It's a shame that Xara is ignored by Retro Supply and vector Lab products...

I love Xara - especially for its ease of use, but it is starting to get rather bogged down with the introduction of new features, which seem to require pop-up dialogue boxes in order to function. For me this breaks up the workflow, and can lead to loss of concentration by the user.

Looking at new features that are being introduced by the likes of Retro Supply and Vector Scribe that are being produced for Illustrator anf Affinity Designer, like Analogue Halftones ( https://raydombroski.com/blog/2018/4/4/analog-halftones ) and Grave Etcher Engraving Brushes for Illustrator, plus stuff from Artifex Forge and others, Xara seems to be being ignored, which begs the question - Why?

Answers on a postcard please - seriously though, why?
I have been thinking about this for some time and if a new kid on the block like Affinity can be recognised alongside other products like Procreate, for example, surely Xara ought to be inclued (leaving aside the fact that CorelDraw is in the same boat as Xara for the moment).

Perhaps someone at TG or at Xara can offer up reasons why this is the case.

simplistic answer: xara is not on a mac

Well, that makes some sense, Steve.
Probably no need for anyone from Xara to enlarge upon that, then.

corel draw is Windows only too is it not

the mainstream media is mac, not exclusively... but that is where the activity tends to go

this may explain xaras focus on web and office docs (but not publishing a la indesign/affinity) - they have been outflanked by serif

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

I love Xara - especially for its ease of use, but it is starting to get rather bogged down .

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Well I have thought for a long time that that was bound to happen.

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Originally Posted by handrawn

corel draw is Windows only too is it not

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CD has returned to the Mac as a native application this latest version. But version 2019 is so buggy I haven't bothered with it. There is also a big licensing/upgrade change and likely will remain using version 2018 anyway.

Windows does have 4 times the user base compared to Mac, so it would make good business sense to aim for the larger market, I would have thought. But I am happy to be disabused of the idea.

@mike thanks for the update, neber really got into CD

@ bob

yes well, if vector drawing were itself a mainstream activity in the general population the number of windows users might mean something, but it is not, so i have my doubts...

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

Xara seems to be being ignored, which begs the question - Why?

Answers on a postcard please - seriously though, why?

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I suspect Xara has a far smaller userbase, on any platform. Not worth supporting and not with a demographic that that would support the effort.

Judging by the traffic at TG these days, I imagine that's about right. The demographic probably means that natural wastage will impact some time soon...

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Originally Posted by iamtheblues

Judging by the traffic at TG these days, I imagine that's about right. The demographic probably means that natural wastage will impact some time soon...

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Serif claimed they had over a million customers some time back.

I doubt there's 10,000 Xara users, but I have no way to know. I guess we'd need to look up Magix/Xara Ltd financials.

According to the Publisher release live event, they have been passed 2 million users.
Let's just agree that xara made a bad business decision to go to Germany for some funding and now it is ripped apart.
They could have gone a few miles up north and would have been a real player but alas.
coulda woulda shoulda but the boat has sailed I guess

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Originally Posted by haakoo

According to the Publisher release live event, they have been passed 2 million users...

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I expect that number also now includes iPad users, yet another advantage for Affinity apps.

Man, I appreciate the fact that you like our business enough to mention it. Thank you!

The biggest reason we don't make products for Xara is time and resources. We're a small business (a few employees and perhaps a dozen regular contractors). With the explosion of different software it's hard to make stuff for all platforms. Each one has a learning curve. Plus, we do regular customer survey asking what software and products people most want. We accommodate whatever the majority of our customers want.

Also, Handrawn's comment is accurate. Xara is not on a Mac. I use a Mac. Since I can't play with the program myself it's sort of off my radar.

Those programs you mentioned are affordable at least the serif ones so buy them and combine all your tools with xara. It is what you do with it that is important not so much the features.

that is possibly true with a website... but whilst still true in general for all work, you cannot for example, paint in xara, nor for that matter affinity designer; affinity photo is better having raster brushes, but to do that job properly you need something the equivalent of corel painter....

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Originally Posted by handrawn

that is possibly true with a website... but whilst still true in general for all work, you cannot for example, paint in xara, nor for that matter affinity designer; affinity photo is better having raster brushes, but to do that job properly you need something the equivalent of corel painter....

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I'd say many if not most people serious about digital painting are using a tablet these days.

or a cintiq ;)

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Originally Posted by handrawn

or a cintiq ;)

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Indeed, but I think the iPad pro is causing Cintique some problems.

we could diverge this thread for a quite a while discussing this - it depends what you are trying to do

correct me if I am wrong but I think the largest ipad is 12.9" - and there is a samsung android at 18.4"

my cintiq is 24" and I would have liked a 32" but I currently have no room for it, quite apart from the extra £1K or more it would have cost - the on-screen canvas size is very important to me

I have not tried either ipad or android, but I understand that wheras the 'painter mobile' app for android is reasonably featured, the 'Paint it! Show' app for iphone is fairly basic only suitable really for 'morphing' photos into 'paintings'

now you can paint in many different ways - you can dip your finger in the wet suff if you wish - I do not wish to imply that such is somehow sub-standard per-se

I don't particularly like the term power-user but I would not want to be restricted when pushing painter to the limits

the reason I said 'equivalent to painter' is because I appreciate there are lots of different ways and levels at which this can be done [eg artrage], but painter is the standard against which I would measure them

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Originally Posted by pauland

I'd say many if not most people serious about digital painting are using a tablet these days.

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you mean like those serious about film making are all using youtube... >:)

@handrawn

Hmm.

I'm not here to start some kind of hardware war or suggest that Cintique is going out of business just yet.

My point is that a lot of people that might previously buy a Cintique are now buying iPad Pros.

A lot of people that may have previously bought painter and a wacom pad are now buying iPads.

The world is changing and relatively few people are dedicated enough to buy larger Cintique tablets, but can go for an iPad pro.

People are using iPads (and no doubt other tablets) to produce cool artwork.

If you have a 24" Cintique, I understand your enthusiasm for it, but you are a specialist with a healthy wallet.

I have to admit I'm surprised to see a new Cintique 22" on sale for £1,400, equivalent to an iPad Pro 12.9" price-wise, that would be a lot more versatile in capability and portability. Paradoxically the screen resolution of the iPad is way better than the Cintique.

Anyway no battles to be fought.

my 24" cintiq pro has a native resolution of 3840 x 2160 which is better than the ipad pro [and incidently as close to 100% abobe RGB gamut as you are likely to get anywhere] - I paid about £1,600 for it in a black friday style sale, they are about £2,000 on amazon

we are looking at different criteria

of course if I needed on-the-hoof I would need a tablet as well; fortunately for my 'healthy' [:eek:] wallet I don't :D

as in all things you need to research before you buy and think about the future

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A lot of people that may have previously bought painter and a wacom pad are now buying iPads...... People are using iPads (and no doubt other tablets) to produce cool artwork

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I am sure, know that, you are right, what I was debating was this:

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I'd say many if not most people serious about digital painting

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which really should have a qualification about the market[s] referred to

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Anyway no battles to be fought

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indeed ;)