0.5 milestone reached

**Charles Moir** · 24 May 2006, 10:17 AM

Xara are pleased to announce a milestone target has been achieved with the release of Xara Xtreme LX version 0.5. You can download it from www.xaraxtreme.org/download.

There has been substantial progress since the previous 0.4 stable release. All tools now work, as do most menu options and some of the galleries. We recently passed build number 1000, representing more than 1000 patches, submissions and fixes to the Subversion code repository.

The most important changes are that you can now save designs and export them as bitmaps, so Xara LX is now a functional, useful design tool!

Here's a list of features enabled since the 0.4 release:-
* New Autopackage installer. Xara LX now appears in the Applications menu
* Save
* Bitmap export (JPG, PNG)
* Bitmap import (JPG, PNG)
* Bitmap Gallery
* Colour Gallery
* Layer Gallery and operational layer system
* A choice of document templates
* Guidelines, guide snap and magnetic object snap
* Simple colour editor
* Ability to set the font in the text tool
* Status line & progress bar
* Many new menu items e.g. convert lines to shapes
* Clipviews
* Improved combo boxes, drop down menus, buttons and sliders
* Improved toolbars
* New plug-in system for import/export filters (documentation and example filter code for this will appear on our web site soon)
* Options dialog (and most options now operational)
* Freehand tool smoothing
* Many other features.
* Many bug fixes
* Full comprehensive Help now integrated

There are still a number of areas of the program that need work before we'll reach the 1.0 milestone, which will be the first official 'finished' version of Xara LX. Despite the current 0.5 version number, we estimate we're much more than half way there now! See this page of the web site for details http://www.xaraxtreme.org/content/view/122/34/

A great many thanks to those who have given their time to help the project. But we could always use more. Now that the program is useful, we hope people will start to use it in anger and that more developers will want to help us drive this forward to become what we hope will be the greatest graphics program to exist on Linux. Visit www.xaraxtreme.org/developers/ for more information for developers.

Thanks and Regards,
The Xara Team

Attached a screenshot. Only if you look closely you can see this is not the Windows version.

**Daniel** · 25 May 2006, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Charles Moir

* New Autopackage installer. Xara LX now appears in the Applications menu

And very easy it is to use too! I just downloaded and installed Fedora onto my laptop, then downloaded and installed Xara LX. I've never used Linux before but got LX to open some of my existing .xars over my network from my Windows PC perfectly within minutes of booting into Linux for the very first time.

Very impressed!

**-=Drifter=-** · 25 May 2006, 12:50 PM

i like the Tabbed images... we could use that in the Windows version!!!

**popski** · 25 May 2006, 08:12 PM

Great Software!!! Finally some real 2D software on open source scene. Thank you guys for all your work!!!

**Jeorb** · 13 June 2006, 07:02 PM

I purchased the Windows version of the Xara Graphic Studio to support the development of the Linux version of Xara (and it was fun to play with while waiting). I just downloaded and started using the 0.5 build and I feel like I got my money's worth.

Congratulations on this milestone and thanks for the Linux version!

**fjgaude** · 23 June 2006, 11:33 PM

Very impressive and thanks to the development team for moving so fast. XaraLX features truly will make it the showcase program in the open source arena.

The package worked on both my 64-bit and 32-bit AMD machines. Bravo!

frank

**-=Drifter=-** · 24 June 2006, 12:38 AM

you guys are doing a GREAT JOB!!!! Keep it up!!!! (and thanks)

**eobet** · 26 June 2006, 07:39 AM

Very impressive Linux work... now how about the OS X part?

Originally Posted by -=Drifter=-

i like the Tabbed images... we could use that in the Windows version!!!

I'm not so sure, however, that tabs are fitting in an OS X version (though if it makes for faster porting...).

I believe that the OS X design guide wants applications to separate tool boxes and menus from the document window. OS X isn't application-centric, it is document-centric. You almost never start an application, you open a document, and most document windows look the same while at the same time, OS X nearly hides which particular application is operating on the document in it's unified menu bar at the top of the screen.

Originally Posted by Charles Moir

* Ability to set the font in the text tool

Here, I'm also a bit worried about the OS X version. OpenOffice apparently won't recognize the installed fonts in OS X and InkScape supposedly won't do fonts at all. I'm hoping that it will be completely transparent in Xara LX.

Originally Posted by Charles Moir

Now that the program is useful, we hope people will start to use it in anger...

Also, what does this sentence mean???

**michaelward** · 26 June 2006, 10:08 AM

I think we can rely on Xara creating a good, polished OS X version before they release it.

It may not be document centric like many mac apps (though that may depend on how much work needed doing, and how many mac devs latch on) but Xara won't release half assed software.