Hello!
First of all ENORMOUSLY HUGE THANKS to the Xara team for bringing us the update!
I would like to comment on this release because there have been some exciting features introduced, but as well some essential ones were left missing.
PROS:
1. Solid "live" dragging is amazing and it does not kill your creativity while you drag an object! You can see what you want to see.
2. Bitmap editor is another superstar, especially if it features some kind of plugin architecture. And I like the fact that it is the smallest and fastest bitmap editor in the world.
3. Performance and speed have been visibly improved and even though XaraX was the fastest vector editing program, it is now the rocket above all.
4. I like all the new features in general, everything has really been improved!
CONS:
1. Some simple colour operations on vectors (like in Illustrator): change brightness, contrast, colorize, adjust red/green/blue - and that's it. I don't know if it's very hard to make it, but from my programming experience it's rather simple on bitmaps, so maybe on vectors it shouldn't be much more impossible. Or maybe you could introduce a vector effects plug-in format so third-party developers could write such effects. I found lack of these really killing creativity at some points where you've created a drawing, but it looks too bright or too dark for the background, or the colour-scheme doesn't match the whole look of your design. This really looks important.
2. Blur vector effect - yes, only BLUR, and we would be fine. You use some advanced 'blur' code for drop shadows, so maybe it could be possible to integrate it as a separate effect so we can easier apply it to objects. I think it's essential these days.
3. Bitmap editor badly needed only one small feature - invert colours (make negative image). Sometimes when working with transparency on black/white or grayscale bitmaps we decide to make it a white image on black background instead of black image on white background, we have to import it back into a photo editor, and then it takes time and we have to redesign it from scratch. And there are always more situations when you have to export it just to invert the colours. I hope this could be fixed in the future versions.
4. Look and feel of the user interface. I really like the new splash screen, and I really like the Picture editor, they look contemporary and fresh. New hi-colour icons are also nice, but the whole interface hasn't changed in general. I don't mean drastic changes, but at least enabling XP visual styles for the toolbar, buttons and dialogs would definitely refresh it and give a more contemporary look. I know it may sound like not the most important issue, but for new people who might want to purchase Xara it may not look as appealing as it actually is when you've used it for a longer time.
5. DWG/DXF import - maybe it's not that important to everyone else, but being an architect I use Xara X for designing final presentations of my projects, and it is very inconvenient when you first have to convert DWG drawings to Adobe Illustrator format, then import to Xara, and you find that you needed to fix something else... Would it be very hard to add this feature?
Well, I thank you for reading this. I strongly think that Xara is the leader in vector drawing. Thank you for bringing us a new release and I'm looking forward to seeing some of these essential features improved, if only possible.
Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Vytis Puronas
Skylit
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Re: My comments on Xara X1
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