What do you use xara for? PLEASE NOTE THIS THREAD HAS BEEN SPLIT

**MarkMyWords** · 22 September 2007, 06:05 PM

Mostly for blackline illustration for print and web (sometimes coloured in Photoshop), but I've started to delve into some full colour illustration entirely in Xtreme recently.

**joel** · 22 September 2007, 07:35 PM

I use it for:

1. Design and print my business cards
2. Design and print postcards
3. Design and print greeting cards
3. Design and print letterhead and notepads
4. Design and print CD and DVD disks and trayliners
5. Design and print photo calenders

also posters, brochures, and various other items

Joel

**aridzone** · 22 September 2007, 09:09 PM

I use it for work, home and just playing around, like this pic of my son.

**steve.ledger** · 22 September 2007, 09:58 PM

Mostly used to manualy trace and recreate an image submitted by a customer who requires it created as a vinyl sticker for their car/truck/boat/shop.
The result is exported to .ai which is then imported into SignLab for final sizing before sending to the vinyl cutter. Of course on-screen colour accuracy isn't an issue when working with vinyl.
Also occasionally used for creating work for the GerberEdge thermal printer where magnets and small stickers are produced. Xara is handy for knocking out an object from a bitmap and creating the cutline.
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I also find Xara perfect for creating PDF promotion flyers, editing supplier product flyers (by adding our logo and retail prices) and making pretty quotes

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I've found Xara useful for quick jobs such as designing CD/DVD labels (for the printable discs, I don't use jewel cases or DVD cases).
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Also found to be useful for web graphics and of course a bit of r'n'r.
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The great thing of course is that you can always go back to older drawings and improve them as your skills with and knowledge of Xara improves.
Thanks to these forums, that happens sooner rather than later

**Wizaerd** · 22 September 2007, 11:24 PM

Typically I've only used Xara in playing around, although I have done a few logos and web graphics. However, now that it does multiple pages, I'm using it to create full page layouts for a self-published book I'm putting together (using blurb.com). Overall, of all the graphics apps I've used and experimented with, Xara by far is the most fun to use. I'm not nearly as productive with it as I am with another app (CanvasX from ACD Systems), but I'm getting there.

Of course exporting my pages out one at a time is an excercise in tedium, but I'm still having a fun time using it. Isn't it against the law having this much fun while doing productive things??

**ankhor** · 23 September 2007, 09:39 AM

I use it as stress release, and to keep some creativity flowing.
If you have a mindnumbing job sometimes, it keeps you from
getting depressed.

**Kurt8** · 23 September 2007, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by joel

I use it for:

1. Design and print my business cards
2. Design and print postcards
3. Design and print greeting cards
3. Design and print letterhead and notepads
4. Design and print CD and DVD disks and trayliners
5. Design and print photo calenders

also posters, brochures, and various other items

Joel

Joel,

I just finished a short book in Xara which came out great and I also do all of my webs design graphics work in Xara. A mix of text, graphics and photos. The things you listed are all things I would like to do more of in Xara. Can you tell me more about your workflow? Are you working from templates for the CD inlays or do you create the pages from scratch in Xara? I would love to offer multi-page CD covers for bands but am a little hesitant due to my lack of experience with such things. It's really not that hard to set up a CD template though, is it?

Kurt

**iamtheblues** · 23 September 2007, 02:36 PM

Hi Kurt,
I uploaded 3 .xar files a week or two ago, you may find them useful:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=29044

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=29084

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=29187

Saludos,
Bob.

**TimS** · 23 September 2007, 02:38 PM

I use Xara for fun

**joel** · 23 September 2007, 05:55 PM

Kurt,

I use a template to set up the CD printing. It is a template for printing on Neato paper. I no longer do that as I print directly on the DVD or CD using an Epson printer with their software so I'll just export the image that I create on the template as a tif to import into the Epson software. The template will work for the sizing. Depending on the size of the center hole on the DVD I'll adjust that on the template before export. Here is a link to the templates, about two thirds down the page http://www.xaraxone.com/html/templates.html

Joel

Originally Posted by Kurt8

Joel,

I just finished a short book in Xara which came out great and I also do all of my webs design graphics work in Xara. A mix of text, graphics and photos. The things you listed are all things I would like to do more of in Xara. Can you tell me more about your workflow? Are you working from templates for the CD inlays or do you create the pages from scratch in Xara? I would love to offer multi-page CD covers for bands but am a little hesitant due to my lack of experience with such things. It's really not that hard to set up a CD template though, is it?

Kurt