[2] It has been described as an alternative to Adobe InDesign,[3][4][5] due to its primary focus on desktop publishing workflows for both printed and online media, including common features from this industry, such as master pages, OpenType support, linked text frames, and end-to-end support for the CMYK color model.

[10] The first promotional video for Affinity Publisher was shown by Serif in December 2017, demonstrating features such as the drag & drop functionality, and text flow between frames.

Publisher was updated to version 1.8 in February 2020, introducing support for importing Adobe InDesign's IDML file format.

[9] Version 1.9 was released in February 2021, adding speed improvements, with Serif claiming that certain tasks would be up to 10 times as fast.

[19] Serif stated that an iPadOS version of the software was planned for release in 2020;[16][18] it was eventually added in 2022 as part of the 2.0 update to the Affinity suite.