Why isn't Xara Designer Pro visible on Xara.com?

Look, I've used Adobe's Illustrator and it's nothing special. Like all the Adobe software, the only thing that is special is the price. £238.42.... PER YEAR.
Yes, that's cheap if it is absolutely central to your job, otherwise forget it.

Now "per year" might suit the accountants in large corporates... but as an SME/entrepreneur for me it's the absolute kiss of death. I have no ****ing idea whether I will still have an on-going need to use Illustrator regularly in say 2 or 3 years time, but I sure as heck don't went to be suddenly told I can't open & edit my on files. And no way do I want to have to pay that sort of money for something that I use intensely for a couple of weeks and then barely at all for months.

> I think that is worth repeating: Xara is not and never was targeted at high end graphics designers
You are probably correct. However I think it's tragic.

> You are not going to get your 4K resolution upgrade any time soon because the target demographic do not need it [yet]
I think that's just pathetic.
Xara is the only application I know of that hasn't kept up.

> so everyone who dabbles is poor - is that what you are saing ? ... come on....
Not "everyone" but it makes little or no rational sense to buy something very expensive and then barely ever use it.

Indeed the only reason for buying something more expensive that you can't financially justify is to acquire the skills for your future career. Either that or it's just a sort of indulgance.

In my case, my main such "indulgance" has been to buy MindManager. It has never given me a penny of revenue, but it is probably the best mind mapping software out there. Rationally I know it was a waste of money, but I enjoy using it. Pure indulgance!

Fwiw, I have tried the online Xara, and in my experience it is absolutely diabolical. Very limited functionality... which kept crashing. So far, at least.

> agree with Paul - if you look at what Xara now is, as opposed to what it was, they may just have got their act together and I hope they have
I'm happy to hope, however I see not the slightest sign as yet....

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> so everyone who dabbles is poor - is that what you are saing ? ... come on....
Not "everyone" but it makes little or no rational sense to buy something very expensive and then barely ever use it.

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you said casual dabbler - casual does not mean infrequent, at least not when I went to school [admittedly a while ago]; it means in a relaxed way, as in unhurried and not dictated by a set regime.. or irregular, which again does not mean infrequent it means not to a set timetabled requirement

the online xara is not for the sort of work you do [as i understand it] that was sort of my point....

oops, I forgot to add - dabbling also does not mean infrequent [ask any duck they do it all the time] - it means only going in as far as is necessary to get what you need, be that pleasure, a sense of acheivement [or in the case of a duck, food]

Great discussion. I’d like to add the Xara Cloud might attract Mac OS as well.
I use both systems, and find that I’m designing more in XDP and sending a designed header to MAC. I do find that when designing small posters for color printing is use XDP.
The advantage of Xara for myself is the all in one capability. I don’t have to have multiple programs as I do for Mac.
In the IOS I’m using Sparkle, then Affinity designer, photo and Publisher. For my PC it’s Xara.
I’m going to do some exploring with Xara Cloud to see if my Mac likes it, but will not pay a monthly.

~Bill