Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelize
Guys Rob is asking for actual examples. Put together a .xar file or post a png image showing how you would use squishing/stretching. Want this feature back? Lets fill this thread with examples!
Text squishing and stretching can be very useful for headlines. It used to be so simple to fit headlines that way. It also adds a bit of visual variety to your headlines while still maintaining a single font.
In the attached .xar file I have 2 examples of how i used to use stretching/sqiushing on headlines. I would be happy with a modifier key I could hold down while dragging side and top /bottom handles to allow me to have that ability again.
Technically speaking, stretching and skewing text to make wide/narrow/italic versions of typefaces has always been frowned upon in the design industry as an ethics concern: it destroys the lines another artist slaved over to achieve the look of their font and largely any professional designer will use stretched text as a prime indicator of a novice designer or someone who has no knowledge of typography at all. Is it right to do this? I can see both sides of the argument. On one hand, we have easy access to distort things and therefore should be able to; it's up to the designer. However on the flip side, I have yet to run across a stretched/skewed font that actually looked good to me, but again, I"m not the average viewer, I know what I'm looking at beyond just 'what it looks like'.
I think Xara might have made taken an initiative which makes their software in general look less like amateurs use it by removing the ability for an amateur decision/mistake to thoughtlessly happen. Again, I don't think it's right or wrong and the software itself needs a money injection to get some cooporation with the rest of the 'cool kids' in softwareland and if less ugly output is the default operation, then maybe that's a good decision overall for the company and maybe for us users actually use/need the more professional-centric/industry friendly stuff like pantone, real EPS scripting/compatibility, HTML5/javascript integration, etc.
Keep in mind, I'm not making any arguments from an interface standpoint here and Xara's general design interface is still lightyears ahead of the nearest competition in terms of usability IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST which is most important to me and it's biggest strength; it's competition puts faux 'professional' look on with endless menus and use-once-in-a-blue-moon features and completely forgets real artists want to make things with their software. However, the problem persists that Adobe is seen as the only game in town because they were first to the party, for better or worse, and so much more talented people use their inferior workflow which gives the impression that photoshop/illustrator are actually better but in reality, at best they're mediocre and at worst a complicated nightmare of legacy decisions that make no sense.
As long as Xara can encourage good artwork from people, whether it be by silently making decisions for novices to not stretch font because professionals can see that lack of expertise a mile away, it makes them look better and so forth and so on. It's really painful to see Xara in the state it's in where it's got the best damn workflow and ideals about 'let the artist make art' this side of the computer revolution, but not enough recognition in professional circles to create a real user base made of high-level artists that can show off what it can do at it's maximum potential. Couple that into the fact most people using a computer aren't exactly computer literate and therefore only have enough mental energy to learn one thing, and it's almost like Xara HAS to go after novices in order to get any traction and focus on the next generation and maybe part of that is, again, removing anything that will in effect make Xara look like a crap program by producing crap typography.
And no, my beef isn't with Xara, it's with the general computer industry and people using computers whether by force or choice who refuse to really get to understand their machine and the fact that 95% of software functions are overlapping and any 'features' have more to do with workflow moreso than capabilities; capabilities are what the user brings, not the software in most cases when it comes to producing an image. Everything else is just 'how easy is it to get this to a press/on a website' via how many steps/conversions/testing/refining. Adobe's only advantage is the latter because they suck face with big firms and equipment manufacturers to gain that 'edge'.
Sorry to seem a little curt/frank/blunt...considering the things Xara could be doing to work more like Adobe garbage, I see this as the least offensive thing they could ever do in that regard.
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
if you design with fonts as fonts I guess.... but if you use fonts as 'art' maybe not
this what I do with bitmaps, unfortunately xara cannot mesh warp bitmaps but fortunately affinity photo can and it cost me less than some plugins I've bought in the past.... [and its liquid persona is pretty cool too]
before:
Attachment 120639
after:
Attachment 120640
this provides key frame drawings for animation, or just reposing for strip
if anyone wants to see this done in Affinity in realtime here you go [sorry I forget how to embed in the forum other than youtube which I don't want to do for this]
time taken 41 secs:
Attachment 120641
zipped 'cos its 14MB raw mp4 capture, no time to mess about optimising it
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
If I want to mock up an included tablet with text, I need to distort it. Equally so for putting text on the faces of a cube.
Why doesn't Xara remove the Aspect Ratio as well?
If Xara was set on web professionalism, then, where you look at fonts, I look at code; others might consider website templates.
There was a balance and harmony that Xara has upset.
Acorn
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
It's not just design though ...
I use Xara to pre-fill fields in a number of FORMS, some of the text boxes are smaller than the information needed to be in the box. I have a choice shrink the font or condense it slightly. Condensing works better, was quick to do.
Gary Priester produced a number of tutorials that required text to be stretched and skewed to give a pleasing view, as it's not always to be viewed face on as part of a design.
I do agree that straight text should be as designed, but that's more for a word processing application. graphic applications including text are normally not quite that straightforward, and sometimes require a measure of tweaking. Which was always easy to do until someone decided that on a website text shouldn't be distorted. It seems the website side of the application is beginning to drive the development.
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rob-Xar
Hi all,
Apologies for my absence lately, holidays and sickness's have been straining support lately and keeping me busy. I'll try to poke into the forums some more in the coming days.
I understand there has been a bit a explosion of disagreement over the latest change to prevent the squashing and distortion of text. Truthfully this change is new to me also, and I believe the decision was made with the intention of preventing users (especially new users) from accidentally distorting their images and text. With text especially for websites, this would get exported as 100% aspect ratio so the changes wouldn't be seen.
As a work around, you could use the mould tool (Shift + F6), or alternatively select the image with the fill tool, hold Ctrl + Shift and drag one of the handles. This will stretch the image, and to uncrop it you can select the photo enhance tool, then click the photo and drag the side handles as normal. This will only work for images, for text I'm afraid you would still have to use the mould tool.
It's also been requested of me to gather some examples of text and image distortion for those higher up so I can show them the usefulness of it to them. If you guys can send me some examples that would be fantastic and I can send it onto them.
I know emotions are running high at the moment but please keep it civil and on-topic. If I can get back to management with some constructive comments and examples, we can make this work for you :) If you have anything else you want me to look into, please either PM me or start a new thread, let's keep this to text and image distortion issues.
Many thanks
Rob
I know I'm late to the party here, but I just upgraded to the latest version and I cannot believe this change. Very, very frustrating.
I do advertising layouts, and at times I have to recreate someone's logo. Often they have a logo which uses text that has been distorted by the original designer, and they do not have vectorized artwork even though in many cases they've been using the logo for many years. And now this change has made that a much more time-consuming and challenging process.
I also layout a monthly newspaper that utilizes a graphic with information that is updated each month. The process in the past to place this graphic in the layout each month was very simple: import a screenshot of a page from a spreadsheet, crop the edges, and then set the size to fit the dimensions of the space that the graphic fits in. This requires some distortion of the image, but it still looks fine. Now I can no longer even do this in Xara. I have to open the screenshot in the old version that I fortunately still have on another computer, set the size on there, export a new image to my network drive, and then import it into the new program. Ridiculous!
The lack of thought that must have gone into this bizarre choice amazes me, and I am disgusted to see that a promised fix is now months overdue. This definitely makes me rethink recommending Xara to others.
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
I have to say that I DO agree that the method of stretching images and text has changed and there's a small learning curve for it, I don't find it all that disconcerting...
Maybe I'm wrong or missing something. So straighten me out if this is so.
This, to me, is still a simple matter. Here's what I've been doing.
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Put an image on the page... Put a text line on the page.... then simple
- disable the aspect ratio box
- select the image or text
- hold down the shift and pull, push and stretch a handle to your hearts content
shift will adjust 2 sides at once
and alt will do 1 sides
oh... yes... for pics, you DO have to activate the mold tool.... but not use it to reshape.... yes, that's a slight pain... LOL
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And for those who say it's too many steps... to click the aspect box and hold shift, well, I don't get it. It's not like this action is a common one that's done very often in the creation of a page or whatever....
Am I wrong?
Cliff
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
I'm sorry Cliff, but it's not that simple. Using the IMAGE RESOURCES > PHOTO CLIPART > DICE, and following your instructions to squash it, it goes from this:
Attachment 120661
to this:
Attachment 120662
or this:
Attachment 120663
since Xara has now taken control and decided that it has to do an intelligent resize which is a): Clearly not correct, and b): Not what the designer wanted.
I'm beginning to hate software that thinks it knows better than I do, what "I" want to do!
and what is intuitive about having to NOW ALSO use the MOULD tool. I find the Mould tool a pain in the arse to control at the best of times. With it you have to control the corners and CAN"T possibly move them all exactly horizontal or exactly vertical. It always distorts somewhere, and that's what Xara were trying to avoid by changing the behaviour.
And don't get me started about where has all the clipart gone ...
No sorry, the old way was simple and intuitive. Why does it now have to be complicated.
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cmpan1
It's not like this action is a common one that's done very often in the creation of a page or whatever....
Am I wrong?
Cliff
well in my case yes you are wrong... but also right...
wrong because when I did this in Xara Designer I did it a lot
right because I now do it a lot in Affinity/Illustrator
Quote:
I'm beginning to hate software that thinks it knows better than I do, what "I" want to do!
I know what you mean Keith... but playing the devil's advocate, Xara are doing what they think will make them money, that's what business does; it can be very frustrating....
I don't make 'pages' I don't make websites - There are no strings that keep me tied to 'Store Xara' - 'Store Adobe' will give me Illustrator for £240 a year, not upgrading Xara pays for a sizeable chunk of that... for me that is a commercial decision, just like the ones Xara, Adobe, etc make...
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
Re: Image and text skewing / distorting megathread
far be it from me to cause you agony in 8 fits ;) :D