Who use xara for work?

[Josè Campoy.]

i read some xara reviews and I was thinking, why more Xara Xtreme users use the software for fun?

I know some professionals use Xara when i say professional i mean working with xara for a client.

How may active member use xara to every day design works, not for fun, learn, etc.

I use Xtreme for work, and i love it.

But to be honnest i dont know another designer who uses Xara.
and when i have to print i use .PNG or I save the work as PDF, because nobody use xara for printing. (only corel or illustrator).

I am stick to my idea to find a wa to lear xara xtreme directly as a classroom, and find a way to have a corel/illustrator transition guide to xara xtreme.

I know Xara cannot be the master in the market but the software can compite with ilustrator and corel, even inkscape is more popular than Xara.

So if they (charles) develop a engine who can handle a lot of polygons, corel and adobe can´t create a engine as fast as xara xtreme engine, and the software is slow compared with xtreme, why adobe have the market, this is comprensive for photoshop who have not a real rival, but not for illustrator.

So what Xara needs, if you were the xara owner what you will do to reach more users and have a bigger market.

In my opinion:
I will focus in vector tools only.
I will develelop a mac version.
64 bits version.
Remove the photo tools.
forget to create new tools for bitmaps.
develop a better pen tool
remove or leave the development to create websites in xara xtreme. ( we still have web designer).
Transition guides for new users.
A cheap book to learn xara xtreme for zero, or a website to learn xara xtreme with lessons, excersises, sample files, screencast etc.
A program for editorial design. ( I think this should be asier than develop a software as web designer, but im not a developer).

so this is my opinnion share your ideas or let me know if im wrong.

[Albacore]

I still use Xara for my daily work daily and secondary schools still using it in Argyll & Bute are using this programme as tool for teaching product design in technical departments. Yes I have to use AI in some of my work but with the improved PDF module it is an easy work around.

If you work alone as a freelance designer you are bound to feel lonely and out of things and this gives you the feeling of the only one that is using this software, FreeHand users feel the same. Your other comments that you have made I would find difficult to make comment on as the software that you find so good has a very small budget to develop more tools. What it it has done is to make a niche in the market by offering people a programme which can do most things quite well but the ability for someone with no experience to design and publish a website a big selling point. You only have to look at the traffic on this site to see the number of topics on building a web site to see how clever marketing this is. Now if that pays for this software company to keep going in this recession so be it and if it can manage to improve areas of my vector flow in my daily work fantastic.

As for your other points about a book or web sites to help I am not sure here cos I learned by doing more than anything else. This did not mean I did not gain or learned anything from Gay's tutorials quite the opposite when I first started I learned a lot, I still do one tutorial a month, I do like the feeling of a book and to own it as well. If what you are saying is that schools should be using Xara then yes! you have a big input here as a designer in your area, you can show and demonstrate how easy your software is to use when compared with Illy in a practical sense. Design being taught properly is not about what software you use, it is about colour, proportion, materials, fashion, purpose and many, many other topics too numerous to mention.

[steve.ledger]

.. if you were the xara owner what you will do to reach more users and have a bigger market.

Exactly the same as what Charles did of course. Because if I were the owner, I would be Charles Moir.

And btw, Xara software has a bigger market now

[Josè Campoy.]

Yes charles do the things right. Corel make a mistake leaving Xara Xtreme and promove only corel draw.

I learn to with the xaraxone tutorials and i press every button in the program Xara X v2. to see what they do I don´t even try illustrator or corel i learn this programs in the school, but many users are lazy and they want the things easy, i know it.

And btw, Xara software has a bigger market now

This is great XD.