I was all excited until......

[handrawn]

pleasure Harry

another example is airbrushing - if you are coloring in a line drawing with airbrush [on lower layer] you always need to overstep the line to get the effect

you can mask - but with an eraser you could also just wiz round and remove, especially if you want the overlap in places but not in others

[tomh]

As one who has used Xara for 10 years, I would like to defend them on this. Developing an eraser tool for a bitmap program is very simple, that's why they all have them. But for a vector graphics program it is more tricky, obviously or Xara would have done it years ago just to appease the "traditionalists". My experience with other packages is that the Xara method of using other drawings to remove bits you don't want is actually quicker, once you get used to it. Or have you never used Illustrator? I admit that the Xara way is not very intuitive, but what aspect of using a computer is? Every program has skill sets you need to learn to use it properly. If an eraser is really a deal breaker for you, then you don't really understand much about using Xara. Perhaps you should spend a bit more time with it?

[Tallis]

If an eraser is really a deal breaker for you, then you don't really understand much about using Xara. Perhaps you should spend a bit more time with it?

Why is this a fair statement when xara constantly (and rightly so) develops and markets its bitmap/photo/raster editing features alongside its vector ones? An "easily implemented" eraser feature would be useful 50% of the time, or more, depending on why the person bought xara in the 1st place. Some use vector 90% of the time, some raster 70%.... Isn't that the beauty of the program's design-- both capabilities in one program?

[instinctive.de]

I see that my "easily implemented" statement now increasingly gets quoted

I didn't want to make the Xara developers appear ridiculous or anything by saying this - it was just my (maybe overly) spontaneous assessment of the situation

I mean, you can currently "emulate" an eraser by just drawing over the shape with the pencil and then "Substract shapes", so I thought it would be "terribly easy" to implement.

Maybe that was an exaggeration, but "terribly hard" would probably be an exaggeration as well

[handrawn]

My experience with other packages is that the Xara method of using other drawings to remove bits you don't want is actually quicker,

perhaps if you draw with shape editor

no way if you draw freehand

But for a vector graphics program it is more tricky, obviously or Xara would have done it years ago just to appease the "traditionalists".

like I say illustrator has an eraser - right ?

so does every other meaningful vector editor.. there is a message here, yes?

Perhaps you should spend a bit more time with it?

10 years I use xara vector editor also - is this long enough?

[sdbritton]

It seems like they forgot to add the anti-aliasing feature in Xara Developer Pro 6. I am getting mangled fonts.

I took a standard Arial font, added bold and italics and this is what I got.

http://www.secondstorywine.com/mangledxara.gif

Am I the only one or are others experiencing the same issue?

I did the same thing with Xara Xtreme Pro 5 and it handled it perfectly.

[instinctive.de]

You didn't by any chance set the view quality to lower than 3 or 4?

[covoxer]

Increase view quality.

[Soquili]

As already mentioned your view quality setting is low.

[sdbritton]

Ah!

Thank you! Apparently, someone sat at my desk during lunch and played around with the Quality Slider. I just moved it back to 5 and all is fixed.

Now, I need to find the co-worker who played around with my Xara Designer Pro!

Thanks everyone! I will be upgrading to Designer Pro 6.