Seen this?

[carygee]

http://www.latimes.com/technology/ch...ck=1&cset=true

[Christine Farrelly]

As you can't get to this link without being a registered member - it would help if you could say what this is about so that TG members can decide if it is worth registering.

Christine

[carygee]

A flattering article about Xara Xtreme...

Here's an excerpt:

This brings me to a review of Xara Xtreme, a $79 computer graphics program at www.xara.com. This software draws on all the powers of a modern PC to give even beginners the ability to enhance our surroundings with home-brewed works of professional looking art.

Located in the suburbs of London, the Xara Group Ltd. offers its software for $79--challenging San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc., which makes the $499 gold standard of graphics software, Adobe Illustrator CS2.

You see the fruits of Adobe Illustrator every time you pick up a newspaper and look at the special section artwork. Illustrator makes possible everything from posters on the side of a bus to borders of hearts on a Valentine's Day card.

Point your browser to the Xara Web site and you will find slickly designed (no surprise there) sales pitches and tutorials that show how this inexpensive software puts the ability to create this kind of artwork closer to a hobbyist's grasp than I ever imagined.

The site actually is a big part of what makes Xara Xtreme such an enticing product. It is filled with short movie tutorials, written instructions, templates, examples, clip art, fonts, backgrounds and other materials that make eye-popping creations fairly easy to cook up on a home computer.

Whether you're a frustrated artist or just a parent out to design kid-friendly invitations for a birthday party, the artwork that comes out of Xara Xtreme can be far better than the clunky templates that come with consumer photo software or those offered by Web photo services.

But the greatest thing about Xara Xtreme is the enjoyment one gets from just playing. It is the adult equivalent of that first tray of watercolors that enraptures children during art time in kindergarten.