Goodbye Xara

[gwpriester]

Xara rules in my book, silly licence or not :-)

[vkenner]

Keep using XDPX11, I am sure it will be a faithful workhorse for you.

I certainly will do so. My point is not that Designer is a bad program. I am very familiar with it and still like it. I just don't see any development at the moment that makes me want to support the company by upgrading.

v.

[Gare]

I moved from Corel to Xara in 2005. Now I shall move on to Serif's Affinity Designer, which is in Beta right now. .

Hi VKenner—

I will not agree or disagree with your personal assessment of drawing programmes, because by definition, it is personal.

But I can't understand for the life of me why you and a mercifully small handful of other artists have to make an either/or choice of tools.

I have been using CorelDRAW since I first bought a PC in 1990 or so. When Xara came along, I was thankful they made a lot of the tools and commands identical to DRAW's, so the learning curve was shallower. But I didn't stop using CorelDRAW...it has features Xara doesn't such as the Polygon tool and Mesh fill.

Similarly, Affinity Designer presents new ways of doing things, perhaps two unique tools/approaches to vector drawing, but it will be added to my collection of software programs...it will not replace anything. I figure that even my aging brain can spawn a few more convolutions to accommodate a few more key commands. :)

I just don't buy this "brand loyalty" crap that some people use to narrow their tastes, choice of software, and their creative perspective.

I'm not exactly sure why you even posted what you did. Considering your mind is firmly made up that Xara has moved away from your interests so you therefore must explore Affinity Designer, all you had to do was to make sure the door didn't hit you on your way out. Your post, above and beyond a heralding of dissatisfaction, suggests the attitude more of a politician than an artist, which by the way, mix like oil and water, friend.

As a teacher, I run a lot of programs. I'm familiar with Illustrator and I consider myself proficient in several graphics programs. I've written what's going on 30 software after-market books for competing companies, and the summation of this experience still leads to curiosity, blunt criticism, and also tolerance and understanding.

I'd recommend that you, or anyone else who is feeling strident about the future of Xara and competing software just drop the politics because they are a façade of the first order, and get on with their creative pursuits with the least amount of friction between user and application.

Melodramatically Yours,

Gary

[handrawn]

suggests the attitude more of a politician than an artist, which by the way, mix like oil and water, friend

I like to think of myself as a french dressing sort of guy: part olive and part sour wine

is there more than one screwdriver in my toolbox?... rhetorical question

[pauland]

Yes, there's absolutely no need to just use one program. My hard drive would be a lot emptier if I just used a single program for each need.

Mix and match.

[vkenner]

Hi VKenner—

I will not agree or disagree with your personal assessment of drawing programmes, because by definition, it is personal.

But I can't understand for the life of me why you and a mercifully small handful of other artists have to make an either/or choice of tools.

I have been using CorelDRAW since I first bought a PC in 1990 or so. When Xara came along, I was thankful they made a lot of the tools and commands identical to DRAW's, so the learning curve was shallower. But I didn't stop using CorelDRAW...it has features Xara doesn't such as the Polygon tool and Mesh fill.

Similarly, Affinity Designer presents new ways of doing things, perhaps two unique tools/approaches to vector drawing, but it will be added to my collection of software programs...it will not replace anything. I figure that even my aging brain can spawn a few more convolutions to accommodate a few more key commands.

I just don't buy this "brand loyalty" crap that some people use to narrow their tastes, choice of software, and their creative perspective.

I'm not exactly sure why you even posted what you did. Considering your mind is firmly made up that Xara has moved away from your interests so you therefore must explore Affinity Designer, all you had to do was to make sure the door didn't hit you on your way out. Your post, above and beyond a heralding of dissatisfaction, suggests the attitude more of a politician than an artist, which by the way, mix like oil and water, friend.

As a teacher, I run a lot of programs. I'm familiar with Illustrator and I consider myself proficient in several graphics programs. I've written what's going on 30 software after-market books for competing companies, and the summation of this experience still leads to curiosity, blunt criticism, and also tolerance and understanding.

I'd recommend that you, or anyone else who is feeling strident about the future of Xara and competing software just drop the politics because they are a façade of the first order, and get on with their creative pursuits with the least amount of friction between user and application.

Melodramatically Yours,

Gary

Gary,

I thank you for your very considerate thoughts and your perspective.

In a way you are right. My post is (perhaps not a political expression but) a statement as a user that I want to be heard by Xara. I just don't want to leave the software quietly because I believe it is important to give feedback. For a long time I felt commited to the company and happily paid the upgrades every year. But now I decided to spend my money elsewhere because I see a team at Serif that has a vision and a software that looks very promising.

Xara is a very good vector tool but the dirction it's development has taken is not promising to me at all.

v.

[digitalphaser]

I agree with @vkenner. Xara is still a very handy tool. But the Xara's development stalled and X almost can not compete with other similar software. The reason, I think, poor marketing and a very small circle of developers.
How many points from wish list have been implemented? That's right, zero.

Last time I use XDP11 only for prototypes. Most of the work I do in Photoshop and one year ago I moved to CorelDraw. But I still hope although I have no illusions.

[behzad]

I was never crazy about web features to be implemented into xara designer nor photo editing. The focus now seems to have shifted on photo retouching more than vector tools. Still xara designer is an amazing program. Just curious what % of user input (dear xara) would you say is implemented in every new release so far?

[Gare]

I think it's fascinating, ironic, and a little sad that this "Good-bye Xara" thread has had half as many hits as the introduction of the release of v 12, both threads begun at about the same time.

-g