Xara Designer Pro X9 Released

[tonylondon]

I think better communication with the XDP users and involving more people in beta testing could have made a big difference.

I don't want to sound negative, but as a new user of XDP I was looking forward to these additions and improvements. This is why I just recently invested in this software. I am an illustrator and cartoonist.
I wonder why these drawing improvements were ignored? Isn't XDP, for the most part, a vector drawing tool? Shouldn't these drawing tool improvements be a priority?
I would love to see someone from the Xara company address this here so that we can understand their vision for XDP?
Would they get on this forum and talk about this?

I think it fair to say that this has been a long-running gripe on this forum. Xara must be fully aware of opinion by now. I can only assume that developing the non-graphic features is more cost effective.

[tonylondon]

Version 8 has five icons representing its main functions (although I am confused as to what the right and the third to the right ones are really representing) but version 9 only four. Guess which one is missing.

Interesting!

[Squeaky]

An incremental update with lots of handy little features and 64bit support. It's Xara so I'm upgrading. :-)

The lack of updated drawing tools is a little disappointing but no deal breaker. I dearly love XDP and it is my go to program for pretty much everything else especially web development. Over the past few years I have found that vector illustration aggravates my RSI and, really, it takes too long to produce a complicated illustration for the shrinking budgets Currently I am looking at Manga Studio 5 as a bitmap alternative for illustration as computers are much more able to cope with print rez bitmaps nowadays.
XDP seems to be moving towards web based publishing and taking time to think about it. That's fine with me :-)

[Know1]

I think you're right qmr, I can't find the sketch mode for the eraser tool or the Shape Builder tool in X9.

This is the first time I'm actually thinking of not upgrading, there are some features that would make my life easier (64-bit, page numbers, font families and the like), but the publishing of a perfectly accurate WYSIWYG web version of your print documents seems to be the best reason to upgrade for me at the moment. Other than that, there is nothing in this upgrade that will greatly improve my workflow.

X8 had Text Styles which made working with documents so much easier, also better rotation control when you hold down the CTRL key, straight edges in version 8 now snapped to the nearest horizontal or vertical. This is something I use all the time now, and it's a core feature that got better. You had pasting of images directly into text (and probably some other useful features I can't think of right now).

I'm using the trial for X9 and there just isn't anything new that I wouldn't want to work without on projects. It feels exactly the same as X8. Plus there is no plug-in support for the 64-bit version, I use Vertustech Fluid Mask all the time while in Xara for masking so I'd still be using the 32bit version. There is stupid spamware bundled with the installer, and the awesome upgrade policy that I had praised is gone. The Text Tool STILL has that annoying fly-out menu introduced in version 8 by default; it is not at all user friendly to hide basic text tools behind a fly-out menu. Sure you can fix that with a regedit fix or XaReg, but to me it says that Magix/Xara is not spending a lot of time on actually making the software easier to use, and that's a shame.

For €89 I could easily get a brand new copy of Serif DrawPlus X6 on Amazon and have money left over, or finally get a copy of PaintShop Pro, Manga Studio, or find out what PhotoLine is all about. I'm most likely still going to upgrade... because I use the software so often, but this seems more like an 8.5 release. And will we get 64-bit support for plug-ins in THIS version as an update?

[zaphodeist]

The Text Tool STILL has that annoying fly-out menu ... Sure you can fix that with a regedit fix or XaReg

You can fix it in XaReg2. Two of the icon options for text - columns and strike through - are missing when this is applied but this is not a registry problem and is being addressed by the developers

[WilliamHere]

The splash screen topic of another thread made me compare the one for DPX with the one for DPX9. I noticed something that might be quite telling with regards to the subject of this thread, " X9 - no new drawing tools". Version 8 has five icons representing its main functions (although I am confused as to what the right and the third to the right ones are really representing) but version 9 only four. Guess which one is missing.

I hope that I am reading too much into it and hope that the drawing tools will get more attention in the next version.

This is not good. You are right, where is the DRAWING icon?

[Know1]

And how is it possible that after all these years we still have no inner shadow option?? Using clipping masks is not an acceptable workaround for such a basic feature.

[WilliamHere]

It will be interesting to see what happens next summer - if the next version goes toward the more Adobe Photoshop direction we know where Magix is taking the product.

All is my opinion of course - other opinions are available!

That's what I was looking for. More illustrator and Photoshop type of improvements and additions.
I did not invest in XDP for web design. My understanding is that it's primarily an illustration app first that happens to also have some document creation and web design capabilities. I am very confused about the future of XDP. Is it no longer a key illustration and drawing app?
We need someone from Xara or Magix to get in here and clarify these issues for us.
If someone at Xara or Magix is reading this, please talk to us. We need your involvement now more than ever.

[D.A.S.]

And how is it possible that after all these years we still have no inner shadow option?? Using clipping masks is not an acceptable workaround for such a basic feature.

The inner shadow a very good idea.

[WilliamHere]

And how is it possible that after all these years we still have no inner shadow option?? Using clipping masks is not an acceptable workaround for such a basic feature.

I agree. This is a much needed feature.