Why did you buy Xara the first time?

[gwpriester]

Roman

In developing Ilustrator 9, Adobe finally came down from their Ivory Tower and made some very good improvements. They can apply transparency to just about anything you can think of.

But no gradient transparency unless you apply transparency to a gradient object. And you have your choice of one kind of transparency.

However, as Ross pointed out, the really good Illustrators, who make their living using Illustrator, have found ways to create great looking images by really pushing the envelope. They could do so much better in Xara if they wanted to buy a PC and learn a new application. But most of them won't. Even if Xara was a Mac product. That's just the way they are.

The other thing that really turns me off about Illustrator, is there is virtually no interactivity. Everything has to be done via menus. If you don't like something, you have to undo and then redo it. What a pain.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester" TARGET=_blank>
Be it ever so humble...</A>

[eky]

--actually, I had learned about the Painter forum on here from another website. I read some posts from folks who were from the Xara forum so I started reading the Xara forums and discovered the great works being done by people with this software so I downloaded the trial version. My decision to buy it was not only that it was a great piece of software that was much easier to use than freehand (which I have), but that it has a very active community of helpful and very prolific users.

[nwilkinson]

Saw "CorelDRAW Killer" - or Artworks to give it its then proper name - at university: I had an i486DX, my colleagues all had Archimedes (Stunt Racer anyone? *chung* *chung* *chung* *chung* *chung* )

That mini illustration - we converted it to CDR4 format and then did speeeeed trials - need I say more? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Now those Archies were _mean_ machines!

I wrote this to a prominent Corel C_Tech at the time:

"Oh yes! I knew I wanted it when I saw the antialiasing and transparency
implementation. And I got Xara3D3 thrown in for free -- cooool.

"It sent tingles down my spine in many respects: such beautiful and quick
anti-aliasing on-screen and in exported image files; recognition of old
friends such as snapping! ;-) ; text onna stick ... er, line (Pratchett
getting the better of me); pleasure at the sheer simplicity of the
program -- all that dross that never gets used just isn't there; bitmap
fill handling -- in fact all bitmap handling -- is so quick and simple;
transparency affects lines as well as fills (okay, so only flat
transparency for lines, but it's there); vector animations can be built;
*such* a small file format; constrained moving is not just constrained
to horizontal or vertical, but goes along the constrain angle, whatever
you've set that to be; snapping occurs along the outline of objects --
but node-snapping is more magnetic."

Hmmm, I think I even still feel that way [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Cheers,

Nick Wilkinson.
nick@isocalc.com

[Nick]

I had heard about Xara because Microsoft themselves were demonstrating Xara as an example of the soft of advanced software that would be available using their upcoming 32-bit Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft subsequently delayed the launch and Xara were forced to issue a version running under Win32 for Windows 3.1, a kind of subset of Windows 95.

I first saw Xara at Olympia in London at the Windows '95 show. A highly enthusiastic demonstrator gathered good crowds and I was won over. I went to enquire about a copy and a group of young lads were selling the software (most probably the developers !) for 'future release'. In other words, pay now and we will ship it when it is released (Cash flow is always a bummer).

I actually bought it a few months later when it was released. I upgraded to CorelXara2 and now to XaraX.

I have always used it within the company I work for (one of the major global computer and IT services corporations) to stay one step ahead in presentation quality and as a means to produce superb graphics in documents when we bid for work. Customers really do notice the difference.

Just speaking personally, there is also a market for Xara to provide a 'Powerpoint' type capability. Animations and sounds are irrelevant and deeply out of fashion. But just looking good with fantastic anti-aliasing/transparency etc. etc. and moving from one great looking slide to another has a really has a deep impact on an audience. I just load multiple PNGs/JPEGs into Powerpoint currently, but it is hard to edit quickly. So, on top of the high-end print orientated and web capabilities, a slide show ability would be great, if only a simple one (for now!).

Thank you Xara for keeping me ahead of the pack for so many years.

[Ross Macintosh]

Wow - two Nicks in a row! Great to have your participation fellows. Welcome to the Xara Forums (be sure to vist the Xara Gallery Forum too).

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Sheff]

I had been using CorelDRAW from version 1 up to version 5. I bought version 6, and Windows 95. Version 6 sucked so I returned it. At the time I was in college and attending Art Center. Now that was a Mac Centric institution to say the least. All they had was illustrator.

I had gotten a hold of a copy of Illustrator after graduation and it choked on my PC. Apparently it couldn't deal with the unusually high resolution that I was running. Anyhow, operating systems went from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 and Corel 5 wouldn't run unless you had Version 5g. I was tired of crashing Draw 5 always when a job was due always at the worst time.

So I happened to be at the store and I saw CorelXara 1.0 on the shelf. I remembered I read a favorable review of it so I bought it. I was amazed at how much better it was than corel. So I stuck with it. I have used versions 1.0,1.2,1.5,2.0 and now X.

It is safe to say that Xara was the ONLY reason I stayed on a PC. Everyone else I knew and everywhere I worked had a Mac. I felt a lot of pressure to get a Mac and I'm glad I didn't. That's not to say I won't get one when I have some disposable cash, but for now, I'm happy the results I get with my homebuilt PC's and Xara.

I'm always clamoring for new features, but Xara is the best thing out there, quality, speed and price.

The way to make Xara huge is to demonstrate it at the big art schools and give away free copies to fulltime students and service bureaus. That will create a gradual purchasing shift that will gain momentum.

You have to start them young before they get on the wrong path.

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

[This message was edited by Sheffield Abella on September 01, 2001 at 09:37.]

[gwpriester]

Shef

Art Center in Pasadena?

I wrote to the President and suggested they look at CorelDRAW a few years ago, saying it was superior in every way to Illustrator. Do you think I received a reply?

Do you think I sent a check to the alumni association? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

If you answered no to the last two questions, you are correct.

Gary
Art Center `69 Ad Design

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[ajreed]

Unlike Daniel, I am not ashamed to admit I owned an Acorn RISCOS computer, and still do, and its still in daily use, and so is Artworks, which is probably all I need to say on how I got to own Xaxa, especially as registered Artworks owners get a tasty discount on the Xara price. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

There are a lot of similarities between the two systems, and Xara just reflects the time difference between the two, although modules are still be developed for Artworks, if not by Acorn.

In another thread on wish lists, someone mentioned they would like Xara to make user modules available (like Artworks), and I would say this could be a good idea. Its a good idea with Artworks, as long after the original development has ceased, the package has an extended life, thanks to enthusiastic users (well one anyway).

Alan.

[Steven Collier]

Back in 1994 when the original Xara Studio was released I worked for the UK Agents for Corel, Channel MarketMakers. We were asked by Corel to purchase a copy of Xara annonamously and send it back to Corel's HQ. Of course we opened the box and had a play first [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I must say that I think Garys comments in an earlier post are offensively wrong. I doubt that Corel would stoop to such a level as reverse engineering Xaras code. You have to remember at the time that Xara was written as a 32bit application from the ground up (you could run it on Win 3.11 with the win32s libraries). A little before this time Corel had a really big success with CorelDRAW 5, I know we were shipping upgrades out the door as quickly as we could get it shipped over from Ireland. CorelDRAW 6 was a marketing release (that is there wasn't much work on the core, other than a transfer to 32bit). CorelDRAW 7 was the first time Corel had done a major ammount of work on the guts of the application on a 32bit platform. I'm sure that the development program was influenced by Xara but the differences in implementations were significant.

The weirdest thing in all this was Xara's decision to allow Corel to market the application. Corel only gave it a half-hearted attempt, explaining why people might want a different vector graphics application to CorelDRAW was never going to be easy without pointing out weaknesses in their own product.

I'm still routing for Xara to be bought by a big player, say Microsoft, and then get the public awareness it deserves.

[raffon]

Steven, did you really mean this???
"I'm still routing for Xara to be bought by a big player, say Microsoft, and then get the public awareness it deserves."
They are Evil [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

By the way I got my first taste of Xara via Corelnet which may have been I/US by then, I think. Had CDraw1.5 and for some reason heard about Xara and sent away for it. When I lost my original CD I happened to find that Xara1.5 was included on Corel's Graphic Pack II. Cost me $69 and I was back in business. Waited for X and got it as an upgrade, again for $69. All I do is doodle with it but it better than a flight sim

TANSTAAFL