Xara X discounts

[Sheff]

CMYK and multiple page features alone would justify buying an upgrade. Layers are just a poor substitute for multiple pages. I'm glad someone understands what I've been saying.

Sheffield Abella
sheff@sheff.com
www.sheff.com

[jens g.r. benthien]

but what about this:
If you convert a RGB tif to CMYK tif, import it into XX, finish your layout and export the page as EPS - wouldn't this do the trick?

I've never tried it, so it might be interesting if this will work based on the fact that XX **can** handle 32bit png pictures.

Any ideas??

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[Bob Hahn]

Would that be bad?


-Bob.

[roman]

0. set the apropriate overprints
1. print to PS using driver of the target printer (ask for that one in the print service you are going to use to print your graphics)
2. distile in Acrobat to check if everything is okay (overprints only in black separation, etc.)
3 burn cd with file, go to print service

Roman

P.S.: I've almost forgot.

...enjoy the smell of fresh printing ;-)

[RAMWolff44]

Xara Ltd. should improve their product, it's time. The software is good but there are other vector products out there offering even more tools in which to make ones work easier and more and more distinct. It would be worth Xara Ltd's time to at least commit to communicating with the user base here from time to time. These threads are cropping up more often than not and if there is not ONE memeber of the Xara Ltd. team seeing this happening and Xara Ltd. not giving a hoot then they desearve the loss of users.

I will be the next in line to buy the next release but in the mean time I have discovered DrawPlus 7 by Serif. I love the interface, the endless options and the dockable galleries. It's not as fast as XaraX and there are a few quirky things going on here and there but for the most part I can do much more with this program!! Mesh fills for instance. Makes for a more 'painterly' effect in some pieces that need that sort of fine tuned fills. Exportation options suck the big one but then again I don't have a need for many of the asked for options that others have a need for!

While I have moved on in using a different product I still use XaraX to create some web objects and seemless tiles are easier in XaraX for me. So it's not retired, NO WAY!!

That's all...........

Richard http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

---Wolff On The Prowl---

http://www.ramwolffsworld.com/

[ghopkins]

Hi all,

Interesting post. I think I learned more about Xarax and the company than I could have found anywhere else. As with all software products, there is the loyal defender and the user with higher expectations. I have been both.

I have yet to purchase Xarax; one, because I have been out of work for 2 years, and two because I just can't justify buying it until I see a way to recoup the investment (i.e., web design work, logo design, or a whole new way to make money.

I was concerned to hear the compnay isn't doing more with the product. I was more concerend to hear about proprietary file formats and limitations regarding being non-standard. I guess that means that in order to provide services with Xarax, files must be converted using additional applications. Been there, done that... very messy.

I thought Xarax might be the tool to use for generating some additional income. Sounds more like a liability than it doesn an asset. OUCH!

Thank you all for sharing.

-Greg

[Lori]

Hello, all you professionals!

Quote Jens:*Before you complain there isn't any new version, please do yourself a favor and check what's really in the package, what the current version can do for you. Then, if you should ever reach a creative limit with this great tool, you might consider to scream for a new version. Unless you come up with anything better than the top range of artists, designers, illustrators etc in this forum, keep on learning and discovering the power instead of complaining.*

I agree to that and so I didn´t post any comments until today. I just want to ad a non-professional´s point of view, from a not-so-skilled, yet enthusiastic and, yes, creative Xara user....I´m sure I´m not the only not-so-experienced one among you great profs.

In my family there were a few artists, one of them, sister of my grandma, told my parents, ONLY to give me BEST MATERIAL AND TOOLS FOR DRAWING AND PAINTING. - Unusual at that time to give children what professionals use. This advice doesn´t only show respect for the child`s work but it also points to the simple fact, that the professional artist may make something great out of nothing but the beginner got to have right enviroment and conditions to achieve his/her goals. To quote Jens again:
*A real professional doesn't need features, he has the knowledge and experience how to achieve his objective*.
Right!
For the beginner in digital arts, it is necessary to start with an easy-to-use-app.
Xara X IS easy to use,and offers great features also for the beginner, has great video tutorials, wonderful Xara Xone tuts and the best forum...

Still, I would like to have some more features, like pdf-export to make digital printing projects easy and save. And I would like an eraser tool, being too stupid to do without and so on...It´s ridiculous but I jump between Xara and Photoimpact like a squirrel in the trees...I KNOW it´s my LACK of KNOW-HOW....but when I don´t know how to do something in Xara I try doing it withiin Photoimpact...
I need Xara feature enhancement to MEET BEGINNER´S NEED.

Look at Photoimpact 8 (or Paintshop Pro).(Scream out loud, but these ARE decent apps...)
They got great features and point with their advertisment to the big market of non-professionals. Still these apps are powerfull if you need it.
Tom whom do Xara developers/marketing people refer to? To professionals? Look at their other products: they are made for average non-profs who want to have easy and fast results and no learning-the-software or work-around-lacks-of-the-tool. I think this is a right decision

Hmm, so Xara´s development should refer to both, the professional and the non-professional.
Having spoken for the non-profs,
have a good day all!
Lori

[stlewis]

There must be a few hundred people here who would be happy to pay you real money for a useful upgrade every couple of years - like Macromedia.

They won't have to be earth-shattering enhancements - just useful enough to 90% of the owners.

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[Albacore]

I use XaraX for all the reasons stated above but to do our jobs properly we have to jump around using different software programmes.

I bought FreeHand MX for two reasons, firstly how easy was to send to the printers and secondly, and probally the most important reason, it has tight integration with flash.

I do not like using FreeHand and it is even worse now since the recent "free upgrade" which has slowed the programme down. I use XaraX to do the drawings with only simple fills and without any bitmapped effects and then export them as CMX or AI files.

What I trying to say to Jens is that I am trying to get the best solution to a simple problem, using the best tools for that that problem which will save me time and effort and that is important. Jens has a great web site which displays his work to the full but he must have used various programmes to achieve that result. I think he used flash to display his his graphics from thumbnails up to full screen, he was using the right tool for the task. Just think how much more we could achieve using Xara if it was updated with a few of the requests it would save us time and effort. Like most people in this forum we have a selection of programmes that we use for different jobs and each of them excells in different ways but we mostly return and use Xara because it does so many things so easily. But like all programmes it does have some weaknesses and as users we would like to see improvements which would take out the known bugs in that programme. I hate to use FreeHand as an example but the recent upgrade was to iron out known bugs and faults which it had and although macromedia, like xara, do not communicate with their users they do listen and take heed of what they say and in conjuction with the delevoplment team sort out the known problems. The user base of Freehand MX is not large and it was only brought out this March so why bother with the recent upgrade it must be to keep that user base happy. So why cant Xara do the same? as all of the bugs in the programme are very well documented but instead of that they discount the product and the next thing we might see it is on the discs of computer mags for free.

[orangeskies]

I too, am considering purchasing Xara-X, however the $149 price tag has me a bit worried - especially after reading everyone's comments in this thread.

I've been using most of the available apps over the past 10 years, like Photoshop (since version 3), Illustrator, PaintShop Pro, Corel's Painter Classic, and Macromedia's Freehand, but have yet to find the "right" program (for me) that combines the best of all of these apps.

After downloading and playing with Xara-X for a few days, I thought I might have found the right one, but I'm finding many "shortcomings" in Xara-X that still require that I bounce back and forth between one or two of these other applications in order to achieve the effect or end results that I'm striving for.

On top of this, some of the comments here have me a bit concerned as well...

In the end, while I think Xara-X has potential, until I'm assured of post-sale product support I guess I'll hold off. $149 (plus $8 shipping) is a LOT of money to me right now.

Thanks for everyone's honest comments and opinions.