xara vs. freehand

[cyberdao]

1st post, so hi to everybody!

i'm quite new to vector graphics and just purchased freehand, 'cause i also work with fireworks, dreamweaver and flash and felt comfortable ... but the i discovered xara x which i never had heard of before and got the impression that many effects can be achieved much easier and look better right from the start.

what is your experience comparing xara and freehand? what can one prog do the other can't or do it better(i don't need to do work for print).

freehand plus:
- perspective grid
- masterpages
- multipage layout

xara:
- ?

thanks!

[cyberdao]

1st post, so hi to everybody!

i'm quite new to vector graphics and just purchased freehand, 'cause i also work with fireworks, dreamweaver and flash and felt comfortable ... but the i discovered xara x which i never had heard of before and got the impression that many effects can be achieved much easier and look better right from the start.

what is your experience comparing xara and freehand? what can one prog do the other can't or do it better(i don't need to do work for print).

freehand plus:
- perspective grid
- masterpages
- multipage layout

xara:
- ?

thanks!

[gwpriester]

Just about anything.

Welcome to the Xara Conference cyberdao

I'm not sure how familiar with FreeHand you are, but if you are pretty familiar and are sniffing around to see what is so cool about Xara, you might want to try one of the Xara tutorials in The XaraXone and then try to recreate it in FreeHand (lots of luck :-)

I have reviewed FreeHand and am reasonably proficient in it. FreeHand can apply one kind of very limited tranparency, and only to flat vector objects. Xara can apply transparency, in about 9 different kinds with about as many operations, to anything, bitmap, vector object, type, and all of the above.

FreeHand can create a SWF movie from a blend. Xara can create SWF images but no movies.

Xara can apply a whole bunch of cool bevels. FreehHand can apply one very lame kind of bevel.

I could go on and on. But try Xara for a few days and I guaranty you will never want to go back to FreeHand (except for the perspective grid, which is prety awesome :-)

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

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[qmr]

<font size="1">(like the Major marching in with his shotgun... "someone said theres a PSYCHIATRIST in the house, Fawlty!!")</font>

I <u>hate</u> freudhand.. but I use it still; for it's useful for some things like postscript output and text formatting. But I'm spoiled by XaraX -speed- and my work nowadays is mostly web -freedom from postscript (halleluijah) and no, XaraX doesnt output postscript seamlessly without tweaking unless Im very lucky whereas freudhand does.. but thats because freudhand is so limited in its toolset. Forget comparisons with Xaras whizzy interactive fill and trans tools...
eg: ever tried to achieve a blend with even a simple word in freudhand?? I've destroyed 2 mice and a keyboard attempting that very task. expensive software, expensive on hardware too.

good things about freudhand??

1. close shapes
2. search and replace
3. postscript

<font size="1">(Im sure theres something else....)</font>
Q
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[cyberdao]

thanks for your replies!

i will definately give it a shot after re-installing my os (my trial is over and i did not have the time to play around enough).

the transparency and bevels were also among the first things i noted about xara ... not to mention the speed.

just wanted to hear some more opinions ...

[Erik Heyninck]

This search engine is Fa-bu lous!


I remembered that some months ago someone posted something on Freehand and StarWars. Just typed Starwars and...here we are.

Master Hawkeye posted a question that Cyberdao might well be interested in. It was the perspective grid that did it...:

http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/Op...8&m=5771903232


And most of all: don't forget to visit Egg's site:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~eg...wars_text.html
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.

[cyberdao]

cool, thanks for the link!

after reading many posts on this forum and checking the tuts on xaraxone, i guess, you convinced me, too.

this seems to be a great place here , lots of inspiration and questions get really answered.

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]