinkel]

  On 2/22/2025 at 3:47 AM, Jeni Simpson said:

Day 4 double-page spread
This was not so easy, finding 3 photos that worked together.
I'm finding it fascinating trying to clip images to the photo placeholder...they don't, until I jiggle them around then, voila...there they go! I have no idea what I did differently!
I realise, too, I have been using the copy text font, Century, in headings on pages 2 and 3!  Duh!!!

Because they are so large I have reduced them to 550 pixels, and will add them here separately.

 

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Jeni I had the same problem with clipping my images to the photo placeholders when I started this journey with Affinity. I followed some tutorials on the many videos that are available and there someone mentioned that it goes best if you drag not the image itself but the icon down to the icon of the placeholder. Since I do that it works for me.

[Connie Collier]

Day 6 - it's dangerous to start adding new elements this late in the game because I'll want to go back and tweak all the previous pages. But I can't help it. The page needed a sprig. 🙂

[Corrie Kinkel]

Day 6 and I have a photo that is fitting for this kind of layout. You feel very small when you are standing in front of those giant trees. I plan to use more pages for my magazine and depending on the photos I want to use I'll pick a template or adjust one. For me when doing a workshop I mostly use the templates as is, this way I just seem to learn better new things. Later on after understanding the new techniques I can be more fancy and adjust or make my own. In the end I probably will rearrange the pages of my magazine.

[Rene Marker]

Day 6. PSP layout. I did rotate the template because most of my photo were landscape orientation. I did the instructions as given for the photo. But, I also wanted to include 2 more photos that were landscape orientation. Since there were the 3 mask groups hidden, I used the top two putting a single photo in each one. Then I linked the 2 photos and moved them to the bottom of the page and aligned them with the other photo.

Affinity layout. I used the template as is with 4 individual photos. That was no problem at all. My problems started when I wanted to add text. I did a lot of screaming and scared the dog. I wanted the text at a specific point in the layers panel but it kept flipping to a different layer and changing to the Pan tool. I tried both Artistic Text and Frame Text multiple times and it wouldn't let me type any text. I even tried saving the layout in psd format and doing the text in PSP. Definitely didn't get what I expected when I opened the psd file in PSP (I'll put a jpg of that in another post). That didn't work so I had to keep trying in Affinity. I even tried Affinity Publisher and had the same issues. I finally typed my text in OneNote (where all my tips and tricks notes are for both PSP and Affinity), then tried to copy/paste to the layout. Even that took several tries before it actually worked. If my hair wasn't already grey, it would be after this session!!! I did get the layout done. 

[Rene Marker]

PSD files from Affinity. For the Affinity layout, I did the "clipping" of the photo to the grey layer in the template. I then went to export and chose to export as a PSD file with the default settings. When I opened the file in PSP, this is what I got.

[Linda Rexford]

Day 5 using Affinity.  The trip up to the valcano was quite a walk!  It was beautiful and so different from anything you see where I live in Michigan!

[Anne Lamp]

Here is my day 6. I do love this tree. It is about a block down the street from me and I know the owners so they don't mind me trespassing to take pictures. I have been photographing it for quite a few years.

[Clarine]

Our little granddaughter is growing so fast.   She is such a joy to hang out with.

[Donna Sillia]

Day 6 - David sent me this photo in 2019 just before Covid. The monk photo is from 2024. I love this saying which a friend found and shared with me. There was some shifting when I resized the template using the cass script resize template, but it was not difficult to correct.