Xara Designer Pro X10 Released

[mwenz]

There is another interesting piece of software named PhotoLine (www.pl32.com). Mainly, it is Photo editor, but...
It is 32/64 bit, run from USB, supports PS plug-ins, multipage docs, barcode generator, DTP, RGB, CMYK, Grayscale...
The price is 59 EUR, it is abot 79 USD.

I have used PhotoLine as my normal photo editor for years. And for bitmap handling, I think it is a really good photo editor. I just downloaded and installed the latest beta, which is actually the full application install. The D/L weighs in at a petite 20 megs, the full installation takes up 66 or so megs on disk. PL has been around nearly forever in computer years.

I have seen some great vector work done in it as well. I would rather use anything else for vector though. And for the duotones that I need often enough, I still have to use another editor, though in the current beta (betas are not secret) the brothers are adding spot color support...notice I didn't say Pantone support. Small distinction that can make all the difference in the world. Spot colors do hit their own plates.

I went ahead and registered on the Affinity forum. I'll let y'all know the answer re OTF support.

Mike

[mwenz]

...I wonder how it supports OpenType/ligatures etc. which are very important features (as well easy/fast/precise kerning) for me too...

Affinity currently supports TT-type of substitution in OT fonts (alternates, ligs, etc) and uses the TT kerning tables. So if an OTF has only GPOS tables, automatic kerning is not applied, positioning is not applied, etc. They say that GPOS support will be following release. This is as per the current line-up of Serif products for the PC. I think I have only one family that uses only GPOS tables.

[Big Frank]

I can only assume Xara is "following the money" in their marketing strategy

and that is a criticism???

[richinri]

and that is a criticism???

It was an assumption addressing the various ideas regarding Xara's marketing decisions - particularly the lack of focus on vector. Their bottom line in the long run will prove whether it was wise or foolish. I see many features that none of the forums I have read included and some features mentioned heavily in forums seemingly ignored. So, time will tell. I appreciate the comment from the administrator (name?) that mentioned next year but also noticed in the same email the qualifiers, "no decisions, no plans" or similar that, to me, negated the "next year" comment still leaving the vector purchasers in limbo.

[JLX]

Affinity currently supports TT-type of substitution in OT fonts (alternates, ligs, etc) and uses the TT kerning tables. So if an OTF has only GPOS tables, automatic kerning is not applied, positioning is not applied, etc. They say that GPOS support will be following release. This is as per the current line-up of Serif products for the PC. I think I have only one family that uses only GPOS tables.

Thanks Mike! That would do the trick for me. I also wonder how many of my fonts would solely use GPOS kerning tables but suspect it would be few. My main concern is with ligatures/alternates which is sounds like they support out of the gate. Right now, their biggest lacking feature is Windows/Linux support ;-)

[mwenz]

Affinity will likely only be Mac. Forever. I do hope that any advancements the Affinity team comes up with trickles in DrawPlus, though.

The main fonts I have that only use gpos are some of the newest adobe font families I have, maybe one or two other families from another foundry. But as I don't really do layout stuff in xdp, anytime I have to use those fonts I have simply done it in what I do use. Because xdp also doesn't support TTF type tables, when I do set text in xdp I use CD to do it and export as curves. Or start in xdp and finish in whatever. It would aid me in what I do in xdp to set some text wholly in it, though.

[MarcT]

Hi,

The Xara web site looks cool.
the splash screen looks great.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to spend some time on the program Icon.

Marc

[MarcT]

I see the issue with dragged PNG's DPI/size is resolved, that's a relief.
It was a considerable problem in my workflow.

Removing the question box when opening PDFs is a good idea, they also open quite fast.

Marc

[handrawn]

Hi marc - which one? [I know of three and there may be more, depends on what is an 'issue']

[MarcT]

It's the one where dragged PNGs would automatically resize even if you tell the program not to.

Marc