Where does a newbie start?

[Hellenic43]

Just downloaded a 15 day trial of XaraX1 and I must admit, boy am I ignorant!!! I've been reading through some of the discussions going on at this site and you might as well be speaking Klingon. Where do I start? My original intention in downloading this program was to use its vectoring capabilities to resize my collection of jpeg images so that I can use them in my greeting card creating hobby. I have tried a few of the tools in the program but must confess that I'm lost. I have Adobe 5 and Ulead photoimpact 8 but they are child's play compared to this. Someone please point me in the right direction to get started on this. I've read some of the help blurbs from the tool bar and I can see that this program is a real gem, only I'm wondering if I'm just too dense to "get it". You guys all sound like you've been doing this for a hundred years and I've just stumbled out of the dark ages. Help!!!

[Hellenic43]

Just downloaded a 15 day trial of XaraX1 and I must admit, boy am I ignorant!!! I've been reading through some of the discussions going on at this site and you might as well be speaking Klingon. Where do I start? My original intention in downloading this program was to use its vectoring capabilities to resize my collection of jpeg images so that I can use them in my greeting card creating hobby. I have tried a few of the tools in the program but must confess that I'm lost. I have Adobe 5 and Ulead photoimpact 8 but they are child's play compared to this. Someone please point me in the right direction to get started on this. I've read some of the help blurbs from the tool bar and I can see that this program is a real gem, only I'm wondering if I'm just too dense to "get it". You guys all sound like you've been doing this for a hundred years and I've just stumbled out of the dark ages. Help!!!

[Scotty]

Hi Mano,
Welcome to the forum!
XaraX1 is a vector drawing program not used for bitmap images although it has some great bitmap utilities within it.
Experiment with shapes using imported jpegs images as fills and go from there.
JIm

[Hellenic43]

Thanks Jim maybe you can start me out with some advice as to whether I'm even in the right software. Basically I create greeting cards for my own amusement and to send to friends and family. I have tons of jpeg images but many are too smallto be useful. What part of the Xarax1 program actually enlarges these images and can I use jpeg files and then save them in the larger format without losing clarity.

[John Rayner]

Hello Mano,

Welcome to Talkgraphics! What I find extremely helpful to the new folks is to watch the movies that come with the program. Just click on Help=>Movies and start with the first on on the list. See the attached pretty picture...

By the time you finish watching all the movies you will be able to hit the ground running to use this great software. To get even better do the tutorials created by Gary Priester at the xaraxone. These will help you understand all our geekspeak and show you how you can great fantistic looking drawings with a connect the dots program.

I use this software for bitmap manipulation just as easy as vector creation. If you are going to try and enlarge a bitmap, then be prepared for teh pictures to get a little grainy. It is not this software, that is lacking, it is the bitmap file type itself. Each dot is a different color, to enlarge a bitmap, you are just making four dots the same color when the size is doubled. Bitmaps can only be reduced in size without loosing anything. For instance, a 2400X1600 pixel digital photo will only print a 5"x7" picture without loosing anything.

Vector drawing on teh other hand, is a connect the dots type of drawing. It does not matter how big the drawing is, the lines will be just as crisp and clear. When you enlarge a vector drawing you enlarge the space between the dots but the lines are still drawn the same.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Mano,

because Xara is object oriented, it handles bitmaps (jpg, tif, png etc) as well as vectors. Just start 'playing' with Xara and you'll discover a whole new world - and a fast one with the highest quality output.

As John pointed out: watch the movies, and keep in mind that you can do almost the same tricks and effects with bitmaps as you can do with vectors...

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> You guys all sound like you've been doing this for a hundred years <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wrong. 200 years. The first copy was said to be the treasure on of the galleons participating in the Boston Tea Party, developed by Klingon Xara the First, called the HIGHLANDER. Later he changed his name to Charles Moir and added some long living hard coders to his team ;-}

[gwpriester]

Start here. Xara Xone New Users Guide I, Xara Xone New Users Guide II

The Workbooks cover the basics and will get you up to speed quickly.

And if you have any questions, as you can see, this is the place to ask and get quick answers.

Gary

[Hellenic43]

Thanks Gary, I really apprciate your taking the time to reply. Will follow up on your suggestion. Thanks again, Manny.

[dafipp]

Mano,
By all means I highly recommend using Xara X to create your greeting cards. For the most part I have not had to leave Xara to accomplish any combination I wanted to make with photos. However, if you are truely challenged by the size of your photos and are seeing a lot of pixilation I have tried a program that worked wonders with upsizing images. It used to be called S-Spline but now is called PhotoZoom. They offer a trial version to see if it suits your needs. Here is a link to the site.
PhotoZoom

dafipp

[Quinn]

Hi there Mano,

I don't have more to add that the others havn't said, but I can give you a little encouragment.
I am pretty new in the graphics software world only about 1 year, but found xara to be the best, fastest, and most easy to learn and use. So follow up on the suggestions that you have gotten and you'll be giggling like a school girl with the great things and in your case the great card layouts you have created.

Quinn