Xara Xtreme 6

[Soquili]

No way Adobe would have dumped Xara.

Tell that to all the Freehand users.

[Xcellent]

Never used Freehand. Illustrator replaced Freehand entirely by migrating it's features anyway (from what I understand).

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/il..._fhillmigr.pdf

If anything, Illustrator features should be migrated into Xara. So Xara, please buy Illustrator ha ha

OK, enough off topics from me today. hehe..

Xara6: when?

[steve.ledger]

Xara6: when?

Traditionally Xara never make release dates known in advance.
Do keep an eye on each monthly Outsider for hints though

[angelize]

I just had to put my 2 cents in John you and Bill weren't the only ones to shudder at the thought of Adobe swallowing up Xara! Very scary thought indeed!

[covoxer]

Don't worry guys and gals. Xara had made a preventive step to avoid possibility of complete annihilation by the possible purchaser. That's called Xara LX. If Xara would be bought and Xtreme closed as a project by any other company, it would be still possible to continue as most of it's code base is not a property of Xara and the potential new owners. And that's probably why Xara was never bought by Adobe or Corel. They wouldn't do it being unable to eliminate competition this way.
Now the MAGIX is a different story. They purchased Xara not to eliminate the competitor but to gain profits from the Xara products. So it's actually good for Xara as the new owner is interested in the commercial success of the company.

[planetsquid]

Now the MAGIX is a different story. They purchased Xara not to eliminate the competitor but to gain profits from the Xara products. So it's actually good for Xara as the new owner is interested in the commercial success of the company.

When I initially heard the news that Xara was being bought by Magix I must admit to being extremely pessimistic about the fate of Xtreme - especially with the memories of CorelXara. But it's been over 3 years now and we've seen regular product updates and, in my opinion, definite improvement. A good decision by Charles.

Rich

[Xcellent]

A product is not alive just because it exists online as a source code. Continuous development maintained by a core team, support, newsletters, resources, documentation bla bla bla makes it a "product". I bought lots of software, paid lots of money (most was 400 british pounds) and the company went broke after 12 months. Small software companies have a hard life. So for Xara I'm glad someone 'big' like Magix saw the potential in Xara. To see updates every year makes Xara alive and kicking.

However, the direction Xara took in terms of web development over Vector tools is clearly Magix input. At first, I thought it's **** but the marriage of vector/design/WYSIWYG and web the way Xara handles it is amazing. It is a niche market. Saying that, I wish it had developed on both ends simultaniously, both vector tools and web. We can't have it all and never will

[zumwalt]

I checked back on my invoices and Pro v.5 was released about 3 months after web designer.

[Albacore]

Xara has to concentrate on vectors if it wants to be used by professionals, take the example of Illy and that is where the money and the numbers for sales are.
Why is it used by so many print based companies:-
Because it produces a quality PDF,
Consistent colour in both RGB and CMYK.
It has got a good Text engine
Can it be used to produce small brochures - Yes
Has it got enough vector tools - probably too many
Can it integrate with other applications easily - Yes all that you have to do is look at its export list.
Can it be used by many different types of designers easily - yes for web to high end mags including cartoonists.

Where does Xara stand in the market place at the moment? Well it has a niche market for home user that want to use their own printer or even do the occasional bigger jobs. Some might say it is easy to make simple websites with the tools available. Here I would agree at the moment but wait a couple of years and I think that the way CMS is developing then even this will be over taken as it is nearly drag and drop now.

Now you are going to say why is a moderator saying all of these things against Xara and why do you still use Xara. Well I am comfortable with it firstly and it is so easy for people to pick up. Having said all that and after now working with Illy over the last really 8 years I am now just as comfortable with that. I used to use Xara in my day job for laying everything out as I was much quicker than my collogues in my vector work and then bringing it across into Illy for the final part like adjusting the colour and other small jobs. In my current work I produces literature for the NHS from local newsletter to national handouts and info sheets and I find now I am doing more and more with Illy. I am not saying that I still don't use Xara for still some of my work but is is less now than it was.

Now that was a rant and I apologise as this is a request topic for the next version of XPro. What that I want to see is certainly the brushes sorted and a few more usable vector tools so that I will use Xara as my first tool.

[covoxer]

I thought it's obvious but I see it's not...

We are not going to directly compete with Adobe in any foreseeable future. This is impossible. Simple like that. So there is no point to seriously compare Illustrator to Xtreme.

Yes we have a niche. And it's good because that gives us sales. Developing Illustrator's direct competitor we would lose this niche and would have to compete for sales with Adobe and Corel. I don't believe anyone of you would really like this blaze of glory unavoidably followed by the quick and disgraceful demise.

Please be a little bit more serious.

Thank you for understanding.