Black Friday - any signs we might to buy the full HD version of Xara Designer Pro?

Hello

As Black Friday approaches, are there any signs that Magix might SELL - rather than rent - us a copy of Xara Designer Pro+ ?
Hopefully at a sensible price...

J

What is HD?

I think that should be 4K rather than HD ['high definition']

xara are obviously not going to 'sell' pro+ because that is neither the business model, nor in any way practical to do

so it's a question of wait for the magix to catch up - your guess when as good as mine

Xara won't.

Acorn

> xara are obviously not going to 'sell' pro+ because that is neither the business model, nor in any way practical to do

I feel extremely strongly about issue.

1. There is nothing "impractical" about buying software the old way. Indeed you can still buy a copy of "Xara Designer Pro X" on Magix.com. It's just that the UI is a disaster on higher res screens.
Please explain yourself.

2. The subscription (i.e. in effect "rental") business model may suite software developers and their accountants, however for busy people in general business, who only use Xara occassionally the rental business model is not acceptable. And a lot of freelancers agree with me. Furthermore, if the software does not improve significantly I reserve the right to just pay for the original version of the software that I paid good money for.

Personally, I am not prepare to create files of data that unless I have coughed up for the subscription am can no longer edit.

I know a lot of Adobe Illustrator users who don't use it as often as they used to, who are now looking around for something that is NOT on a subcription model (£20/month). With regret I have had to tell them not to use the otherwise excellent Xara Designer Pro. Interestingly none of them had even heard of Xara. Someone I talked to yesterday said he was trialling Affinity Designer - although FWIW he said that the UI wasn't very intuitive and that the learning curve was steep, with some odd wrinkles. Something about being unable to resize a group of shapes...


> I think that should be 4K rather than HD ['high definition']
Er, yes "4K" might be the more conventional way of putting it... but what I mean is a UI that works comfortable when you screen is running any of the higher resolution including 4K, 8K, 16K... I believe they even make 64K nowadays.


Sorry if I get a few things wrong, but due PURELY to xara.com's subscription model I am now rather out of touch with and seledom use Xara.

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Originally Posted by shiphen

Please explain yourself

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I am a late-middle aged caucasian male cartoo.... NO WAIT that is not what you meant right ? :p

look the pro+ model is suubscription only, it is set up that way; end of story on that one

the non subscription model is the magix route; so far it has not been updated with 4K support; end of story on that one

you are not going to impress xara with talk of adobe alternatives - that is not where they see their future, up to a point that has never been where they saw their future

you cannot make companies [people] be what youi want them to be... they are what they are

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Originally Posted by handrawn

I am a late-middle aged caucasian male cartoo.... NO WAIT that is not what you meant right ? :p
the non subscription model is the magix route; so far it has not been updated with 4K support; end of story on that one

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Your key words are "so far"... so er in effect by definition the story has yet to end! :)

I may be missing something important, but having re-written their entire UI so that Xara DOES work at 4K (or higher), I would find it exceedingly odd if they were to deliberately cripple their non-subscription software... forever. But who knows - maybe the will.

Yes, obviously I can't "make" any company do or be anything... any more than they can "make" us pay for it through subscriptions or any other equally appalling business models that simply don't suit us.

It's just I find it DEEPLY TRAGIC that what is in truth one of my all-time favourite applications - and originally written here in the UK, what's more - has taken a horrible wrong-turn and that I have had to drop them.

Hey-ho.

end of story as in no more can be said (at this point in time)
que sera sera for the future

xara want to make money it is what they are in business for ;)

> end of story as in no more can be said (at this point in time)
I would settle for end of chapter!


> xara want to make money it is what they are in business for
Quite right too. And it is to exactly that point that I have been speaking.

The fact remains that I have been wanting to give them more of my money more or less continuously for the last 6 years - since July 2014. All they needed to do was upgrade the UI to be compatible with modern high resolution screens....

that is not what I meant is it :D

xara are giving a lifetime discount of 50% to all existing non pro+ users, if they sign up to pro+ as encouragement to switch

they have no incentive to rush upgrades for the legacy [magix] programs, in fact, quite the opposite - the more sign up for pro+ the better for them, the more money they make... even with the discount

Oh goody I can not wait, I want now, yeah yeah happy days ....;))

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Originally Posted by behzad

What is HD?

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I was of course tempted to say 'Handrawn' but I resisted the temptation :D

I will slap you silly with my hand ;) drawn

:-O

If you look at this thread,

https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...vailable/page5

On post #45 and my reply on post #49, there is a registry entry for HD with no value set on XDP. I asked if someone could check XDP+ and see if they have a value set. XDP may have the support for HD but it is just not enabled?

Ray

I just replied ;)

If you can wait another 4 or 5 MONTHS, I have it on good authority that "Designer Pro X hiDPI version is planned to be released aprox. in March 2021."
Why ON EARTH they are making us wait until March next year, when self-evidently the HiDPI user interface has already been written is anybody's guess. GADS!

Meanwhile, I have been compelled to start using Affinity Designer, which has more sensible defaults and does a number of much more sensible things.
e.g. A line with an arrow head terminates at the at the point of the arrow! And it's Corner Tool is a joy to behold.

However I have to say that it does have a bit of a learning curve and a pedantic feel to it.
e.g. It seems to be impossible to rotate a group of shapes without rotating the entire Art Board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shiphen

If you can wait another 4 or 5 MONTHS, I have it on good authority that "Designer Pro X hiDPI version is planned to be released aprox. in March 2021."
Why ON EARTH they are making us wait until March next year, when self-evidently the HiDPI user interface has already been written is anybody's guess. GADS!

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that is good to know re march 21 planned release

I do not intend to buy 4k monitor. What is the hype about 4k?

you may well not need it for websites

I believe shipen does engineering drawing where 4K assists accuracy

I do animation, but to be honest as the end product is usually 1920 by 1080 I can live without most of the time

=D>=:)

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Originally Posted by behzad

I do not intend to buy 4k monitor. What is the hype about 4k?

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Good question.

Personally I have always found that I can THINK more clearly if my screen is at a higher resolution. But I was first re-inspired to go to such high resolution (4K) by seeing a friend doing general business including project management in particular on an Apple computer in ultra-high resolution. The general point is that it is SO much easier to see what is going on when there is space to physically SEE the big picture better on your screen.

Having made the jump a couple of years ago now, I would say that it makes me about 10-15% more efficient. It's not cheap - in particular the graphics cards can get very expensive, but personally I find it WELL worth the money.
Nowadays, yes I also do also do some 3D /CAD work where high res is crucial. And for that I had to upgrade my graphics card a second time to get something powerful enough.

One of the best things about a high res screen is that you can just take screen shots all manner of stuff and drop them into you business documents (e.g. PowerPoint & Word) and they look fabulous.

Having tested the HD version of Xara at 4K, I have to tell you that it's just an absolute joy. It's a bit like asking the question: "What's wrong with my 10year-old VW Polo? It still works!"
And then you spend some time in a high end Audi. Everything seems easier and it's just a real pleasure to use. And when you have a lot of miles to drive, when you are compelled to go back to the Polo it still works but it doesn't have the acceleration, the cornering is terrible and there is a lot of wind-noise and everything rattles.

J

I agree with Shipen. Having used Xara in an old 640 x 480 monitor years ago, then moving on to larger resolution monitors, then to HD and finally 4K this difference is quite stunning. Try remembering years ago when you drew a diagonal line on some ancient monitor and it wasn't a crisp line, just a very jaggie one. Xara's anti-aliasing was very advanced at that time and could beat Illustrator & CorelDraw hands down but even then there were still jaggies, just softer.

Then as you moved on to larger resolution sizes things improved. Then you got HD which was even better and these jaggies had all but disappeared. With 4K I just can't se them at all.

However a word of warning, a 4K monitor viewed at 3 feet away is great. A 4K TV viewed at 15-20 feet away will appear no better than todays HD TV's because our eyes aren't capable of differentiating any difference over that distance.

@HD:

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I do animation, but to be honest as the end product is usually 1920 by 1080 I can live without most of the time

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Don't quite understand that statement HD?

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

@HD:
Don't quite understand that statement HD?

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Firstly, call me old fashined but on principle if I design something to be seen on a screen, I like to see it as I design it, at the size at which it will be seen when it is finished - mostly std HD

But more to the point, animation involves an element of dead reckoning; it is not possible to work in real-time with rendering on, it would take ages to redraw everything, so most of the time the work is done in OpenGL view - ie no anti aliasing

so in xara I work a lot of the time with the AA off, and only switch it on to check what it will look like 'rendered'

generally animation can be designed to a higher res, but for me, that is rare... and bearing in mind your other comments, if it became more normal I would need to invest in a 32" minimum monitor, and scratch my head as to where to put it :D

@handrawn not only where to put your new 4k monitor but also what to do with your old monitors. I own 3 HD monitors and they work perfectly. Each to their own but 4k option is not a selling point for the work I do for me to invest in a 4k monitors. Same goes with my HD tv's.

including the 24" cintiq I also have three - the cintiq is 4K but at 24" that is only useful for close up work such as trace and overlay - as a monitor I run it at 200% scale

a 2k that sits on the side desk as an extension

and a 1920 x 1080 video monitor that is for playback, and a 144Mz 1920 x 1080 laptop ditto

I suppose I could do without the window and place one on the ledge :think: - naw, herself would not be amused.... :D

Why is no one using their HUDs with the new Xara object haptic feedback, you just pick up a picture and squeeze the red out onto the ground plane and when your hand feels damp enough, stop?

What? Oh I see, I've just Ctrl+Alt+Deleted my brain.

Acorn

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I though the OP Question was about HUD, not HD. ;))

To get clear, my original question was about HD (i.e. High Definition) displays. And what I really meant was screens that are of 4K or above resolution.

I'm afraid that I have no idea what a HUD is. I'm guessing "Heads Up Display" (??) though how you might use Xara Designer Pro with such a thing I have no idea.


PS My spies tell me that something called "Designer Pro X hiDPI" will be released in March 2021. Though, given that they have already rewritten the code so that it works on high resolution screens, why the heck they can't release right now a high version of "Pro+" that you can BUY without being forced to only subscribe to... I have no idea either.

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Originally Posted by shiphen

I'm afraid that I have no idea what a HUD is. I'm guessing "Heads Up Display" (??) though how you might use Xara Designer Pro with such a thing I have no idea.

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HUD was a joke.Being able to use augmented or virtual reality on a 2-D graphics was a bit OTT but ultimately doable.

Acorn

:D - think I missed that first time round

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Originally Posted by shiphen

PS My spies tell me that something called "Designer Pro X hiDPI" will be released in March 2021.

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It's now mid-March 2021.

Any sign of "Designer Pro X hiDPI" that we can actually buy?

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Originally Posted by shiphen

It's now mid-March 2021.
Any sign of "Designer Pro X hiDPI" that we can actually buy?

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Seemingly 29 March: https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...268#post634268.

Acorn