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Xara Xtreme verison 4
We're pleased to make available an early release of the new Xara Xtreme 4 and Xara Xtreme Pro 4 available to TalkGraphics forum users. This is a late Beta release. If you find problems please report them here, but please try and reproduce from scratch any problems and provide detailed step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce any issues.
We have not officially launched the product yet - that will happen next week.
Both Xtreme and Pro are being updated, and have a similar set of new features.
Headline New Features
- An integrated, ultra-fast, non-destructive photo tool.
- The world’s fastest, highest quality vector 3D extrude tool
- Major text tool improvements, including real-time text flow around shapes
- A new HTML 'website creation' feature. Build complete multi-page websites, with the world’s most advanced WYSIWYG page layout controls
- New super-high quality vector and photo rendering
- (Xtreme Pro only): Support for multi-core processors. This provides an average of 40% speed gain on a dual-core computer when rendering large or zoomed in images. The world's fastest graphics software is now even faster.
Other enhancements:
- Improved color picking and editing including an enhanced eye dropper color picker on the color line.
- New Selector tool options, such as 'scribble-select' (Xtreme Pro only)
- New and improved import and export of industry standard graphics formats, including XPS import, JPEG 2000 import / export, Photo HD import (all Xtreme Pro only) and improved PDF import
- Improved font and text (Unicode) handling
- A new hierarchical Font menu with WYSIWYG font display, and 'used fonts' section
- Live in-document font preview and live font size selection
- A completely new automatic panorama photo stitching feature
- (Xtreme Pro only): An integrated key shortcut utility for customizing shortcuts
- Improved photo handling including a new ‘photo document’
- Many new non-destructive Live Effects added
- A large number of new fully customizable templates including HTML web pages
- (Xtreme Pro only). A bundled copy of Panorama Studio. This is an advanced version of the built-in feature included as standard (Xara Xtreme owners can upgrade for Euro 19).
- Improved, more accurate shape intersection (path clipping)
- Easier clipped Flash animations (set the page size)
And Other Minor Improvements including:
- Zoom out now retains the image in the center of the screen even down to small zoom
- Photos show the Megapixel size in the bitmap gallery
- Single tile bitmap fills now show transparent around the outside, in order to avoid edge aliasing effects (and it's also more compatible with Adobe clip regions).
- New ‘import to new page’ option in the clipart gallery
- Improved feather slider and pop-up sliders generally
- An option to maintain the geometry of a photo fill when you drop a different photo on the fill.
- Font type (OpenType, TrueType, Type 1) displayed in font menu (Xtreme Pro only)
- Optional automatic underlining of hyperlinks on text
- Flash export is now automatically clipped to page size
- Easy photo optimization (downsizing of very large photos to make designs smaller and photo operations faster)
- Ability to save original imported JPEG data from Bitmap gallery
Xara Xtreme classic also gains these new features:
- Multi-page capability
- RAW file import
- Photo levels tool
You can download a trial of either Xtreme or Xtreme Pro, which can be installed alongside your existing Xara Xtreme.
The website is not being launched until next week, although there are release notes (PDF) on the download page that describe in detail all the new features.
You will be able to purchase a new copy or an upgrade, although the purchase pages on the website are not final or complete - the upgrade and unlock process should work fine.
Introductory Upgrade prices
Xtreme version 3.2 to Xtreme version 4 - $39
Xtreme Pro 3.2 to Xtreme Pro 4 - $49
Download link http://www.xara.com/us/download/
Upgrade or New Purchase http://www.xara.com/us/buy/default.asp?v=both
Your specific upgrade price will be calculated once you've signed into your online account, when you click the Buy option from the website or from the trial software.
Enjoy.
Xara
PS And there will be no March Outsider this month - there will be an April issue at the end of next week that will cover the features of the new release in detail. The plan is that further issues will then be at the start of subsequent months, not the end.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
That sounds like a lot of what people have asked for!
Thank You Charles.
Are you telling us that Xara Xtreme will now replace applications like Frontpage (for example) .........
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Thanks for the early release Charles :)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
5 Star news!
Thanks Charles.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Thanks Charles, it sounds great. I am downloading as we speak:-).
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Great news! I am downloading and buying ASAp. only 50 dolars! woo hoo! :D:):p:cool:
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
FrontPage and Dreamweaver are both powerful, dedicated web authoring tools. So in the same way that Xtreme is not a replacement for the more advanced pixel editing feature of Photoshop, it is not a replacement for the more powerful or advanced 'HTML hacking' features of these programs. Xtreme does not provide any HTML view, style sheet editing or FTP upload capability for example.
Xtreme is, of course, primarily a graphics application. Those web authoring tools are absolutely not graphics programs and you are expected to purchase and use separate tools to create your web graphics (many use Xtreme for this), and use Frontpage or Dreamweaver to do the page layout and HTML stuff.
So what Xtreme is good for is a one-stop-shop for creating graphically advanced websites. Secondly it's dead simple. Draw whatever you like, wherever you like on the page. Use a few simple rules about grouping graphics and use of layers for mouse-over effects (see the release notes). Export as HTML - and you have a website that's basically exactly what you see in Xtreme.
So it's really much easier than using FrontPage or Dreamweaver, but you are also able to create websites that those product cannot possibly hope to do. But if you want advanced HTML, CSS, or scripting control, then Xtreme doesn't help you.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
The text repel feature work very well - Looks like I will be purchasing the upgrade very soon.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
eye dropper color picker on the color line
Worth the upgrade alone!
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
The 3d extrude tool is great.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Looking good! I'm using the power of remote desktop to download it and play around a bit right now (don't tell my boss ;)). Looks like there are some interesting new things going on here. Interestingly just recently the ability to flow text around an object has become important in a way it wasn't before, so talk about a timely upgrade.
How long are these "introductory" upgrade prices going to remain in effect, just out of curiosity?
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Repel Text (Flow Text?) is amazing. Drag a shape set to repel text and watch the text flow. :cool:
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Stand by for a Special Workbook Preview Edition.
Very exciting new release that addresses a lot of the requests that have appeared in recent months.
Gary
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Xara is now multi-threaded! 2 or 4 cores? Have fun... :)
Risto
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
The zoom and push is driving me insane. I cannot get the scroll to zoom and the push tool on the mouse wheel seems only to open the pan dialogue ..... AARGHH
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
OK ignore me ..... I had to set the exceptions in the mouse suite.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
This is an announcement thread...
Please start a new thread if you think you have discovered a bug or have questions about a feature. It will all be so be much easier to follow and learn/try specifc things from a designated thread. :)
Risto
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
thanks for putting the color blips onto palette colors, and for the very high quality view, much appreciated
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
WOW! Text preview, 3D extrude, repel text, etc ... looking forward to the Workbook :D
Thanks Charles & Co. :)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
It's worth the $50 for the update that is for sure...
You have to check out the new photo tool. That and the new photo filters and you can do just about anything...:)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Anyone else getting this message?
English (United States) messages not found. Do you want to run the program in UK English?
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Sort of... Mine said English (Canada) wasn't found.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Yes, but as I prefer UK English it didn't bother me
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
After my first error I got this one:
This product has not been correctly installed (Error 2). Please install the product again.
Then the start screen said:
Trial version expired.
I guess my first option will be to remove it and reinstall. Thought Charles might want to know this though.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
another small but very welcome change - the bitmap [no no no a scanned drawing is NOT a photo :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:] field in the status line can now cope with long file names - that is a bonus :):)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
AMAZING ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS! I'm having a great time with the new features. Thanks very much Xara Team!
ron
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Pricing?
If a person has Xara Xtreme 3.x and wants to upgrade to
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.x the charge is $167.
If a person upgrades Xara Xtreme 3.x to Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x the
upgrade is $59. Then if you upgrade the Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x to
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.x the upgrade is $49. $59+$49 is $108.
Would it be cheaper more logical to upgrade Xara Xtreme 3.x
to Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x then upgrade the Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x to 4.x?
irpresley
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
this is one great program...I have tried most new things and I am very impressed excellent...bought! tj
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Will we Linux users have any options? All the boxes at work are Fedora or Redhat.
Edit: I just want to say I really like Xara. You have made me famous at work because of the graphics on our in house newsletter. A couple of the other engineers have done sum great looking artwork. Keep up the Great Work.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
irpresley
Pricing?
Would it be cheaper more logical to upgrade Xara Xtreme 3.x
to Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x then upgrade the Xara Xtreme Pro 3.x to 4.x?
irpresley
yes, I am in the same boat. When I am calculating the price I am at $165 against that $108. I only wondering.. is this the last day we can upgrade to pro version 3?
It would make more sense if the upgrade Xtreme-> Xtreme pro 4 was around $99.00..... now they have to ship 2 cd's, version 3 & 4 :)...
does not make sense...
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RickX
yes, I am in the same boat. When I am calculating the price I am at $165 against that $108. I only wondering.. is this the last day we can upgrade to pro version 3?
It would make more sense if the upgrade Xtreme-> Xtreme pro 4 was around $99.00..... now they have to ship 2 cd's, version 3 & 4 :)...
does not make sense...
It's only a short term anomaly. As soon as V3 is discontinued, there'll be no choice of upgrade path and it'll be $165 every time.
That's my unofficial non-Xara Ltd view of it.
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
I almost fainted. Xara has underlined text. Good grief!
Top job!
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
- repel text is good
- enhancements to the selection tool good
- zoom tool fix good
- bringing shortcut manager, font management and xpe features into the program UI is good
- new filters look promising, and dual core support welcome
:)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Wow, or for our german readers, Boah ejj.
I am positively impressed. 3D extrusion alone would be a reason to upgrade for me.
So far I am happy, although psd import doesnt seem to have been improved and layer names with Umlauts are still garbled.
Performance for example on rendering while changing perspective of an extruded block containing several live effects is impressive. All 4 cores have to work hard, but I have realtime adjustment of the graphic.
Good work, I am having fun and playing (instead of working =))
Juergen
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Improved, more accurate path clipping
Hooray!
You can add swanky font menus and text-repel you like, but the above is the reason I upgraded!
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BobInce
Hooray!
You can add swanky font menus and text-repel you like, but the above is the reason I upgraded!
Yea, this will make a lot of people very happy. Me included :)
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
So that's that, then.
Xara, as a vector editing application is dead.
What exists now is a messy bloatware of photo and DTP mish-mash.
Good thing InkScape is on the move and there's a few new object based editors on OS X I haven't tried out yet...
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
[*]Improved, more accurate path clipping
Crap, I missed that one!
Is it possible to get this feature without the bloat?
Will there be a Xara 4 Pro LITE or something?
Again, Xara may be able to take on Illustrator, but trying to go after InDesign and Photoshop (and, what? SketchUp and Maya now with the 3D too?) as the same time is simply stupid! "You can't satisfy everybody" goes the saying, but isn't that exactly what they're trying to do?
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by
eobet
Crap, I missed that one!
Is it possible to get this feature without the bloat?
Will there be a Xara 4 Pro LITE or something?
Again, Xara may be able to take on Illustrator, but trying to go after InDesign and Photoshop (and, what? SketchUp and Maya now with the 3D too?) as the same time is simply stupid! "You can't satisfy everybody" goes the saying, but isn't that exactly what they're trying to do?
Xara sits in a difficult place. It's ease of use is favoured by professionals and hobbyists alike. It's missing some features that professionals want and it's had a patchy ride in terms of interoperability with it's established professional rivals (mainly due to import export issues). The non-professionals are particularly price sensitive and happy to have as much 'bang for the buck' as possible via the 'one stop shop'. Now being owned by Magix, the product seems to be embracing the middle ground and still pushing forward features for professional users.
I think the product still has the great features we all love - speed and ease of use in an uncluttered interface. The bloat (as you call it) can easily be ignored.
I suspect (though I don't know) that the enhancements in the middle ground have been as important to Xtreme sales as the more professional features, so in that sense the 'bloat' is helping to finance development of more professional features too.
The DTP, photo editing and web page features that have been incorporated into Xtreme are not a sign that Xara is attempting to make inroads on the inDesign/Photoshop/Dreamweaver markets - it's simply a recognition that the middle ground of Xtreme users has a need for such features at a fairly basic level. The 3D features come from Xara 3D and while I may never use them, plenty do. The 3D is hardly attempting to be in competition to full-blown 3D software.
None of us are imagining that Xtreme is really competing directly with Adobe (except as a vector package), but even those (professionals especially) with access to lots of Adobe software will still use Xtreme as a quick filler for jobs that might otherwise have been done with Adobes larger offerings, but which are now easily within Xtremes grasp.
Xtreme is now fitting into a working pipeline better than ever.
Comparing the development effort we have seen in very recent times compared to what we saw previously, I can only say that the strategy must be paying off. While none of us are going to use every feature of Xtreme, just looking at the forums on talkgraphics we can see that the new features and bug fixes are getting a very welcome reception. Development is getting better and faster.
Good job Charles & Co (but where are those nested layers?).
Paul
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Re: Xara Xtreme verison 4