why should i buy xara instead of illustrator?

[michaelbuddy]

I have both xara xtreme pro and the entire creative suite master collection. I prefer to draw shapes and play around in Xara to generate designs more than I do in flash or illustrator. If I have a flash project, I'll consider what I can do in xara design-wise that I can eventually import just to do minimal work in flash. The reason? Things like the way paths work and simplicity and just flow of my mouse work is just easier for me in Xara. The simpler toolbar, the faster gradients and fills, there are also flash bugs and the interface in flash I dont' like as much as Xara.

With Illustrator, I mostly use it as a convertor program and nothing else, unless I have to. Things like gradients and swatches and things are annoying. I can see strict print requirements such as making metallic beer bottle labels definitely requiring illustrator, but even so, drawing with it seems a little tedious. Also I absolutely hate the way Illsutrator has confusing paths, groups, and masking. I think it sucks because when you open a design from somebody else, you never know what arrangement they have used. I don't know if I need to modify the logo if part of it is being masked. Also with the pathfinder and path tools, again is it really cutting away the foreground or is it masking it?

I like being able to link original images inside a document, so that's where Xara kinda bugs me. I wish I could import a linked PSD file into xara and work with it, but Xara actually embeds everything. That's not my favorite thing. On the other hand, I can see people preferring that.

If I could change Xara, I would do the following off the top of my head:

*allow image / object linking
*Improve documentation and understanding of use of Photoshop filters, what it can do and wont' do. Narrow it down for me.
*give it an actual flash timeline, basically give it interactivity so I can create a full fledged flash website creation kit.
*Improve it's color management as much as possible to synch with printers and adobe (for sharing with others)
*Make the Xar format openable so you can extract linked images or objects from it and view Xar files on other OS's. (like open document is actually a zip file)
*Make a mac version
*Give it inkscapes follow tool and it's random wiggly tools
*Allow custom start and end points and sizes, like custom arrows. Instead of locking just to a couple and less sizes.
*improve image slicing process a little bit.

[gwpriester]

It's really simple. If you are working in a professional environment, such as an advertising agency art director or as a graphic designers in a graphic design, you are going to need to know how to use Illustrator. It is the industry standard and you are going to have a really hard time if you don't know how it works.

But if you are an illustrator, independent designer or serious hobbyist, then Xtreme is a really excellent alternative. You can do things in Xtreme that you cannot do in Illustrator. Gradient transparency in a variety of types is a great example. Illustrator is more robust in terms of features. But Xtreme is fast and not as hard to learn and master.