The controversial eraser tool

[handrawn]

Xara has a pressure sensitive brush - if you do lineart in the traditional brushwork way then the equivalent in a digital sense is to use pressure as you draw to get the line right first time [as you would with sable] and if its not quite right to either add another stroke to 'build it up' or add another stroke to remove part of it [ie erasing: ideally by just flipping the tablet pen to change mode] - you build up a rhythm it is very important to keep the momentum going - and notice this is all done by stroking as it would be with a traditional brush/eraser

There have been many suggestions to mimic an eraser in xara, but all that I have seen including a couple here: http://www.xara-users.info/board/vie...589f52f#p23978 seem to miss this point because they rely on switching to boolean which, as was said in another context a day or so ago, is like driving down the motorway [freeway] and suddenly hitiing a speed bump - it breaks rhythm. Either that or you simply leave the 'masking' strokes in - but that only works at all if you can define a mask colour relative to a background, and in any case it is adding a whole load of spurious objects in the drawing which you then have to tidy up afterwards and that can get really really complicated [edit and you still have to change colour - which breaks rhythm]

having said all that xara's pressure sensitive brush is a one-trick pony - the live drag makes it now useable, but unless it gets at least as configurable as the illustrator brush set, its hard to see it being used by true brush artists - I was very pleased to see it appear, but I have a nasty feeling that it's as far as it is going to go; if push comes to shove enhancing the brush would currently be a higher priority for me than an eraser, which would only be used occasionally in this context by good brush artists

so Angelize your other suggestion about stroke shapes would get priority vote from me [and I've said plenty about that in the past as well], but both would be nice of course

as a final point have a look here: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...766#post426766 - inking that took me around 30 mins in SAI [raster app] total number of erases around 10 - and excellent practice in using the tool[s] BTW
can anyone tell me how long it would take with the xara shape tool and 'eraser' functions?

[Soquili]

It is not whether or not a user will actually use an eraser or whether or not it would be useful. It is obvious that every existing feature of the program will need to be rewritten to support an eraser. That would require a great deal of recoding over a great deal of time. It is possible that such code is being incorporated in the background and may be revealed when all is working. It is also possible that an eraser tool is still in Xara's own wish list but well below features they see will be more beneficial.

I find it amusing that people that continue to resurrect this subject become defensive when others exercise their right to post their views that an eraser is not needed. Both sides are jousting at windmills completely in the dark about what may or may not be taking place at Xara.

[handrawn]

It is obvious that every existing feature of the program will need to be rewritten to support an eraser

it is ?

I find it amusing that ......

ah well, we all find amusement where we can Bill - I think it amusing [and sometimes slightly sad] that so many seem to think that only ever using one program is a good thing, if not a holy grail, and that it's a given vector is better than raster... but there you go

[Rik]

...It is possible that such code is being incorporated in the background and may be revealed when all is working.

Aha!
Ladies and Gents. Bill has insider knowledge.

[zaphodeist]

@Pauland - It's not that I think the eraser is pointless, or anybody's suggestion for that matter, but say it once not again and again and again. If Xara are going to implement it they will, if they're not they wont. Banging on about it might well even tip the balance against the idea. The devs wont forget a good, workable idea - they probably had it first.

Have I tried to justify the lack of an eraser? Some have I know. I didn't mean to do that if I have done.

The Dear Xara board [and its extension threads e.g. this one] should be for [potentially] new ideas, that is the gist of my interventions :-D

[pauland]

Nodeist, this is the Xara Graphics Chat forum. We can bang on about the eraser tool to our hearts content. If it's a problem, I'd just stop reading this thread, then you'll never get to see it.

There are bright developers at Xara. Clearly they have limits on what they can do. They may or not include an eraser, but I do think they are quided by user demand and it's perfectly reasonable to discuss the usefulness of the tool.

[zaphodeist]

Yeah ... just altered my post to reflect that. Deliberately confusing me by posting the same thing all over the place! Thank you for pointing that out though

If the masses who buy Xara products think the same as the very small amount of people who regularly post on here then they might take notice, yes. If it's possible/feasible to implement without detriment to the program

[pauland]

The masses that buy product, buy on the basis of what they see and they can see plenty of drawing products, vector and bitmap with erasers.

Xara is in tricky situation. The eraser tool comes into it's own with a tablet and really I doubt that in a few years any laptop will not have a touch screen and tablets will be widespread. Jiggling nodes will seem less natural and inconvenient for some operations. As a tablet user, I have come to dislike scrollbars and small fiddly controls - even on my laptop.

The rise of tablets and touch screens is going to be an issue for Xara. Their product can look old very fast.

[handrawn]

good points

it can be looked on as a tablet [screen] versus mouse issue

in anycase I think Xara will give priority to the HTML generation - its the only currently viable commercial approach that I can see making sense

[zaphodeist]

... The rise of tablets and touch screens is going to be an issue for Xara...

True for Adobe as well who, from what I've seen, rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts. There will have to be a new generation.

On a lighter note, we spent millions of years developing our opposable thumbs and realising a stick is better than a finger in the sand and now we're reverting to prodding! If this goes on we wont make interstellar travel but we might just make it back to the Ocean in time