FACT: Xara has a crippled, out-of-date type-engine.

[humblenations]

So finally version 9 sorted out some font problems but today I read the MyFonts newsletter and my heart sank just a little again with my chosen piece of design software - Xara Designer obviously.

I was looking at the news letter and salivating over 'Desire' font and thinking about purchasing : have a look yourself (nice, eh?), but what's the point I thought. Xara Designer ... even the Pro Version ... does not support ligatures and alternative letters which are supported by the Open Type format. So I would spend $100 on this font and it would be useless. All those lovely alternatives inaccessible.

Come on Xara, lift your game, sort yourself out : let us use alternatives and ligatures with type on your software.

In this day and age it's vital for good designers because type design has moved on a lot in the last ten years. Your software has not.

[iamtheblues]

+1. I have to go along with this, but not sure I'm altogether happy with the aggressive(ish) tone of the heading.
Bob.

[Big Frank]

I was looking at the news letter and salivating over 'Desire' font and thinking about purchasing : have a look yourself (nice, eh?)

beautiful display font, agreed

if xara touts itself as a designer's toolkit, it should expect this type of harsh criticism from a designer

[mwenz]

Hmm. I am hearing echoes again...

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...ort-for-Glyphs
(which also should be moved here)

[Acorn]

Are there any programs that handles these fonts where they can be exported as PDF and imported into Xara?
There's always a workaround out there so bemoaning the lack in a particular tool should be balanced by thinking what another might achieve.

I remember Acorn computers came up with anti-aliasing that Xara, as Computer Concepts, exploited in a fashion way ahead of Apple and Windows PCs.
There are always going to be winners and losers in capability in the short term.

Acorn

[mwenz]

While there may always be adequate work-arounds, I don't believe that this would be one of them. Far more efficient to just real with the art in Xara and get it into an application that supports OTF features and place the text in it.

[mwenz]

There's always a workaround out there so bemoaning the ...

And...just tried it. The answer is no, PDF is not a work-around. Ligatures drop out, old-style figures are replaced, etc., etc. It takes OpenType feature support to actually support incoming OpenType features from a PDF.

And rather than diss a valid Dear Xara wish, why not try to find a work-around that actually works and post it?

[Acorn]

And rather than diss a valid Dear Xara wish, why not try to find a work-around that actually works and post it?

In what way am I dissing this? I was trying to open up the debate to not dissing Xara in the same way I would not care to diss Adobe for not being capable either.
The PDF (or other approach) might just be getting the image into Xara and using the generating program as the editor. It is still a workaround and doesn't detract from the need for Xara to get to grips with OpenType features eventually.

Xara has always been about taking its capabilities and turning them into something new for me.
The fact that I can convert a font to editable shapes and stretch and mould a letter to my exact need has always be a positive aspect.

Acorn

[gwpriester]

I e-mailed Xara and asked for glyph support in the next release. The response was they would add it to the longish list of text tool possibilities and bring it up with Charles Moir.

At this point it's about the best we can hope for.

[mwenz]

@Gary—many thanks for the update.

@Acorn,

...so bemoaning the lack in a particular tool should be balanced by thinking what another might achieve.

In what way am I dissing this? I was trying to open up the debate to not dissing Xara...

By insinuating others are dissing Xara, for one. Characterizing a valid Dear Xara and any other person's voiced approval for such a request as "bemoaning" isn't really helpful. I used the word, "diss," but if you prefer the word, bemoaning to dissing, then substitute it where appropriate.

The PDF (or other approach) might just be getting the image into Xara and using the generating program as the editor.

I guess you didn't read my post about PDF not working. There is, so far as I know, no way to get OT features into an application that doesn't support them. However, as I mentioned, feel free to actually find a work-around that works. Brainstorming without trial doesn't really accomplish much.

The fact that I can convert a font to editable shapes [in Xara] and stretch and mould a letter to my exact need has always be a positive aspect.

What vector application hasn't been able to do this for, well, ever? Not sayign it isn't a "positive aspect" in design, it is. It just isn't a unique, positive aspect to a vector illustration application.

And one can outline the fonts in Acrobat, and ID, etc. But that really doesn't help here. At least not for more than a word or two.