Xara WebStyle 2 Just Released

[gwpriester]

I received this press release this morning and thought I would pass it along. WebStyle is a cool product (of course, it's from Xara) that creates a variety of elements for web pages using pre-designed elements which you can modify ten ways to Sunday and back again.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> A major upgrade to Xara's template-based web graphic creation software means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required!

London, England – August 21st 2001 - XARA announces the launch of a new and significantly enhanced version of Xara Webstyle.

Xara Webstyle 2 can be used to create top quality, fully customized web graphics. And there's no design skill or software expertise required.

Webstyle is template based - the user simply selects the type of graphic required from the hundreds of Webstyle graphic templates. The templates are designed by professional artists, which ensures the design and artistic quality of the original.

The real secret to getting the best on-screen quality is that the graphics are created from vector files and rendered using Xara's 2D and 3D vector rendering engines. All the individual elements of a graphic can be fully customized - including the text, size, color, font - with the quality remaining pixel perfect. This contrasts with the normal bitmap clipart collections where you can't change the color or wording or indeed even re-size without the image being distorted (which accounts for many of worst graphic offenses on the web!).

Webstyle uniquely solves the problem faced by practically every web site owner in the world; how to create professional looking original web graphics if you don't have the artistic ability or design skills!

Webstyle can produce eight classes of graphics - mouse-over or 'rollover' navigation bars, animated banner ads, 2D and 3D headings, buttons, backgrounds, bullets, dividers, logos - which can be customized to create an infinite collection of tailored graphics. In addition to hundreds of individual designs the program includes 40 'themed' sets of matching graphics. Advanced features include the automatic 'smart' resizing of buttons and NavBars to fit the new text and one-click addition of states for NavBars (Webstyle automatically creates and exports the necessary HTML and JavaScript).

Xara Webstyle does all this with no knowledge of jargon or graphics skills required. The underlying technology is leading edge - the resultant graphics (GIF, PNG or JPEG) are fully anti-aliased, palette optimized and color reduced - but the user doesn't need to know or understand any of the technology to achieve these professional results.

“We can all recognise good design when we see it, but if we're honest with ourselves very few of us have the real ability needed to produce it�, said Xara marketing director Kate Moir. “Creating good graphics requires an eye for design plus skill, time and patience. Not to mention a good working knowledge of illustration software and the intimidating subject of optimising graphics for the web. Absolutely none of this is necessary with Webstyle, which is why we feel we've created a killer app for web graphics�, she added.

There is now a free trial version available for download from xara.com and a CD will be sent to each purchaser with the complete set of Webstyle templates. Additional template packs will be offered to owners in future. List price of Xara Webstyle 2 is $69.00 (+ VAT in Europe). Win 95/98/2000, Me and NT4.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>

[smorg]

The product on the PC Pro cover disc is the full version, unrestricted, for free (except for the cost of magazine).

[gwpriester]

I received this press release this morning and thought I would pass it along. WebStyle is a cool product (of course, it's from Xara) that creates a variety of elements for web pages using pre-designed elements which you can modify ten ways to Sunday and back again.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> A major upgrade to Xara's template-based web graphic creation software means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required!

London, England – August 21st 2001 - XARA announces the launch of a new and significantly enhanced version of Xara Webstyle.

Xara Webstyle 2 can be used to create top quality, fully customized web graphics. And there's no design skill or software expertise required.

Webstyle is template based - the user simply selects the type of graphic required from the hundreds of Webstyle graphic templates. The templates are designed by professional artists, which ensures the design and artistic quality of the original.

The real secret to getting the best on-screen quality is that the graphics are created from vector files and rendered using Xara's 2D and 3D vector rendering engines. All the individual elements of a graphic can be fully customized - including the text, size, color, font - with the quality remaining pixel perfect. This contrasts with the normal bitmap clipart collections where you can't change the color or wording or indeed even re-size without the image being distorted (which accounts for many of worst graphic offenses on the web!).

Webstyle uniquely solves the problem faced by practically every web site owner in the world; how to create professional looking original web graphics if you don't have the artistic ability or design skills!

Webstyle can produce eight classes of graphics - mouse-over or 'rollover' navigation bars, animated banner ads, 2D and 3D headings, buttons, backgrounds, bullets, dividers, logos - which can be customized to create an infinite collection of tailored graphics. In addition to hundreds of individual designs the program includes 40 'themed' sets of matching graphics. Advanced features include the automatic 'smart' resizing of buttons and NavBars to fit the new text and one-click addition of states for NavBars (Webstyle automatically creates and exports the necessary HTML and JavaScript).

Xara Webstyle does all this with no knowledge of jargon or graphics skills required. The underlying technology is leading edge - the resultant graphics (GIF, PNG or JPEG) are fully anti-aliased, palette optimized and color reduced - but the user doesn't need to know or understand any of the technology to achieve these professional results.

“We can all recognise good design when we see it, but if we're honest with ourselves very few of us have the real ability needed to produce it�, said Xara marketing director Kate Moir. “Creating good graphics requires an eye for design plus skill, time and patience. Not to mention a good working knowledge of illustration software and the intimidating subject of optimising graphics for the web. Absolutely none of this is necessary with Webstyle, which is why we feel we've created a killer app for web graphics�, she added.

There is now a free trial version available for download from xara.com and a CD will be sent to each purchaser with the complete set of Webstyle templates. Additional template packs will be offered to owners in future. List price of Xara Webstyle 2 is $69.00 (+ VAT in Europe). Win 95/98/2000, Me and NT4.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>

[Ross Macintosh]

If Jens is still upset it would be my opinion that the reason is that people seem to think he's worried about loosing work to webstyle users. I don't think that was ever his concern yet almost everyone in response to him has focused on that.

I think what Jens was saying is the association between Xara X and WebStyle weakens the credibility of Xara X as a professional tool. Continuing on with how I think Jens was thinking, if Xara Ltd. wants to position Xara as at least an equal to the professional tools market leaders then products like WebStyle work against that. One message in the WebStyle marketing copy is that Xara Ltd. doesn't repect the work of pros.

In my opinion it *is* important for Xara to watch that it doesn't shoot itsef in the foot. As stated above, allowing creation of custom templates in Xara X that work in Webstyle could bring the two products together. WebStyle would then become a useful tool for professional. Indeed if Xara Ltd. teamed up with SWiSH and bundled a template-creating Xara X with WebStyle and SWiSH - into a suite IMHO they could really get noticed. (I'm not talking about one bloated application with all those functions - just a marketing suite).

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[traceyp]

I have stated in other messages I have posted that I am NOT a graphic designer, never will be - but I do my best. For me, XaraX is the best and easiest tool I have for what I do and it has got me out of a spot or two as well.

Whilst Jens is free to express his opinion, I really do feel he is out on a limb here. The only one he is thinking about is Jens. He's not thinking about the likes of myself and others like me who are NOT graphic designers. We need help our graphics and any tool which is going to help me produce graphics which are at least acceptable will be welcome.

As others have already said, Webstyle won't interfere with his work if he is half the artist he believes himself to be. Jens appears to have a fair belief in his ability and good on him and I envy anyone with that ability - Jens and people like him should consider themselves extremely fortunate. But please Jens, don't come down on the many more of us who are not blessed with your skill and ability. I wish I were a graphic designer, but I'm not. I have to do the best I can with what little ability the good Lord has bessed me with. If that means purchasing a copy of Webstyle, then so be it. I can't afford to employ someone such as Jens otherwise nothing would get done - I can't afford to purchase his services, so I have to do it myself as have many in my position.

I'm certainly not ashamed to say I shall have a look at Webstyle - but whether I purchase a copy is another matter as I'm not exactly flush with money and probably never will be. Nevertheless if it looks worth it I shall get a copy.

Tracey

[Vectormonkey (formerly, Borlip)]

For what it's worth...

Masque came on the Xara Gallery forum's scene recently with an image of balls made from straw emerging from the ocean, leaving a hole in the water from whence they came. It was absolutely stunning. I knew that I would never, never be able to create such an image.

When he explained how he did it, I was struck by the fact that the actual creation of the image was not as difficult as I had guessed. This doesn't mean that Masque isn't talented. Quite the opposite! He showed great skill in the construction of the image, but his real talent showed up in the composition. His imagination put Xara to use in a way that most people would never have thought of. Xara just made it easier for him to assemble his vision. As far as that goes, so did the bitmaps he used and the PC he used.

If we view new technology as a threat, we miss the point and we miss new opportunity.

~Dave!~

[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on August 25, 2001 at 14:04.]

[roman]

It's not flexible enough... I saw pages made with webstyle and all I can tell is that it's distingishable on the first look [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I found one thing very sad about Webstyle. In previous Xara there was a wizard (which was not documented very well though) it was possible to make constrained texts, name objects etc and If you were form XARA Ltd. ;-) or some hacker, you could make your own templates in Xara. Now they disabled this function in XARA X (icon is still there in the icon palette though!!! ;-).

Webstyle could be a great professional tool if it was possible to make your own templates in Xara X.

Roman

[Ross Macintosh]

Smorg - Are you sure? I wonder if it was a mistake.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[eky]

Well said by the responses that it's not the software but what you make of it. There are plenty of "freeware" in addition to the range of software at all price levels. No one will judge a great design as being "cheap" simply because the designer used GIMP (freeware) instead of photoshop. I've seen masterpieces made with crayon on paper as well as on artist who reproduced a Michelangelo on the sidewalk with colored chalk. I can only doodle with crayon and chalk. It's what you can do with your tools, not the tools themselves.

[Klaus Nordby]

Jens, cool off a bit! That Xara wants to sell to the do-it-yourelf-dentristry market too is no threat to Real Professionals. Since I think you are one of those - shut up. And please do NOT abandon this forum - I need at least ONE friend here! ;-)


K