Updates are Web Design Heavy - Look at core program!

I appreciate the updates, but there is so much focus on web design with Xara nowadays I feel that the updates and improvements are mainly in this area.

There are lots and lots of improvements and features that could (and should) be implimented in the core program that us graphic designers would appreciate. I'm not saying there aren't improvements, I'm saying the weight of development appears to be on the web side.

I don't, and personally wouldn't for a variety of reasons, use Xara for web design directly (though I do web concepts in Xara and export components).

Maybe worth taking your webdesign goggles off and putting your graphic designer goggles on for the next raft of updates?

Anyone else feel the same vibes?

Cheers

Chris

I have long since given up on Xara making any major changes in the graphics and drawing portion of the program. They have found a more lucrative market for non-designer web content creators. Which from a profit point of view makes a lot of sense. But I would be pleasantly surprised to see any attention given to the vector/design features. Fortunately for me, everything I need is pretty much already there.

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Originally Posted by Merlinski

Anyone else feel the same vibes?

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LOL for most of the last 20 years, yes.

And yet, despite never using the web design functions, and despite having bought licences for virtually every competitior product and tried using those instead, and despite absolutely loathing the modern-day monochrome toolbars... I have bought almost every upgrade that Xara has released over 25 years and am into my third or fourth year of subscribing to the Pro+ (or Team+) licence, and I still use Xara Designer every single day.

I did buy and return for a refund (in protest) some of the later Magix-released versions between maybe X12 and X19 as a "bollocks to this" smite on the webdesign focus, but it didn't throw me off, and I doubt anyone even notices. I can't do that with the Team+ subscription but I'd keep it going for the support and knowledge that no matter the changes to Windows or PCs, they'll keep it going. I've had other essential programs go out of support, not get updates, and eventually break - I'm hoping that Xara is making stacks of money and keeps going for another 20 years - not least because I don't want to have to learn any of the other programs I've bought and not used as alternatives!

I just hope they don't bet the farm on selling subscriptions to real estate agents or people desperate to brand templates or amateur webdesigners.

sadly I agree with Gary - it would just not be worth their while; there are technical reasons for this as well as market forces

the niche market that xara started out in is now well covered by other programs; they have moved on to a different one

Much as I use and like Xara products for web work, I must indicate that there have been many non-web advances too.
I don't care for SmartShapes as their interfacing changes how the original Xara UI works. No mention of tables, non-web widgets, SVG, (WebP), import & export of complex PDFs and other document formats.
Xara's DTP features are still lagging as is JS rendering into PDFs.

Even graphic purists need to publish their work occasionally so why not have the best of all worlds in one package?

Acorn

yes, but most of what you say relates more to documents and images than drawing

for example, would it be too much to ask for a freehand tool that does not wobble all over the place when you draw ?

it seems to be anticipating where you might want to go next which it cannot know, and therefore it is unhelpful, nay from my point of view unusable

and when the program has smoothing the line can redraw on a different path than you drew because the smoothing is applied after the line is drawn; the program is throttled due to necessary compromises made back in the day when PC computing power was far less

it is not a question of modifying, it needs rewriting, as serif did when they moved to affinity, but there is no cost effective return for xara in this, it's not going to happen

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so why not have the best of all worlds in one package

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if i find a program such as this I will let you know, meanwhile the best tool for the job; I learned long ago that anything claiming to do everything is too good to be true ;)

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Originally Posted by Daniel

...I just hope they don't bet the farm on selling subscriptions to real estate agents...

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There does seem to be a bit of a push in that direction! Must be where the money is ;))

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Originally Posted by Merlinski

I appreciate the updates, but there is so much focus on web design with Xara nowadays I feel that the updates and improvements are mainly in this area.

Anyone else feel the same vibes?

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Over the years a lot of effort has been made by forum members to feedback graphic design, workflow, general improvements and wish-list ideas to Xara, much of which has remained unacknowledged and generally gone into a black hole.

There was a glimmer of hope back in 2019 when Rob-Xar (Xara employee) opened a forum thread asking what improvements would people like to see, but even then I don't think much ever came of it. I'm sure there are other threads with similar lists of desirable changes and updates, particularly for graphic designers.

https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-in-the-future

all the IE dependacies have been stripped out AFAIK, but I think the company had no practical choice on that one as MS depricated the program

Rob was very helpful; he's moved on from xara but still visits the forum occasionally...

All good points, but we should also remember that graphics are a big part of web design as well. One produces graphics that may be used in a web design. I’m constantly looking for new graphic detail for graphics used in web designs. I’d agree with looking at the core graphics package.

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Originally Posted by bwood

All good points, but we should also remember that graphics are a big part of web design as well. One produces graphics that may be used in a web design. I’m constantly looking for new graphic detail for graphics used in web designs. I’d agree with looking at the core graphics package.

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Well put Bill. I have often said that even the purest graphical art needs to be advertised or marketed so the best you can achieve in a web presentation will trump social media and flyers hands-down, noting Xara can achieve these as well.

Acorn

so what you are saying [broadly speaking] is that, wheras you can produce meaningful graphic art without web, you cannot produce meaningful web without graphic art

rather reinforces the OP's point I think; too much attention to web, not enough to the core facilitation; part of this is because xara like the pre-packaged template/blocks/OCC approach, rather than the seat of the pants...

EDIT - I take the point about advertising and marketing in so far as it goes... but only if need such, and you are wedded to xara as your 'do-everything' program

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Originally Posted by handrawn

so what you are saying [broadly speaking] is that, wheras you can produce meaningful graphic art without web, you cannot produce meaningful web without graphic art
rather reinforces the OP's point I think; too much attention to web, not enough to the core facilitation; part of this is because xara like the pre-packaged template/blocks/OCC approach, rather than the seat of the pants...

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No, I am saying there is always a synergy between art and craft. It is the same coin.

I think, in the past, graphic artists have asked for an incorporation of a feature usually present in a competitor's product. The trick is to explain what you are trying to achieve and demonstrate the current limitations. I didn't appreciate the pressure pen aspects much until the recent exchange; Xara may not have either. I just bought an Inspiroy Ink H320M for a play.
Equally, I've never seen solid arguments for have a mesh. If we do, it has to hand vector objects, I would suggest, and retain the result as a vector.

I try and work up interest to Xara through User Stories, a posh way of showing what I want to achieve. Sure, most is web and DTP and many have never materialised but at least I have a go.

Recently, I enumerated the steps to achieve rounded corners. Now I know how to, I can use a macro recorder to create a new function. Perhaps Xara, in time, will implement it.

Acorn

ok, understood

you have been using this software and it's precursor[s] for a long time, me I only started autumn 2003, when I needed a vector editor to work with early Toon Boom in the days when that program was as much used as a flash alternative as anything else; Toon Boom has come a very long way; xara keeps on truckin' along in it's own sweet way

from the beginning I looked on xara as a budget option; I still think of it as a budget option, but it is now a very expensive budget option in comparision to affinity, except for the web which affinity does not do

I use it for a small set of operations because the UI makes them easy; I frequent this forum out of habit now and look back on the days of thinking 'one program does everything' with some bemusement

I think my definition of art and craft differs, we have been there before; art is the inspiration and chosen direction, craft is the implementation of this

@handrawn, I like our musings. I can use a pen to draw. I need to know where to put it. The second I touch my media, it is down to my craft to tell me how to manipulate the pen and my art tells me when to stop.

My art always says Put the pen down now!

Acorn

step away from the pen!

was it einstein that said 'life is like bicycle, in order to keep your balance you need to keep going'... and klee's advice was to 'take the line for a walk'

in any event, one of the first things you learn at art school is 'that in order to draw well, you must learn to draw badly'; you may find that your drawing always starts off badly, few can concieve the finished work in every detail before they start out, and those that do are mostly derivative, or hacks.... it is a journey