My thoughts on X1

[gwpriester]

From reading many of the posts, I get the impression that some of you were expecting more from X1. Even though Charles Moir was pretty explicit in spelling out that X1 was an inbetween release and that in the near future, a more robust release will be available.

I think we have all become too expectant of new software releases to be filled with wizzy new bells and whistles.

Personally, I was very impressed that Xara very carefully and consciencously went through the daunting list of bugs and requests posted in this forum and addressed a tremendous amount of them.

If you use other software, as most of us do, you know that many products go through release after release after release, introducing lots of new features with each release, while the basic features remain flawed. A good example is CorelDRAW. How many releases is it going to take before they learn how to do real time anti-aliasing?

I of course am predudiced, but to me, Xara has done a ton of work. It's just subtle and not showy. And the result is a better product offering more capabilities. And I don't think anyone would disagree that Xara X was a damn fine application to begin with.

I did not mean to ramble on and on and on and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just my dos centavos Nuevos Mexicanos

Gary

[gwpriester]

From reading many of the posts, I get the impression that some of you were expecting more from X1. Even though Charles Moir was pretty explicit in spelling out that X1 was an inbetween release and that in the near future, a more robust release will be available.

I think we have all become too expectant of new software releases to be filled with wizzy new bells and whistles.

Personally, I was very impressed that Xara very carefully and consciencously went through the daunting list of bugs and requests posted in this forum and addressed a tremendous amount of them.

If you use other software, as most of us do, you know that many products go through release after release after release, introducing lots of new features with each release, while the basic features remain flawed. A good example is CorelDRAW. How many releases is it going to take before they learn how to do real time anti-aliasing?

I of course am predudiced, but to me, Xara has done a ton of work. It's just subtle and not showy. And the result is a better product offering more capabilities. And I don't think anyone would disagree that Xara X was a damn fine application to begin with.

I did not mean to ramble on and on and on and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just my dos centavos Nuevos Mexicanos

Gary

[James Loudon]

I agree. I dont think there are many of use that want a boatload of new "features" which is the usual way companies sell their "new" versions. Xara needs to stay sleek and fast. I have noticed that X1 starts up noticably quicker on my box (XP2400+ 1024mb)
The CMYK stuff is good, although as I design almost exclusivly for screen it isnt a whole bunch of use in my office - but it makes it a more robust and practical application. Which is good.
The one thing that I really wanted to see is some sort of control over aliasing. I love Xara X dearly, but I find it almost unusable when it comes to making dinky web icons - 35 - 50 pixel sort of size. I have to use Fireworks or Photoshop cos Xara just blurs out. Everyone is knocked out by X's screen aliasing - there really is nothing like it - but we must have some sort of control in the future.

[RAMWolff44]

I agree with both Gary and James observations and suggestion. Roman mentions this in his recent thread:

Pixel exact font rendering and outline positioning (tools suggestion)

I totally agree with this request!

Along with the usual wish list items which I hope will see some light shed on them in a future release I am more than happy with Xara X1 so far. It's stable, fast, the brush engine is fixed along with variable pressure when using a brush (which is something that I would love to see more tweaked in the future.... like having the "Transparency Pressure" and "Scaling Pressure" set universally in the program for all brushes to have those two same settings if desired. For most of my brushes I WANT that same setting so that a light touch brings a tiny brush line and a heavier drawn line is large. I also see the set brush line pt. is set and reverts to it's original point size each time a new line is started. I would like to see a control setting created for this area to lock in higher or lower point sizes for each brush. Then the brush engine will really be perfect! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif )

See, we all have our druthers and I'm sure Charles will come through in time. In the mean time I'm really much happier with this release than any previous one so far!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[gwpriester]

James - I', not sure if this would help you or not but there is an option in the Page Options > View dialog, Bitmaps: Never Smooth.

Once you have created a bitmap of text with the anti-aliasing, Xara continues to smooth the already smoothed image. I believe you can use this setting, or before you export your bitmap (if you have created it as a bitmap copy)set the View Quality setting to Normal.

Gary

[James Loudon]

I've never even noticed that tick box. Well it turned out that it wasnt ticked anyway, and turning down the view quality slider affects the output quality too, so I am not entirely sure why that is even there.
Try just making a standard web page doodad - like a 35pixel circle with a gradient on it, and a webding or a little shape on it. There is just no way to make the font or shape sharp. Fireworks and Photoshop both have options for anti-alias like none, crisp, strong, smooth which make a big difference when working at this sort of image size. I know that both those progs are basically bitmap editors with vector tools bolted on, whereas Xara is the other way around - so their rendering engines are totally different - but there has to be a way to adress this in the future.

[Charles Moir]

We anti-alias bitmaps when they are scaled and in some unusual circumstances it's useful not to smooth bitmaps even when everything else is anti-aliased, which is why the option is there. Fireworks has the same option on import, except it's irreversible and once a bitmap is scaled down it can't be scaled back again.

Technically our anti-aliasing is as good if not better than other programs we've compared against, and that includes Fireworks and Photoshop. A professional icon designer I know, who is a very recent convert to Xara X, and spends his working life creating icons of 30 pixels or less, was recently praising Xara X, saying that he was now using this for 50% or more of his new icons design 'because it was so pixel friendly'. So I suspect it comes down to personal taste.

As a little test, I decided to draw a small 20 pixel circle with a 1 pixel line width in both Fireworks and Xara X - a good test for any anti-aliasing. See below. They look pretty similar to me. There are differences and I guess in the end it's a subjective view as to which you prefer. Keep in mind that Xara X can position objects to a much higher resolution than whole pixels that Fireworks works in, and so you can tweak the anti-aliasing by moving objects fractions of a pixel.

The one on the right is Xara X.

[emel]

I've bougth X1 and I'm happy. The problem with XARA it's...ten years ahead of competition. Now let me speak a littke about my professional experience with it. Along the years I've used it I've produced:

Better and innovative layouts for my clients
Better multimedia and interface graphics
Better technical and non technical illustration
Solved intricated problems in collages and image retouching

I did things that would have been very time consuming with any other application (I'm a proficient Photoshop, Freehand and CorelDraw user among other apps). Last week to give you an example I did some layouts for a local client. My brother who is a completely bozo with computers loves to see me work with Xara and he is always asking the Mac guys in the studio to do has I do with Xara. In fact we kind developed a XARA style in our layout work wich is very dificult to reproduce in other programs. This program is a joy to work. In the rigth hands and if you preserverate it will lead you to solve any problem you migth have reproducing what it does. For sure it has some limits on outputing but that is more a consequence of the limitations of Post Script rather than a limit of the program. For example it's time saving if you just copy and past graphics from Excel directly trough the clipboard and than fine tune with Xara. I made recently a financial report with 56 bars and cheese charts. Xara saved my time incredibly. The touch, the feel, the smoothness, the space, the speed...everything is perfect.And I feel I'm allways discovering new things and solve problems that otherwise would be dificult and time consuming to do. I would have bougth XARA1 if not for any special reason just to support this programmers team who did a awesome work for anybody who loves graphics and art in general and wants to visualize ideas.
That's it. Now it's 20 years in front of competition. The only thing I really miss is the possibility of text wraping around an object because I do some paginating work and that would be very usefull. Also a word of encouragment to Gary Priester - gracias amigo - for his dedication to make such beautifull and useful work developing the tons of high quality tutorials he did. In fact he is just making us all more demanding. No other program offers the package this one offers with Xaraxone. Even my mother in law could start a graphical business!!!!
So what do you want more for this price+performance+quality+Gary Priester dedication+Xaraxone????????????????

I'm more than happy enough. We are all blessed that's for sure. And once again, thank you Gary because you really deserve it.

My sincere whishes of sucess to the Xara team and Gary Priester and to all of you clever enough to understand what Xara is about - the power to create with your hands what your mind can see and dream.

Emanuel Brito

[RAMWolff44]

The one on the right is much much better to me!!

I have the Fireworks MX 2004 trial and was seriously considering purchasing it to add to my arsenal and I am finding more and more about the program that I just do not like and do not understand how they can justify chargeing $300.00 for the program with these glaring unsatisfactory options missing.

1) No anti alaising when zooming in and out on objects. Give it a try, no pretty.
2) No use of the side lines, the canvas is the only work area aloud, not very good IMHO!!

I tried out Charles's test and then zoomed in and it was all pixeled out. I guess my assumption that RealDraw-Pro needed to 'fix' their vector engine a bit more was my mistake. If such an expensive program like Fireworks MX 2004 is having the same zoom view issues as a program like RealDraw-Pro I would take Xara X1 any day of the week. Not only is the anti-alaising perfect in most respects the zoom levels match the a-a each time. Fast, elegant and a program that can't be beat, IMHO!!

I think I just saved myself $300.00!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[RAMWolff44]

Well said Emanuel!! Well said! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif