The Second Coming!

[Klaus Nordby]

My fellow Xarans!

I'm tempted to make this posting long and ramble enthusiastically on forever about my wonderful software discovery tonight, but I will instead be poignantly brief. Just go to www.creaturehouse.com and download your 30 day trial copy of the brand-new Expression 2.0! Its lightning-speed pressure sensitive vector brushes FAR surpasses Xara X's sluggish, inflexible brushes (sorry, Xara Ltd.). This splendid new program is destined to form the fourth cornerstone of any digital artist's toolbox (the others being Painter, Photoshop - and of course Xara X).

In summary: If you can afford only ONE new program this Xmas, get Xara X. And then be financially irresponsible and splurge on Expression!


Klaus

PS: I don't own stock in Creature House, alas.

[Klaus Nordby]

My fellow Xarans!

I'm tempted to make this posting long and ramble enthusiastically on forever about my wonderful software discovery tonight, but I will instead be poignantly brief. Just go to www.creaturehouse.com and download your 30 day trial copy of the brand-new Expression 2.0! Its lightning-speed pressure sensitive vector brushes FAR surpasses Xara X's sluggish, inflexible brushes (sorry, Xara Ltd.). This splendid new program is destined to form the fourth cornerstone of any digital artist's toolbox (the others being Painter, Photoshop - and of course Xara X).

In summary: If you can afford only ONE new program this Xmas, get Xara X. And then be financially irresponsible and splurge on Expression!


Klaus

PS: I don't own stock in Creature House, alas.

[caraman1]

I was trying to D/L their beta last spring (I never could) Seems like Expression and XaraX were in development about the same amount of time.
Dennis

<a href=http://www.inconnect.com/~dennisco/>Carillus Design</a>

[This message was edited by Dennis Cox on December 03, 2000 at 07:17 AM.]

[joel]

I downloaded it...I played with it...all I've got to say is thank God for Xara Ltd....

[Sean Sedwards]

Like Canvas, Expression has some good ideas, but Xara is a clear winner IMO. The pressure sensitivity is very responsive, however other tasks are pretty slow and the interface is a little cluttered with no apparent means of reducing it. It doesn't seem to do as much as Xara, although what it does is done well. Apart from the stroke technology, which Expression pioneered AFAIK, other improvements on Xara are bitmap morphing, EPS import, better plug-in support and pdf help + shortcut list (neither supplied with demo) which some people might find an advantage (not me).

The list of what Xara has over Expression is considerably larger. I was going to give some of the most important examples but found that it amounted to just about _all_ of Xara, excluding the few things I mentioned above. There's no help with the Expression demo, not even a ReadMe file to introduce the rather meagre samples, so I doubt I'll pursue it further for that reason alone.

It wouldn't hurt Xara Ltd to download a copy of Expression 2, but I definitely wouldn't swap it for CorelXARA 2, let alone X.

Regards - Sean

[gwpriester]

Klaus

Do they have a conference you can hang out in and wax poetic about their products? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Every So Humble...

[Klaus Nordby]

If Sean wants to give up on Expression just because the present demo has no Help file, that's his loss. Though I would like a Help file, of course, I've had few problems in unravelling the program's mostly-intuitive features on my own.

No, Expression is not a full-featured vector program, and certainly no replacement - or even dangerous competitor - for Xara X. But I KNOW that I will find much use for it as a supplement, probably by importing bitmaps (or EPS/AI) exported from Xara X and then applying its unique and super-fast brush-stroke effects.

To the Xarans at Gaddesden, I say: please take a look at this lovely tool (below) for controlling the characteristics of a pressure stroke AFTER it has been made! Wow!


Klaus

[This message was edited by Klaus Nordby on December 03, 2000 at 04:28 PM.]

[Klaus Nordby]

Gary:

Re: "Do they have a conference you can hang out in and wax poetic about their products?"

If they did, I'd plug Xara X on their home grounds! These apps should live together in blissful harmony. Or even better: Xara should buy up Expression and incorporate their great technology into Xara X. :-)


K

[Sean Sedwards]

There's no question that the stroke technology is excellent, however I don't love it enough to forgive the other problems. This version has much improved on-screen appearance as well as other enhanced features, such as plug-in support, but the tools are no longer dockable and have no easy way to restore them if you shut them down (left open, they take up 29% of the usable screen area on 1024 x 768). There may be ways round this, but without a help file I've no easy way of knowing and I'd rather devote what time I have to Xara's stroke support, of which I've yet to scratch the surface.

I may have dismissed Expression prematurely, but I'm too far from the boundaries of X to be looking for something better.

Regards - Sean

[This message was edited by Sean Sedwards on December 04, 2000 at 02:49 AM.]

[Sean Sedwards]

I should have said the standard Expression toolbar takes up 21% of the available drawing area. Unlike the previous version and Xara, they aren't dockable.

Regards - Sean