What to choose? Xara X or Real-Draw ?

[Peter P.]

I'm still trying to figur out which to choose:
Xara X or Real-Draw. Are there any users who have experience with BOTH programs.

And how stable is Xara X? I'm testing version 1.0c dl2 on win2k and seems stable until now, but I read some posts about people who had problems with it. And if Xara X is unstable, any auto-save options that I can use?

BTW, great forum!

[Peter P.]

I'm still trying to figur out which to choose:
Xara X or Real-Draw. Are there any users who have experience with BOTH programs.

And how stable is Xara X? I'm testing version 1.0c dl2 on win2k and seems stable until now, but I read some posts about people who had problems with it. And if Xara X is unstable, any auto-save options that I can use?

BTW, great forum!

[Dan Huff]

I'm using Xara X on Win2K and have yet to have my first problem with it, UNLIKE when I was using WinME!

Danny Huff
http://www.asherrocks.com
(I'm the guy who USED to have a lot of excess hair)

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xara X Conference Peter P. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

What kind of images are you hoping to produce? This will determine which application you should be using.

If you visit The XaraXone Featured Artist Page and like the kind of work that is featured there, then Xara is your guy. (I prefer to think it is anyway, but then I'm just every so slightly predudiced [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

to rub elm beehives

[caraman1]

but Xara is in use daily. I haven't used RealDraw for a while, although it is a blast to use. For what I do, Xara is my workhorse and from what I can tell, always will be.

For the price of them though, you could buy both and still not spend very much, unlike our friends stuff at Adobe

Dennis

<a href=http://www.djart.com>DJArt & Design</a>

[Wolfgang]

Peter,

I was fiddling around quite a bit with RealDraw and I was just before buying it (additionally to Xara). I did not in the end.

It has some really nice features that will allow you to create stunning effects very easily.

But once you've checked out all the great presets, you are left to your own creativity again.

And when it comes to creativity, Xara-X will be the instrument of choice. Drawing is so much easier and intuitive. And if you follow Gary's suggestion and browse through the gallery, you will find absolutely incredible stuff done with Xara.

So for me, Xara is preferable any day. Once again, as a regular member of this forum and a long-time Xara user, I might be prejudiced. Still, I could (and would) not do without Xara-X.

And it runs stable as a rock on my machine with Win2K. But then again, everything runs stable on this OS.

Okay Bill, you can send me the Bribe now .. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Wolfgang

[dk_art]

Hi Peter ... welcome to the board. As far as comparing the two , the best thing would be to download and try the demos of both (which you probably have done anyway). However, they are really two very different programs. As much as I think Real Draw has some neat and unique features, I think XaraX is the better choice for illustration. It's made to work with nodes much better for one thing. If you go to adjust the nodes of an object in Real Draw, you'll see many nodes on an object (if it's curved). You cannot select more than one node and move them ... nor can you pull on the edge of a shape to readjust it that way (just two examples which mean it is kindof tedious adjusting your vector shapes in Real Draw (picking nodes one by one ...also all handle adjustment).

Real Draw has some neat and unique points. It has some abilities which XaraX lacks and XaraX has abilities it lacks. One neat ability it has is that you can give an image fill on an object a perspective (which is something which would be great in any graphics app). Also the lights and effects are unique too. You can go into a pixel-based mode and use pixel-based tools to draw on objects too.

Anyway, I find XaraX is the more productive program for illustration and design. Real Draw is nice but I find the editing limitations of vector shapes and how nodes are handled makes it too tedious for working quickly with.Of course it all depends on what you want to do and make. Of course it can be used to make unique images and at the price, it's something you might want to get in addition to XaraX.

I should point out another interesting program which you might wish to compare. Expressions2
( http://www.creaturehouse.com/expr2.htm ) appears to have some powerful abilities for illustration and design.

Anyway , best to try these things out and see for yourself before dishing over any hard-earned money. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I have had some problems sometimes with Xara .... and tend to save fairly often just to be safe but I run Windows ME which I'm finding out stands for Messed-up Entirely (I'm currently having some odd problems with my computer in general). Wish I still had Win98 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[Klaus Nordby]

I'm a huge fan of both XaraX, Real-Draw and Expression! XX is the superior pure-vector illustration app, as RD's vector tools are a bit awkward. RD is also MUCH slower than XX. But RD has some ***fantastic*** features of its own, and I greatly admire it. Get both, and you'll be a happy man - get Expression too, and you'll hardly be able to sleep at night!


K

[Peter P.]

Thanks guys, for your replies. It has helped me to focus even more. At the moment I have a slight preference for Real-Draw, mostly because I seem to have more amazing results with it until now. Especially Real-Draw's impressive light effects and not to mention all the other brilliant effects are really impressing me. Maybe it's slower than Xara and a little rough on the edges when it comes to vector handling, but for the rest it really amazes me. Let's wait for a while and see who will be the winner in the end. For now, it's 1-0 for Real-Draw, but I have a feeling it's going to end in a draw.

Peter.

[Oscar]

I think these 2 programs are each in totally different category.
Xara is robust software for vector illustration. This also tels you what the output is. You are most likely going to use vector illustration for printing or publishing (book covers, posters, advertisement in magazines, art for publication etc.) In other words for all the Big jobs.

Real-Draw is on other hand more web graphics oriented software for Quick or Small Jobs and it isn't genuine vector drawing app btw. As such it can give you many cool effects which operate on bitmap principe (like 3d lighting, defocus etc..), yet always editable as seen in vector packages.

While Real-Draw images are more scallable than normal bitmap images, they are less scallable than true vector drawing applike Xara. Scallable means you can later send your Xara drawing to postscript printer and create films for either huge poster or stamp.
With Real-Draw you going to create some graphics for example in 800x600 and use it in multimedia or on web, but you don't want to create 4 color process poster with it, nor any other Big job.

So if you are in Big Jobs area DON'T even think about Real-Draw as your primary software.

Now, see you get this words from me, the author of the Real-Draw himself. This isn't like I don't want to sell you my app at all :-), but I think Xara and Real Draw are both in totally different league.
Cheers. Oscar