Not much graphics chat on Talk Graphics any more

I attach a screen grab from a "What's New" search earlier today and it shows what some of us feared on the forum when Xara unleashed Web Designer.
Not much Talk about graphics these days. Most talk is either about Web design or Magic/Xara's extremely complicated pricing structure.
I suspect there are a fair few of those of us who adopted Xara Xtreme as their weapon of choice are just biding their time for the eagerly-awaited Affinity for Windows to be released before jumping ship.
It all seems a big shame. The community here has been great over the years, but there are now precious few stalwarts from the heady days of the early 2000s.
The Xara Xone thread has pretty much withered and died and I suspect that many people are mourning its passing. Are you still out there, Gare?
Not many posts from those of us who used to contribute regularly. The fun seems to have gone now. Vector graphics do not seem to interest many people any more.
But, it was fun while it lasted.
Bob.

There never really was much concerning needing help from a graphic design standpoint. Many requests involved output issues, but not a whole lot of "How do I ...". Which makes sense, really. Designing/creating stuff in Xara applications is pretty easy, straightforward. It's the convoluted web stuff that garners help requests.

With Magix Tricks taking over XX, interest in and participating in the "creating to create," the learning new things or the dusting off the cobwebs of techniques one may have known and the "here are three more ways...", etc., has fallen along the wayside. A sad state of affairs and a dis to the Garys' years of hard work.

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

Not much Talk about graphics these days. Most talk is either about Web design or Magic/Xara's extremely complicated pricing structure.
I suspect there are a fair few of those of us who adopted Xara Xtreme as their weapon of choice are just biding their time for the eagerly-awaited Affinity for Windows to be released before jumping ship.
It all seems a big shame. The community here has been great over the years, but there are now precious few stalwarts from the heady days of the early 2000s.
The Xara Xone thread has pretty much withered and died and I suspect that many people are mourning its passing. Are you still out there, Gare?
Not many posts from those of us who used to contribute regularly. The fun seems to have gone now. Vector graphics do not seem to interest many people any more.
But, it was fun while it lasted.
Bob.

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Yes it us sad, I also have noticed that most post seem to be web designer related which has not much interest to me.
I have had a change of heart lately and eagerly await the release of V12. When that might be who knows.
I wish I knew what to do about the decline in participation, but, I don't.
For a long time I have wanted to do a tutorial on perspective, at least how I did it. Every thing from choosing the center of interest to spacing. The last time I gave an example it was not well received though, I guess because the example I did was to show how a 1-point worked even though that particular example would have been more effective as a 2-point.

There is no use in talking about it Bob, lets face it, Magix kicked Gare in the nuts and said your services are no longer required and in so doing destroyed the XaraXone, the place to be for all who love graphics and Gare's learning videos, tips and tricks and who really encouraged you to learn and try different methods. The Xone use to be a buzz with graphics and banter back and forth and now all we see on talkgraphics is web stuff. So to be quite honest, I agree that many of the guys and gals from the Xone will be waiting for the Windows Affinity Beta, I have my name down for it. I love Xara but they should never have destroyed the Xone the way they have done. I have nothing against all the web stuff and see some really good sites people have designed, I just have no need for it so surely they could have left us graphics guys and gals with our little patch and don't forget when you saw someone asking for a "how do I" nine out of ten times they got the reply, try the Xone they are doing or have been doing something along those lines you want. So everyone benefited from the Xone. I am a big fan of G.P and Gare from whom now we have no new tutorials. I wish I could turn the clock back but I can't but I can change my allegiance.

Stygg

While certainly Magix and their shabby treatment of Gare is a factor it is not the only one. When the new art brushes came out last year I opened threads in the Xara graphics chat area and invited others to join in and post their thoughts and create some brushes very few joined in. So I quit trying. It has to work both ways . when someone makes an effort to get a thread going every one else needs to make an effort to participate.
So when this years version of DP comes out let's all make an effort to participate. If you want graphicsj to make come back on the forums get out there and talk about it.

Larry, there is no reason you can't still do that tutorial fire up your Xara software and do it up as a .xar file then post it in the Xara graphics chat area.

Hi Bob

over nine years now since we joined the forum - you a few weeks after me.. I remember it well - I still have the postcard :D

I had repect for Xara - I have no repect whatsoever for Ma-Jinx

Perhaps it will all work out, but I think in time all will get taken over by the suits; I hope they end up paying for the support they now get free - but maybe they just don't care...

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

I attach a screen grab from a "What's New" search earlier today and it shows what some of us feared on the forum when Xara unleashed Web Designer.
Not much Talk about graphics these days. Most talk is either about Web design or Magic/Xara's extremely complicated pricing structure.

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Bob, there is always web chatter around a new version of Xara Web Designer - the hint is in the name. So Xara has offered up 166 Business Templates and "improved" CSS3 features so it is a big plus for them to drive us all on-line to these resources. This is pure marketing as the numbers people see value in scooping up newbies interested in building for the web. Those of you who are genuine graphic artists just knuckle done and craft wonderful images but keep the tools they know (Xara Xtreme), which has no market revenue for Xara whatsoever. If I had any artistic skill, I probably be working with ArtWorks. Give Gare a burnt stick and he still produce art, but to communicate it he needs the web. Equally, I am in thrall to those who can take images all the way to print, a thing I stab at for my partner's artwork occasionally but it is a skill I have yet to master. I come to TG and somewhere there is a solution from you waiting to cover over my ignorance.

I think Xara has decided Desk Top Publishing is too niche, OpenText Fonts unnecessary and proper line management marginal.
To its credit, there are many features that rarely emerge but the innovation behind them is powerful: presentation sites and WYSIWYG documentation that is not Adobe PDF; anything that knocks down PowerPoint and Acrobat get my vote (bloated and fail screen readers so can marginalise people in large numbers; I work in business with a public-facing aspect).

Xara probably wants to move all functionality to the browser and keep us locked in over a web connection.

My personal wish is for some form of automation.
I still have Acorn's Risc PC running !Draw and being driven by a utility that has BBC BASIC controlling parameters to vector draw bevelled cogs and other arcania.
Xara still imports these outputs but i would prefer a few improvements that would leverage repeatability and productivity.

</rant>

Acorn

It started going downhill several years ago when they downgraded the Galleries. We used to get lots of artwork posted on a daily basis, so much that some folks on their mobile devices started complaining about having to wait for images to load. Its a shame, so little graphics and art these days.

I think the lack of chatter and conversation is down to an age thing, well it is for me. When Xara came out with their package in the mid to late 90's we were all working and now 20 to 25 years on we have retired and not doing the same amount of graphic work. I am still using Xara on a daily basis as I don't like being retired and I have taken a further education job which requires me to write an illustrate course work but I know how to use the software. Yes there is less reason to read and look at print as everything is now based in a small screen that you carry around with you all of the time. That only requires bitmaps for visual impact with banners and buttons not hard to produce.

I see Magix and Xara parting company soon if Xara's online editor expands and gets more users, as for me, its the way forward in producing websites but it will have to improve.

Yeh Gary B getting a kick in the balls has really stifled any real communication here in Talkgraphics. But also you have to say that the number of post with real content has been going down for many years. Hey-ho I still visit nearly every day but it's habit rather than posting content. Who wants to see graphics of a Cold Weather Front or such like I wouldn't so that's why I don't post.

Who wants to see graphics of a Cold Weather Front or such like

Me.

Me too. People then ask how do you draw an occluded front line...
Oh, how did you manage to get your thumb in the image? A selfie?

Acorn

What i was trying say was the people who use TG are either getting old, they use Xara products for drawing need little or no help and have been doing this for years. Or they have started to do there own websites using a Xara programme, want and need help to do certain things. They maybe getting on years too but are new to the design of websites. We a fewer postings placed in the Xara Galleries than we had maybe 10 years back where I used to get inspired by Bob H, Norman, Ron Duke, Derek Cooper, Kane Rodgers, Gray, Zeb, Gary P and many more to do better. Now I am doing a boring drawing of an Occluded Front which would only interest a few so no way would I now post these.

Now I am doing a boring drawing of an Occluded Front which would only interest a few so no way would I now post these.

That's really a pity.

So many silent people here would like to see the techniques to put that together.

It's a mistake to think that what you consider as mundane, isn't of value to other people.

Few people are making the artful, most people creating graphics are looking for the basic techniques and workflow to get a job done. We can all learn from the techniques used by a professional going about their work.

You don't mind teaching people outside TG, Albacore, why shouldn't that be the case on TG?

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What i was trying say was the people who use TG are either getting old, they use Xara products for drawing need little or no help and have been doing this for years.

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I don't expect anyone remembering me, but I stumbled upon this thread so I will comment. I use Xara since last century and I love it. I'm mostly into programming, but since I'm also experienced with design, I'm being constantly abused for design work, so I use it almost on everyday basis for all design / vector / print work. It's all just practical design. No art. Since I wasn't here for a long time I want to add one more thing. Since Magix took over Xara, added few useful production features (like live guides, text-editing/handling, shortcuts, pages) and since the PDF export matured, I was even more assured that it's my weapon of choice forever. I love Xara. Totally. I didn't follow this forum forum for years, and I feel totally lost when I look at number of forum topics and threads. I think, it's one of the reasons why I don't return here more often. Following forums is a "full time job" sometimes. Especially when one isn't actually a part of "scene". If there was some VIP section/subforum/forum for long time Xara users (10 yrs+) with just 2-3 themes (e.g. general chat, gallery) it might be more attractive to follow on daily basis.

Well, let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, there was a young photographer who loved shooting on film. Then, one day, there was this new thing on the market, a camera that could take pictures without film, a digital camera. Of course the image quality was inferior to film and the young photographer would pooh-pooh this new technology. It would never be as good as film. In fact, while in college the young photographer wrote an essay in English class about how film was so much better than digital images and digital would never live up to the standards of film, mainly because film had been around for such a long time.

In the end, though, digital was here to stay. And it got better and better. Now, years later, that young photographer uses digital cameras all the time. A change of heart, maybe?
Well, in the end that photographer learned a very important lesson. The world moves on. It gets better and better. So, now, that young photographer is no longer young but he learned to embrace the changes that are destined to take place. He now thinks, "go with the flow or you'll get heart-broken often".

Now, that photographer is older and sees even newer technology on the horizon. Many professional photographers are scared of that new technology. But the technology is coming, no matter what. The new technology is called "mirrorless" cameras. And the old photographer has already bought one and couldn't be more happy while others are pooh-poohing it. He smiles because he has learned the lesson from long ago about embracing change instead of resisting it.

That photographer was me.

Embrace change. Don't let it get you down. If you'll embrace the changes of life, life will be so much easier. At least that's what this old photographer has learned.

Mark

@ Mod. OT Move to http://www.talkgraphics.com/forumdis...51-Photography

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Originally Posted by Mark321

Well, let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, there was a young photographer who loved shooting on film. Then, one day, there was this new thing on the market, a camera that could take pictures without film, a digital camera. Of course the image quality was inferior to film and the young photographer would pooh-pooh this new technology. It would never be as good as film. In fact, while in college the young photographer wrote an essay in English class about how film was so much better than digital images and digital would never live up to the standards of film, mainly because film had been around for such a long time.

In the end, though, digital was here to stay. And it got better and better. Now, years later, that young photographer uses digital cameras all the time. A change of heart, maybe?
Well, in the end that photographer learned a very important lesson. The world moves on. It gets better and better. So, now, that young photographer is no longer young but he learned to embrace the changes that are destined to take place. He now thinks, "go with the flow or you'll get heart-broken often".

Now, that photographer is older and sees even newer technology on the horizon. Many professional photographers are scared of that new technology. But the technology is coming, no matter what. The new technology is called "mirrorless" cameras. And the old photographer has already bought one and couldn't be more happy while others are pooh-poohing it. He smiles because he has learned the lesson from long ago about embracing change instead of resisting it.

That photographer was me.

Embrace change. Don't let it get you down. If you'll embrace the changes of life, life will be so much easier. At least that's what this old photographer has learned.

Mark

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I liked that Mark.

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Originally Posted by wizard509

I liked that Mark.

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Yes, a nicely written piece, Mark. But (well, you knew there would be a "But") it isn't that Xara has changed particularly, aside from adding Web Designer to the fold, which has had a knock-on effect on the change of emphasis that the forum has taken, and Xara has responded to this by placing its own emphasis (not surprisingly) on the web design elements of their applications to the detriment of the vector design tools in their Designer Pro package.
Some of us predicted that this would cause a knock-on effect to the TG forum and this has indeed been the case. It is also why many of us are bleating on about the lack of improvements to the vector and font tools in the Designer range.
Instead of being the fastest vector program on the market it is now aiming to be the Swiss Army Knife of the graphics world. I'm all for change in the name of progress, if that change means improvement, as in digital photography, but this is at the expense of improvements to the vector elements of the Designer Pro range and that's not progress, it has however resulted in stagnation of the developments to new vector tools and badly needed support to Open Type fonts, and that certainly isn't progress, but it is neglect.
It's the neglect that I and others are resisting, not change.
Bob.

Xara software and do it up as a .xar file then post it in the Xara graphics chat area.