Xara Designer Pro vs Serif DrawPlus

Hi,

I've recently learned about DrawPlus.
It would be interesting to hear from people with experience using both Xara and DrawPlus. How do the two programs compare (is there any comparison?)?

Regards,
MUD

I moved this to the Off Topic Chat. You'll probably get more responses here.

Me? I've got Serif DrawPlus 6.0/PagePluss 11 (Xara PGD7'll always be my favourite though). In a way, Drawplus somehow reminds me of a more detailed version of MSPAINT (The staff who work on MSPAINT[I only use this if I have to these days] really should have a look at the software we use on here (at least I can combine XPDG7/Paintshop Pro X5). Would you believe me if I told you I got Serif DrawPlus 6.0 (for some reason it says Graphic Design Studio on the CD Case) and PagePlus for a tenner (thats £10.00) each?)
BTW if anybody can get hold of it I can't strongly recommend 3D Powertext enough. Believe me it's great!
On the subject of alternatives i can also reccomednd Broderbund Printmaster 12 (it was playing with text art that made me want to extend into graphics) seeing as the word art on MSWORD didn't work anymore last time I used it (long story but I've come from word art to graphics and I'm glad I did).
Thanks for broadeing my horizons, Xara and I'm glad i got XPDG when I had a chance.

You should be aware of several important factors before making your choice. You cannot really compare Designer Pro with DrawPlus. The price difference alone tells you that Designer Pro is the better product. Better to compare Drawplus with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer MX 2013 at roughly 70 pounds, they are of a similar price. Drawplus is a reasonable program, but the latest version Drawplus 5 has many bugs in it, which have not all been addressed since its release. The software is overdue a new release (V.6) so it would be advisable to wait and see. As Serif do not operate a system of try before you buy, I'd advise that you download a fully functioning month's trial of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer MX 2013 and give it a try. In my opinion it is the better program by some distance.
Bob.

I have both drawplus 5 and xara designer pro X

if you want to work in vector the xara products are far better IMO

if you want brushes then drawplus is more flexible and a lot easier to use for these, although they are in the main bitmap based - they were the reason I bought drawplus, along with its's equivalent of the xara shape builder and eraser tool

[at the time I bought drawplus5 xara did not have these last two tools, now it does, although you do have to buy the pro version of xara to get both, unlike serif]

the screen rendering in xara is far better than in drawplus 5...

As much as I was impressed by the array of graphic features at first, many bugs and rather aggressive sales technique made my interest in Drawplus wilt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarcT

?... rather aggressive sales technique made my interest in Drawplus wilt.

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Ditto that.

Buy Draw Plus and you will have Serif as a best friend, phoning you regularly to see if you need anything, as long as it's a Serif product. Draw plus slows down once you get started with a drawing of any complexity and the tools are cumbersome to use if you have used Xara and can compare like for like. Honestly, avoid. I gave my copy away to a child.
Derek

not noticed any agressiveness myself - get loads of emails, but they just get filtered, I assume I could cancel them but I've never got round to it, as the filter means I don't see then unless I choose to.. - once I got a telephone call, which was polite, no problem...

I´ve bought Serif Drawplus 4 and 5 and then returned the v5 for a refund. There isn´t trial versions of Serif products but you can buy and return them if you are not happy with the product as i did.

Regarding the software itself, it isn´t by any means at the same level as Xara. Drawplus specs seems impressive on the paper, with some advanced stuff - gradient meshes, vector painting (brushes), targeted insert, solo mode etc- but in practice they were implemented in a loose way. They lack precision or are very limited - for example the vector painting is based on bitmap brushes that conform to the vector path. Most of the brushes itself aren´t vector and although you can create them as vector they are very limited since you can´t group them, use transparency or any blend effects.

Other features are very basic and don´t even offer a precise way to control them (contour effects for example); The gradient mesh doesn´t conform two the shape it´s applied to. It´s a simple mesh rectangle placed over the shape that you have to adjust manually. And again doesn´t support transparency or blending effects. It´a solid mesh if i remember correctly.

Surprisingly they offer full support for opentype fonts (ligatures and all extra stuff) and their PDF import/export is very good (both coming from their experience in Pageplus). Overall it´s not a powerfull vector illustration software. It seems directed more at hobbyists than enthusiasts/professionals. Most of the tools are basic, there´s a lot of pre-made effects and stuff to drag and use, and too much help boxes for this and that. Their last version as someone already pointed out has lot of bugs. A new version (Drawplus X6) should be out soon.

If it´s vector drawing you´re looking for, Xara is much more powerfull, even without the advanced stuff like the gradient mesh tool or the skeletal brushes.
The implementation of the tools Xara have are more precise, offer more settings to tweak, and the level of interaction between objects, groups, blends, transparency, text and so on give you plenty of power and freedom to create almost anything you want with precision. It´s a more "mature" software by far.

I think you are being a bit hard on the serif brushes, its very rare to see really good vector brushes probably because of the mathematics involved in real time rendering

As vector brushes they aren´t that good handrawn. Adobe Illustrator brushes are far more powerfull (the implementation, off course Adobe costs a lot more too). Now if you look at them as bitmap brushes then i agree they aren´t bad and give plenty of possibilities. But again Drawplus is a vector drawing package. They already have Photoplus for bitmap stuff.

yes, well illustrator costs money for some very good reasons - and that is one of them.... :)