Whats the best Affinity product book to buy?

[RyanUK]

I noticed that Serif have a book for Affinity Photo and Designer. They are both very expensive. I also found a few on Amazon. I wanted to find out from Affinity users who have purchased books, which they would recommend, and which they regret buying.

I am also curious to know why Serif didn't create a digital version of the book. I buy all my books digital nowadays to save space, and it stops me losing books when I move. It would have been good to create a digital copy, maybe a bit cheaper.

Thank you.

[v_kyr]

Examples:

• APh book and/or ebook (de)
• ADe book and/or ebook (de)

Even I have the Affinity workbooks, I haven't looked much inside those, since they are heavy and unwieldy (further no flat lie on the table). - An advantage of ebooks, beside being better and faster searchable through, having a direct jump to topic contents/index etc. You can read them on the iPad too, which is overall much more comfortable and lighter to hold in bed than the printed books.

[R C-R]

I bought only the Photo Workbook. For what it is, I am happy with my purchase but I would not recommend it as a substitute for a product manual or user guide because that is not what it is.

Basically, it is a learn-by-doing project oriented guide that is intended for users already familiar with the basic operation & features of AP. It includes links to lots of downloadable project files, which I consider to be part of its value.

[RyanUK]

Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was a user manual or guide. Have you done the work on the book? Has it helped you? I am moving to it from Adobe. 

[R C-R]

I have completed some but not all the projects. That taught me how to use some techniques that were completely new to me; more often it showed me a better or more efficient way to do something using AP that I already more or less knew how to do in some other app.

Note that I am not very skilled in several aspects of photo retouching or in several other areas that AP is intended for, nor am I using the apps for anything other than my own amusement.

[thomaso]

The use of Affinity Workbooks may depend on how you learn software. Posts appeared on the forum that yearn for the APub workbook, so some people obviously like to use it.

I personally could not learn with the workbook for ADesigner, because it rather explains along single design projects, less than along software functions – that can make it difficult to find and understand all possible workflows for a specific feature. The keyword index at the end illustrates the issue: e.g. for the Fill Tool the index shows 9 (!) page numbers spread throughout the entire book (18, 104, (...), 248 ... 350 ... 419). So to get informed about a specific feature you possibly need to jump a lot. Physically the workbook is not very comfortable (heavy paper, thick, tending to close itself). Its flexible layout may look appealing, but also with a negative impact on reading orientation.

Personally I prefer to learn software with a reference manual. Guided e.g. along its UI main menu, and in a simple, clean and consequent layout, with all aspects of a feature within its single chapter and in a consequent use of language and its terms. In my experience the lenght of the keyword index and a slim but complete amount of various pages per topic is a good indicator for the quality of a such a reference. (e.g. I appreciated much the ancient, printed "User Manuals" for Adobe apps)

The Affinity (online) help seems to be the closest available source for this approach. Unfortunately it doesn't cover all aspects and its wording sounds unclear occasionally. It shows its full content only in its English version (it lacks in screenshot images in the other languages).    https://affinity.help/