Affinity Photo Workbook: When is next reprinting?

[Wumpus]

I'd like to buy this, but it's been out for a while, and I would love a reference that covers all the newest materials (for example, there's never been any documentation added concerning "Clipped Tones" toggle button).

Thanks! 

[Lee D]

Clipped Highlights is very briefly covered in the Photo Workbook in the Elegance chapter but hasn't been added to.

[Wumpus]

Thanks so much. I do understand Clipped Highlights and Shadows, which to me were pretty standard concepts for all digital photography, but Clipped MidTones isn't a commonplace concept (at least for me), and I didn't feel it had been sufficiently addressed in either the published docs or the forums, other than a vague description which doesn't really make sense. 

If the book is still almost 100% relevant, it could be good, but I wish I new if it was being updated in a few months, as I'd rather lose the sale price but gain more current feature inclusion.  Thanks though.

[Wumpus]

Based on no other responses, I take it that I'm safe to assume that there has historically been no periodic updates to the book, and that there are none forthcoming in the short term.

As well, we're all comfortable that some of the existing functionality will remain undocumented.

[walt.farrell]

It may help if one understands that the workbooks are not manuals, and were not intended by Serif to be manuals. As such, they do not attempt to explain everything.

They provide an overview of functions, and demonstrate a specific set of useful techniques using worked examples. As I understand it, Serif intends to provide updates if the demonstrate techniques will no longer work due to functional changes, but not necessarily just to show additional new techniques.

The official documentation is the Help files and the Tutorials provided by Serif.

[Wumpus]

Thanks Walt.

I do accept that, but if I was doing the book, I would budget to revise sections periodically to incorporate new features, like some other companies do. Yes, it costs more, and this is a younger, smaller company without insane funding, but it would help keep the book project current and even more relevant.  That's all that's held me back from buying it, and in this day of short-run publications (plus access to some of the greatest desktop publishing software), you no longer need to do print runs of 5,000 minimum. However, that's entirely their choice, and I respect that. I was just hoping for a response from Affinity one way or the other, rather than expecting me to act on speculation.

Yes, there is some excellent documentation in the Help Files and Tutorials, but it's not always complete or current, and I've spent a lot of time looking through those trying to figure some things out, which were not adequately addressed in those references you mentioned. It always seems to fall to the diligent and caring users or employees to try to address them. Unfortunately, while always extremely well meaning, the responses in the fora are often not totally relevant or bearing any authority.

I could very well chime in on every user's post requesting help, and tell them that whistling Dixie and rubbing their belly after sucking on a lemon will resolve everything. Maybe it did for me. But if everyone is entirely dependent on the well-meaning of others, and lacking the authority of trained support personnel (even when the response isn't what they wished to hear), then that's a serious gap. I hope I'm not being foolish expecting the Help Files and Tutorials to document all the product's advertised functionalities.

This seems to be a recurring pattern with Affinity, and one that I hope improves. I try my best to tolerate it, because I wish them well, and to succeed. I couldn't get anyone to address my issues as a presales question, so I bought the product, thinking it would then be taken seriously, though half a year later, I am still struggling to get that addressed. I say this with respect and high expectations earned by my experiences with this very high quality product, and as someone that toiled in tech support for an imaging company for years, before eventually running the contact centre. Many things can be delegated, but in my opinion, some things need ownership when inadequately addressed.

And thank you for all your contributions here, which have been superb. I mean this as no slight on the huge volume of knowledge you have imparted. I hope I managed to convey my point (not always the case!).