Alien Skin and Xara

[alanstancliff]

Does anyone know where I can find a LEGAL copy of Eye Candy 6? I have 7 and it does not work in Xara or Corel products. I asked Alien Skin about this, and they wrote back telling me that they cannot sell me a previous version. They made suggestions for making EC7 work with my software, but I had already tried that.

Here is the response I sent to their email to me, expressing my sense of disappointment at not being able to use their software:

Hello Robert,

Thank you for the followup.

You made several suggestions on how I might be able to use Alien Skin software with Xara and Paintshop Pro, and I had already tried those suggestions several times before writing you. They did not work.

Unfortunately, you have made it impossible for me to continue buying most of your products. I regret that because I really like them. We have corresponded in the past, although you probably don't remember me. You made a favorable impression on me as a human being. I like Alien Skin plugins.

However, I'm not a professional graphics person and cannot afford the overpriced, clunky, and resource-heavy Adobe products. I'm actually retired and on a fixed income. Apparently, AS has made the decision not to service the needs of little people like me in order to focus on the corporate giants of graphics art world, and that makes me feel quite sad.

Although I am not a professional, a lot of people see my artwork. As one example, I am the volunteer webmaster of a community website, 15 Now Tacoma. I put up this website and did 99% of the artwork. I also maintain 4 other sites as well.

I mention this not to toot my horn but to say to Alien Skin that you may have made a mistake not to accommodate hobbyist graphic artists like me. Such actions may damage community good will, and artists are notoriously not drawn to corporatism.

Regards,

Alan

[mwenz]

I use Alien Skin Eye Candy 7 and Snap Art 4 in PSP X6 64-bit (and another bitmap editor). Didn't do anything special for "making" them work, just pointed to the folder I installed them to.

I don't want to install XDP 32-bit else I would try it there, too.

But why the rant here?

[alanstancliff]

Hi mwenz,

You wrote:

I use Alien Skin Eye Candy 7 and Snap Art 4 in PSP X6 64-bit (and another bitmap editor). Didn't do anything special for "making" them work, just pointed to the folder I installed them to.

I don't want to install XDP 32-bit else I would try it there, too.

It did not work for me in PSP X7, 64-bit version. Neither did Snap Art 4.
*************

But why the rant here?

Actually, when I began this thread, my original post's first sentence was this:

Does anyone know where I can find a LEGAL copy of Eye Candy 6?...

That's why I started this thread.

Do you (or anyone else) happen to know where I can buy a legit version of EC 6? I looked on eBay and Amazon before coming here, and Alien Skin doesn't sell older versions of their software.

Regards,
Alan

[mwenz]

Nope. No idea where to get a previous version.

Actually, when I began this thread, my original post's first sentence was this...

Yep. It was your response to them that wasn't really needed. I understand the frustration, though.

If it were my computer having difficulties, I would find out what was unique to my computer and make it right if at all possible. If not, I would try another bitmap editor to see if it works with EC7. Such as PhotoLine.

But have you tried using the 32-bit version?

[alanstancliff]

The 32-bit version of Paintshop doesn't work with it either.

I probably did not need to include a copy of the email I sent to AS, but I hardly think it was a "rant." It was actually quite respectful.

Others have found EC 7 does not work well for most people on Xara. Check out this thread.

Regards,
Alan

[mwenz]

I meant the 32-bit version of PSP that also installs on your computer. That AS doesn't work in an Xara product doesn't surprise me and that is something for Xara to fix.

Mike

[Grenou]

Hi mwenz,




It did not work for me in PSP X7, 64-bit version. Neither did Snap Art 4.
*************

Regards,
Alan

Although this is not the place to discuss PSP, I recommend you load Service Pack 1 for PaintShop Pro X7 from the Patches & Updates section of the Corel website and try again.

Grenou

[angelize]

@Mike: Up to and including version 6 EC AS products did work perfectly with Xara, AS changed their code to be compatible with Adobe's newest versions and that broke compatibility with Xara. AS don't want to work with Xara to find a fix. I'm not a programmer and I wouldn't have a clue what it would take to make EC7 play nice with Xara but I can't see that Xara would want to bother with AS if AS won't work with them.

[mwenz]

@Mike: Up to and including version 6 EC AS products did work perfectly with Xara, AS changed their code to be compatible with Adobe's newest versions and that broke compatibility with Xara. AS don't want to work with Xara to find a fix. I'm not a programmer and I wouldn't have a clue what it would take to make EC7 play nice with Xara but I can't see that Xara would want to bother with AS if AS won't work with them.

It's in Xara's best interest to make their program work with newer 8bf filters. Not the other way 'round. It isn't that Alien Skin has to accommodate Xara's manner of doing things.

Photoline has two programmers. The owners. They figured it out. I suspect Xara could as well. Corel has more people and money to throw at it, but they didn't even have a bump in the road to making their stuff work with AS's stuff.

Here's the thing to me: I don't care if Xara can ever work with newer 8bf filters. I don't manipulate images in it per se. Certainly not the PS-type of filters/effects. That's what real image editors are for (aside from everything else they can do and XDP will never do).

The issue of newer standards for PS-type of filters will only grow "worse" over time unless Xara decides to actually become compliant. This applies to many other issues...like import/export filters as well. Xara could become irrelevant if it does not choose to throw money and time at these issues. Oh, not irrelevant as regards the more simple vector work I do. But certainly in oh so many other ways that are increasingly important to Xara's user base.

Only time will tell once the new version of XDP arrives whether investing in us, the users, is important. Instead of bell & whistle "improvements," Xara should expand and improve upon its core capabilities. And lest anyone think this type of message is pointedly unfair towards Xara, it's not. It's the exact same message I hammer on Corel, Quark, Adobe and others over. What good are new capabilities if long-standing issues go unresolved? Like I mentioned to the powers that be at Corel and Quark the other day, I would gladly pay the upgrade price if existing capabilities were enhanced, old issues resolved, work-flow issues improved, etc.

Now, I well understand the above doesn't sell new licenses and there will always have to be the "new" things added. But doing so at the expense of stagnation of current capabilities is also not a good model.

I am looking forward to the next version. As I skipped the X10 release, I am sincerely hoping some of these things get addressed. I like drawing in XDP--but I don't have to. I can use other applications. I simply prefer XDP and in its current state (for me, X9) it does well for what I use it for...I would just use it for more things if Xara would make the thing more current in capabilities and the way it functions.

Mike

[ss-kalm]

@Mike: Up to and including version 6 EC AS products did work perfectly with Xara, AS changed their code to be compatible with Adobe's newest versions and that broke compatibility with Xara. AS don't want to work with Xara to find a fix. I'm not a programmer and I wouldn't have a clue what it would take to make EC7 play nice with Xara but I can't see that Xara would want to bother with AS if AS won't work with them.

I'm not sure this is all Alienskins fault here, apparently Filter Forge doesn't play nice with Xara now (although, I have no experience that it ever did), and I downloaded a load of plugins from Xero Graphics (http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/#!/co...ads/index.html) last night and they all crashed Xara. Maybe just me, but I'm beginning to see a common link here. Although to be fair, all the older Xero plug-ins work fine with the same program. Maybe Xero have adjusted their algorithms to suit Adobe too. However, if everyone is changing the way plugins behave, I'm sure Xara will follow suit eventually if they can, or any updated 8bf plugins will be entirely useless.