Goodbye Xara

**ankhor** · 06 July 2016, 03:27 PM

I just took a peak again, new version, new model of purchase, and I find not much vector in it, so I wait again, until it does, the wait has been long, and will be even longer now, I guess..

**hseiken** · 07 July 2016, 01:24 AM

Just tried Affinity. It had some cool features but it lagged heavily with a tablet in comparison to Xara. I didn't find anything about it really new or inventive either. It has some stuff Xara can do but streamlined into buttons, but overall, it seems like it's trying to steal Illustrator users who've never really experienced a cleaner interface that's less cumbersome since there's a lot of Illustrator-isms in the interface that I noticed (and don't jive with in the first place lol). I think I'll stick to Xara if for nothing else than I don't like Illustrator's toggle method of fill/stroke editing when compared to the more on-the-fly-context-sensitive way that Xara handles it...and the lag factor too. If I was to point out something it can do that Xara can't (at this time) do, that's use the photo effects bar on vectors shapes with no photos attached to them. Affinity got around the 'feathering' concept in Xara by using a photo guassian blur/sharpen slider as if every vector was a photo. I'm pretty sure Xara could hook the photo bar up to vectors already with a couple lines of code, but it's not like it's a deal breaker between the two programs feature-wise.

**handrawn** · 07 July 2016, 08:22 AM

interesting - I didn't find any lag, in fact I found it fast..... [using cintiq 13]

**Squeaky** · 07 July 2016, 12:25 PM

Jumping on the whole Affinity thing. The reason it excites me is that it has native CMYK support. I really REALLY wish Xara had that. For print work it it pretty necessary especially if working with other non-Xara users.
That said I like the web direction of Xara Pro. I'm thinking it may well be useful to make web comics. (I could do with horizontal parallax though.)
To sum up. I don't think I have ever been able to work with just one piece of software. Use what works. The more the merrier. :-)

**MarcT** · 07 July 2016, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by hseiken

a lot of Illustrator-isms in the interface that I noticed (and don't jive with in the first place lol). I think I'll stick to Xara if for nothing else than I don't like Illustrator's toggle method of fill/stroke editing when compared to the more on-the-fly-context-sensitive way that Xara handles it..

Absolutely, what a subtle time saver!
Right-clicking for line color or drag-copy is awesome.

And to name a few others :

Selection not based on visibility but by stacking order (also like illustrator).
Not being able to use an external bitmap editor.
No Object Naming.
Arranging objects up/down in the stack is also based on stacking order, Xara considers only the objects "overlapping" the target.

There's a lot of those details

I must be unlucky but I've experienced stability issues, bugs and export problem with affinity.

It does have some awesome features though, round corner are amazing (the corners remains editable even after object rotation).
Also using levels on vector objects is quite nice.

Marc

**mwenz** · 07 July 2016, 02:06 PM

Marc, as regards an external bitmap editor, Serif's Affinity Photo can open Affinity Draw's files and vice versa, as well as pass back and forth the drawings.

**hseiken** · 07 July 2016, 10:39 PM

@marcT: I'm hoping the corner tool (apparently it's lifted from Freehand MX from a million years ago?) makes it's way into xara as an add-on smart shape type at some point. While it's not necessary for me to need it on every line I draw, I do find that tool useful in some situations.

@handdrawn: I'm running both with a wacom something another (they just bring out the same damn pad with new drivers and new name every 4 years, but it's just an 11 x 8 tablet) and a Lenova ThinkPad with all the trimmings cira 2013. My guess is that for some reason it's expecting finger and I can't get it to not expect that. I noticed the same thing in every program before I turned touch off in Windows10, but for some reason, it's back with Affinity. I know it's not affinity specifically, it's how it's handling the inputs or checking status of the OS or something quirky like that. In terms of actual editing, yes, the display engine was on par, maybe a little faster than Xara.

@Squeaky - I think I informally asked for CMYK color separations. That said, it still has option to spot color with CMYK values, it's just clunky compared to something like Illustrator where it's aimed toward final delivery of a document in CMYK rather than just building it's swatches. It goes hand in hand with that rasterization preview filter button. It's nice so you don't have to render out first to check what your vectors look like as raster.

**ernie-f** · 17 July 2016, 06:51 PM

Hi at all,
very interesting discussion.

Last Year I thought the same. I bought a Mac and make a description to Adobes CC (a CS6 I own). I started work. The publish company i work for give me a 4 day goal to do the work. I must say I'm firm in the adobe software world and it will be a little for me do the job, I thought! I ha'd to do 40 e-book covers in this time!

I allways thought AI is slow on my PC, but on the Mac (it's cost was 3.400,– € with the Xeon-Processor) it was the same!?!
I stuck arround and couldn`t find in the right flow.
I remember the lightness of Xara and its fast working but the PC was sold on ebay. What to do?

Parallels! That's what I need. And so i had to pay again. Xara DPX10 runs on Parallels so-so. I remember on Affinity Designer, and once again I paid. In this version (I don`t know which) useless.

The End of this (I wrote it in in other thread, I think XDP X11) i sell the Mac an bought an PC-Workstation and (at this time new) XDP X11.

Last week I updated to X365/12/X10 or what else. Many thinks I wish for my work I would needed are still not implemented but I'm lucky that Xara goes on. And maybe the pressure of Serif with it's Affinity Suite helps Xara to make the right dicission and listen/read it's users and there wishes.

That I have the possibility to create my Website or my customers is for me a great plus. And realy, for me as graphic designer is 89,– € to spend for an update not the world. Fo AI CC I must pay 70,– €/month. I need PS and Acrobat Pro, without this software no prof. publishing with Xara.

The last week I played with Affinity for Windws and here the same like in the Mac-Version, in comparisom to Xara useless. To much thinks like text handling, typography, wrong PDF-Import, multiple pages … and … and … are missing. But there are a few thinks what Xara is still missing, one of the most missings in Xara is a prof. colour management and PDF-Preflights for prof. output.

The missing Vector-Tools, they be found in othe sotwares I wouldn't name here.

Servus Ernie