Roadmap and v. 1.9

[csc14us]

(1) when is v. 1.9 going to be released for Affinity Photo for Windows?  It seems to be taking a long time compared to the release schedule of competitors.

(2) Why is there no information about improvements the AP team is working on (I read the public road map is gone now).

[ashf]

1.9 is in RC(release candidate) phase.
Will be released in 1 - 2 weeks.

Check "Beta" section this forum if you want to see the progress.

[AlanPickup]

Need to consider that all the apps need to be released at the same time as you will not be able to use 1.9 Aphoto in 1.8 Apub studio link and AD, Publisher has not reached RC stage yet

[walt.farrell]

Additionally, the applications for Windows, MacOS, and iPad need to be released at about the same time.

[csc14us]

I see, so it's still a few months out?

[walt.farrell]

14 hours ago, csc14us said:

I see, so it's still a few months out?

As the 1.9 betas are mostly in RC status, it may be sooner than that, and within a few weeks. Edit: Or even within a few days.

But only Serif knows, and they won't say.

[carl123]

8 hours ago, AlanPickup said:

Publisher has not reached RC stage yet

Yes it has, on both Windows and Mac (released last Wednesday)

[AlanPickup]

Windows Publisher is not showing RC status and there are still bugs in the current beta version that are waiting to be fixed e.g. the changing of text sizes when grouping objects reported in two threads

[carl123]

25 minutes ago, AlanPickup said:

Windows Publisher is not showing RC status

 

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, AlanPickup said:

and there are still bugs in the current beta version that are waiting to be fixed e.g. the changing of text sizes when grouping objects reported in two threads

There is no promise that all bugs noted in the beta will be fixed before Serif releases it.

[AlanPickup]

I know that will always be the case and we still see or did for a long while bugs when 1.8 was released, but you would expect major bugs like the one that appear in a recent beta where text changes size to be fixed before becoming fully released 

[csc14us]

Nonetheless, a brief summary of the improvements from 1.8.4 would be helpful.  I don't see why there's a need to wait till the release for that.

[Patrick Connor]

7 minutes ago, csc14us said:

a brief summary of the improvements from 1.8.4 would be helpful

Affinity Photo, version 1.9.0

Changes in this build

The changes in Affinity Photo for Windows 1.9.0 (made since the last release Affinity Photo for Windows 1.8.5) are as follows:

New Features:

• Windows hardware (GPU) acceleration (for users running Windows 10 (April 2020 update or later) with a Direct3D feature level 12.0 capable card)
• Live liquify layers
• Linked layers
• Pattern layers 
• Edit spare channels as layers
• Stacking improvements for astrophotography
• Export history as a timelapse video (requires compatible OS) 
• Divide blend mode 
• Path text capabilities and improvements
• Studio Presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks 
• Content sync of store purchases (requires registration)
• Blend modes for mask layers
• Use filters on masks
• Create brushes from current pixel selection
• Curves numeric field controls
• Linked images and resource manager 
• Support PDF passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed
• Benchmarking option to measure speed of your device

Fixes & Improvements:

• RAW improvements and support for the latest cameras
• Elliptical marquee automatically creates from centre
• Configurable margin guide colour
• Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100%
• Snap to pixel selection bounds
• Many more still being compiled at time of writing (there's a lot to look through as you have found csc14us)

[csc14us]

This is most appreciated, thanks!  I had hoped for an improvement for brush organization, but hopefully next time!