Free Rotate Canvas

[handrawn]

I
I'd prefer to make use of those other great human attributes that led to such things as the building of bridges, *laziness* + *Inventiveness*

Isn't that why we invented the computer???

Yes indeed [oops - forgot to stay [vaguely] on topic in previous post ]

[Ned Addie]

I suppose most people use vector software for structured design work -- in which pimped ergonomics is not life and death. Illy in particular strikes me as assembly via remote waldos...

But when I first ran across XaraX, in 2001, I was amazed to discover vector images could be efficiently manipulated in real-time -- flipped, skewed, enveloped, scaled, repositioned, morphed, recontoured, etc, etc, etc, -- making what I had thought of as 'bending paperclips' great as a pliant drawing medium -- both spontaneous and remedial...

And almost everyone who is into natural drawing -- from Rembrandt to Baby Huey -- wants to spin the paper to control the line... The vector app Serif DrawPlus X2 has a rotating canvas which works nicely (as well as a bunch of other simple but useful functions) But Xara remains my favorite because of it's speed and stability.

So, add my enthusiastic Yes! to a rotating canvas. From a marketing perspective, it could also help accentuate the qualities which set Xara apart from the more lumbering beasts.

Ned Addie

[handrawn]

Back to the OP which was really about a comfortable static drawing angle, if I read it right.

Gary's suggestion is a good one - it appears to work fine:

Or create a page sized rectangle, rotate it to a comfortable angle, and draw on the rectangle? You could put the rectangle on a locked layer so you don't keep moving it every time you draw.

Gary

If I lock the rectangle on its own layer - draw within the boundaries - then make all layers selectable - select the rectangle [and therefore all within it] with the boundary box - heypresto - it all rotates back to true

And it could be used to rotate the paper to control the line too I guess, if a tad fiddly.
Perhaps when hopefully soon xara overhauls its brushes, a 'one-click' canvass rotate control can be included?

[steve.ledger]

Back to the OP which was really about a comfortable static drawing angle, if I read it right.

Actually my OP (and topic title) was about 'free rotate the canvas (page)' rather than static, though I can see how it may have been read this way with my mention of 40 degrees.
But referrence was made to Corel Painters free rotate as a good example.

And I recognise that Garry has a offered reasonable 'work-around'

[handrawn]

fair enough I sit corrected

[raynerj1]

The only drawback I see with Gary's workaround is the horizontal/vertical guides. They are not rotated...