Dear Xara (an idea and a list of wishes)

Something that has been on my mind for quite a while is the way the 'Dear Xara' requests are made.

Maybe forum moderators (or Xara themselves) could devise a more organised and engaging way of collating and presenting ‘Dear Xara’ requests and wishes. Perhaps a form could be made to collect relevant information then a spreadsheet set up to easily see what has been requested, when, why, by whom, how frequently etc. This could then at least form a historical and factual record, and point of reference for Xara and users alike.

Here are some of the general things that would make me a happy Xara user (all probably requested before!) and should be added to the 'spreadsheet'! :D

1. Make the programmes Windows scaling aware
2. Enable dual screen usage
3. Refresh user interface and add an official light grey interface option
4. Update and polish up existing vector drawing tools
5. Improve grids and add perspective tools
6. Add a macro/actions feature (or at least a repeat last action like Affinity Designer's 'Power Duplicate')
7. Full plugin integration and vector plugins (like Illustrator Zig Zig/Roughen distortion filters)
8. Replace the bitmap tracer tool with one that is useful (like Inscape/Potrace)
9. Overhaul the 3D tool to allow conversion to vectors

Thanks, Jono

+1

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Originally Posted by glenngosack

+1

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+1
and:
- MeshFill and MeshTracparency Tool
- Mesh Mould
- Brushes like AI or better the old Expression 3 from Creature Hose
- Spray Brushes like CorelDraw or Expression 3 from Creature Hose or SerifDraw
- B-Spline Curves
- Measurement-Tool like in CorelDraw or SerifDraw
- Smart Fill Tool to fill open path
- Better/Smoother behavior of the Shape Painter Tool
- Colormanagement
- Overprint View
- Better OpenType support
- Masterpages
- real Dobblesites even/odd
- Paragraph and Object Stiles, not what's now
- All Atributes pastable to other Objects/Groups like ex. Bevel, 3D, Mould or Contour
- Fix the 100% K thing
- Color Palettes, not only in Template Sites
- Better SVG support
- Line position In/Middle/Out
- Line Pattern to get real corners without gaps
etcc. … there will be sure more!

Will see if Xara takes a position.

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Will see if Xara takes a position.

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The feedback I have received from Xara is that they are only going to add a feature if there are a large number of requests for such a feature. Support for OpenType glyphs was one feature that a lot of users requested and so that has been added to Designer Pro. And then the feature has to work in the code without effecting the other tools and functions.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

The feedback I have received from Xara is that they are only going to add a feature if there are a large number of requests for such a feature. Support for OpenType glyphs was one feature that a lot of users requested and so that has been added to Designer Pro. And then the feature has to work in the code without effecting the other tools and functions.

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Hi Garry,
Thats realy sad. Xara has so much useful easy to use tools other competitors hasn't. But only one useful feature like OpenType (and than so minimalistic) that Xara has spend in a year Is not worth the money.
If this is all what Xara can improve in one year I'll never upgrade the subcription (I did it for this year in hope for …???, like some people here).
The alternative is stay with Inkscape and Affinity and say good bye Xara. Or go back to Adobe – realy not my. And for the web thing I'll find a replacement for future clients.

Xara seem to use JIRA so setting up an email collector for direct emails into its Backlog would be the most efficient.
Nothing would get lost and Xara could triage requests easily and discover repeat trends.

Acorn

I don't like to take away from Jono who started this thread but Ernie's wish list is a cracker! Even if Xara only achieved 4 of Ernie's requests it would be worth the upgrade. One question Ernie, what's a "Dobblesites even/odd"?

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Originally Posted by Albacore

I don't like to take away from Jono who started this thread but Ernie's wish list is a cracker! Even if Xara only achieved 4 of Ernie's requests it would be worth the upgrade. One question Ernie, what's a "Dobblesites even/odd"?

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Hi Albacore,
I mean this:

Attachment 118427

Yeah, awesome lists Jono and Ernie !!!

I'm surprised we don't see more applications using B-Splines.

I would add : Line width editing.

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Originally Posted by MarcT

Yeah, awesome lists Jono and Ernie !!!

I'm surprised we don't see more applications using B-Splines.

I would add : Line width editing.

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I thing this can be implant in the old code, maybe I'm wrong but maybe this can be a chance for Xara (like it was for Affinity/Serif) to code it new! Not only a part of Xara but the hole thing.

An other thing is Magix. I know Magix from my Amiga days. Magix was no good and is no good today. It's sales politic we see now.

I wish Xara.uk has the power/money get free of Magix, like from Corel.
Maybe then „we beleiver” get the Xara improvements we wish. This is my wishing, but I know It does not come until Magix is the (stinking fish)-head who still put out money from Xaras-Product-Line.
For me as a professionals graphic designer I do'nt need versions of a software there is a sell-modell of one product to produce a plenty of variants and every is shrinking in its functoinality.

Not the fee for subcription is the thing for me (here I speak only for me), this part I'll like to pay because I earn my money with design and graphic, Xara is a big part in this process.

The Problem for me is Magix, its politc to sell its own products is so much agressiv, that Xara is behind.

The way Xara is go to do it's way do (vector) things easier, better, faster was/is in the graphic world spectecular!
Magix is not worthy to get the juwel XARA!

Like a professional Graphic Designer I use (have used a plenty of Vectordrawing Prorams). I stay with Xara from V5 Xtreme. Not all I would I can't achieve. Many things was buggy and workarounds help me.

In this days/last Year come some improvements for PDF. Xara has a stabil PDF-engine for Im- and Expot. BTW better than AF-Desigenr. Its Export to PDF X4 is the right way. Xara has improvemends and I believe they have more… but Magix does Magic to hold'em up.

The possibilty to change fonts witin a click, and honestly change the fonts to LOWER CASE or UPPER CASE these are things I find verry good and helpfull.

Ok my wishlist (back over) is small.

I'll see Xara as an leader in VectorPrograms again! But I know it will be a wish!

I know I wrote I'll leave Xara, thats true but I'll see wats up with xara in future. The subscrition for this year is payed. I'll see!

Where are the days to comparism AI an Xara? Who dont remeber this with a drop in his eye?
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/about-performance.html

I have a wish!

when click on an color in the bottom colorbar while holding [f] >> all new Fill color
when click on an color in the bottom colorbar while holding [l] >> all new Line color

maybe add [Strg] with replace menu ...

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

The feedback I have received from Xara is that they are only going to add a feature if there are a large number of requests for such a feature. Support for OpenType glyphs was one feature that a lot of users requested and so that has been added to Designer Pro. And then the feature has to work in the code without effecting the other tools and functions.

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I don't know why I believe this to be true, (and I'd like it confirmed if it is just my own suspicions) but the coding problems seem to be at the heart of why very little is being implemented in terms of breakthrough improvements to Xara (especially vector tools). I believe that the code is now old and fragile (rather like myself) and no real improvements are possible without the whole house of cards falling down.

At the time when Adobe Illustrator CS6 was released, Adobe did a thorough overhaul of Illustrator's codebase, which then allowed them to implement drastic improvements to the program. Is this the stumbling block that Xara has right now? If so, we should be told. I believe that TG members have shown a great deal of forebearance over the lack of new vector tools for many years now. It is time for that to change.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

I don't know why I believe this to be true, (and I'd like it confirmed if it is just my own suspicions) but the coding problems seem to be at the heart of why very little is being implemented in terms of breakthrough improvements to Xara (especially vector tools). I believe that the code is now old and fragile (rather like myself) and no real improvements are possible without the whole house of cards falling down.

At the time when Adobe Illustrator CS6 was released, Adobe did a thorough overhaul of Illustrator's codebase, which then allowed them to implement drastic improvements to the program. Is this the stumbling block that Xara has right now? If so, we should be told. I believe that TG members have shown a great deal of forebearance over the lack of new vector tools for many years now. It is time for that to change.

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But what is your idea?
It is more likely that the regression testing of new features is the bottleneck, together with the separation of capability into four applications. We already know that Magix application packaging is a lengthy process.

I am finding the only way to get through to Xara is to place a Dear Xara Thread with one (simple) request.

Acorn

And may I add these again:
- finally get rid of the maximum of 16383 pixels for an image's size. We are not living in the 16-bit era anymore.
- 16 bit colour channels in stead of 8-bit
- adjustable fall-off for stroke shapes. Now they are static (e.g. from beginning to end), would be nice to adjust the starting point at least.

Not holding my breath though, seems only the features with "a large number of requests for such a feature" are (somewhat) realized...

This may well have been requested before, but not in a way that I can understand. I would like the fill tool to be able to work with user-defined shapes to fill areas in a way that is more flexible than the current offerings of circular/linear/diamond etc. but would adapt to the shape I want to fill: as in the attached graphic, I would like to be able to warp a linear fill so that it would conform to the boundaries of the filling shape. Using the current options I only have the choice of an elliptical or linear fill, neither of which fit the bill for the requirements of the shape.
The Mould Tool doesn't answer my needs either, so I suppose that what I'm asking for is a mesh fill or variant thereof. Unless anyone can point out a workaround in Xara that I may have missed...

Meshes have been a long-standing request.

You can simulate some bendy effects using blends and eventually clipping them into a shape. Here's a hastily done one...

Attachment 121847

Aaaahh! Blends, just about the only tool in the box I never thought of using. Thanks, Mike, you are the man.