Lock aspect ratio in X1

[mike engles]

Hello

Both The old prog and the new do it.
That is with the lock aspect ratio button in, I can adjust the length and width of a object and the aspect ratio changes. If I drag a corner or write a value into the property bar, the aspect is constrained.

The other thing is that Charles Moir wants the new Picture Editor to use Photoshop plugins.

Both Versions of Xarax a have problems running some Photoshop plugins.
They will not run Xenofex2, as well as have trouble previewing some others. They will run NeatImage, but if I cancel the plugin Xarax crashes. Some run to 99% and then crash

I am not sure if it is the fault of Xarax or the plugins.

Mike Engles

[mike engles]

Hello

Both The old prog and the new do it.
That is with the lock aspect ratio button in, I can adjust the length and width of a object and the aspect ratio changes. If I drag a corner or write a value into the property bar, the aspect is constrained.

The other thing is that Charles Moir wants the new Picture Editor to use Photoshop plugins.

Both Versions of Xarax a have problems running some Photoshop plugins.
They will not run Xenofex2, as well as have trouble previewing some others. They will run NeatImage, but if I cancel the plugin Xarax crashes. Some run to 99% and then crash

I am not sure if it is the fault of Xarax or the plugins.

Mike Engles

[Charles Moir]

That is the intended aspect ratio lock behaviour - namely that it locks it for numeric or by just dragging the corners. We assume that if you drag the side controls that you are doing a deliberate squash or stretch operation and so the lock aspect is ignored. Perhaps that is not useful - but that is how it's always been.

The Xara Picture Editor should not say anything about Photoshop plug-ins yet. If the Help does that is a mistake, as it the XPE does not yet support plug-ins.

However I have mentioned the XPE is not complete. We intend to continue to develop this program, which will evolve independently of Xara X, over the coming weeks and months and one of the forthcoming features will be Photoshop plug-in support. The new versions will be available free of charge to X1 owners and will be able to be downloaded separately from Xara X.

In particular we hope to support proper 32-bit plug-ins and provide support for a wider range than we do in Xara X at present.

I am interested in knowing which Photoshop plugins that people like and use so we can target those and try and make sure they are reliable.

[raynerj]

Now this is news and very sweet news also.

[mike engles]

Hello

I wondered if that was the case with the aspect ratio.

I realise that XPE does not support plugins and assume that it is a aspiration for the future.

At the moment Xarax Plugin support is a bit unreliable. Again I don't know if it is the plugin or Xarax. I find that sometimes plugins work and at other times do not. I cannot find a reason.

Certainly Neat Image crashes Xarax if I invoke it and then exit it. Not a problem if it completes the process. The message on exit ids 'Abnormal program termination'

All my KPT plugins work.
Xenofex2 will not run.
A Plugin called Color Mechanic(Digital Light and Color) has a weird preview, so is unusable as does EyeCandy 3.1.

With Eyecandy even when zoomed out to show the whole image preview, only one corner shows.
The effect is applied to the whole image , so it is not a big problem. Some Eyecandy will not run, because they need a mask.

A Plugin called Universe(makes stellar objects) runs 99% and the crashes with a offset violation. This does not bring down Xarax.

All these are fine in Photoshop CS.

Xarax import of 8 bit tiff, png and jpeg is fine,but Photoshop files come in at 118 dpi instead of 300. The ratio 2.54, so it is a cm/inches thing.

16 bit tiffs import, but incorrectly.
I do most of my scanning at 16 bit.

The XPE GUI does not display correctly on my screen. I have a Matrox G550, WinXP pro, Resolution 1368X 1024 and Large Fonts.

XPE is fine. It does what it does effeciently.
It would be really good if it could apply masks, that it creates itself, or made in Xarax.

Mike Engles

[gwpriester]

Plug-ins

Be aware that most plug-ins are intended to be used in a pixel editing application, for example, Photoshop. Pixel exiting applications work differently than vector drawing program. One big difference is the ability to make a pixel selection in Photoshop in a variety of ways including creating a mask of an area.

Some plug-ins require a pixel selection before they apply their filter. These will not work in Xara.

Most filters that effect the entire bitmap object do work.

My experience at any rate.

Gary

[mike engles]

Hello

That is the problem with some that I have mentioned. They do not work or work partially.
As I said I don't know if it is a problem with the plugin or Xarax. All I do know is that there is not a problem In Photoshop CS.

Mike Engles

[stratocast]

Quite right,Gary.

Photoshop is a pixel editor and XaraX is a 2d vector application. If you want fancy bitmap tweakers, then buy Photoshop. I'm pleasantly surprised that XaraX supports any bitmap plug-ins at all and that support should be considered as a bonus IMHO.

[RAMWolff44]

Plugins DO work though and it's just a matter of implementing 32bit in the plugins area. It's obvious that XaraX DOES support 32bit masks because if you create a bitmap copy with alpha that's what you get but the second you want to apply a filter that NEEDS that mask to stay in place for it to generate the desired effect XaraX error/warning comes up saying that it (plugins area) only supports 24bit.

I know Charles and Co. can beat this thing and I will be patient!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif In the mean time I have PS-CS and a few other editors that will suffice.

[Xpedite]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mike engles:
The XPE GUI does not display correctly on my screen. I have a Matrox G550, WinXP pro, Resolution 1368X 1024 and Large Fonts.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The public release of the Xara X1 trial download is now available from http://www.xara.com and includes a fix for XPE UI rendering with the "large fonts" display setting. This fix will also be on the CD.