New feature in CS5 could have been in Xara 5

[zaphodeist]

A program has something a Xara program doesn't have. Got it. Brushes need renovation, agreed. Frances was showing how to do something in Xtreme and is consistently helpful on here. No need to be so dismissive sgiff. If your thread is not asking for suggestions how to do this in Xara Xtreme and is just about what AI has shouldn't it be an Off Topic thread, especially as you knew somebody would post something helpful here?

[handrawn]

Hi John

Trouble is - for those of us that draw with brushes [as you would with a real brush or pen or pencil ] xtreme brushes are unworkable - but they were never designed for this, fair enough as far as it goes

I have Illustrator/Photoshop CS4

Quite a while back a member here told me off for moaning about brushes and said I should go forth and use the right program

Well I have, and now only 40 % of my coloring is done in xtreme as a result, because it is not worth chopping and changing for the small stuff.

The more I get into CS4 the more I find it is well fast enough - not talking here about 'this operation is faster than that' - I am talking about looking at the whole project from start to finish...

In xtreme I love the soft groups, because I still 'paste up' comic pages in xtreme and soft groups makes that a lot easier - but pasting up comic pages is not the major part of my work...


@FRANCES [angelize] If I was one who appeared dismissive I am sorry - but it was not of you, who as John says are most helpful

Its just that the program and I have diverged these last 2 years; I still enthuse the things I love about it, but....

[zaphodeist]

Hi Steve. It wasn't you who I thought was being dismissive I can see the problems with brushes right enough [especially for artists like yourself] - rarely experimented with them as a result - and I think you should moan more often ... they'll take notice of you one day with a bit of luck No, it's the point and positioning of this thread I can't fathom. Feature could have been in Xtreme ... but it isn't ... errrmm ...

[handrawn]

yep agree - well I, for one, have given up both the bitching and the requesting too

I can do the comics in inkscape and xtreme, and [most of] the other stuff in CS4 [maybe 5 we shall see ]

xtreme is going to make a damn fine web oriented program I think, and believe personally that this was always the intention - its a great market to be in

I understand full well what John [covoxer] said elsewhere: xtreme cannot compete with Adobe Illustrator, it has to do its own thing

[zaphodeist]

Exactly! Xtreme is Xtreme, AI is AI.

[sgiff]

Yes well I suppose I could have been a little less dismissive of Angel Eyes however I did state in my initial "post" that "sure you can go through the painstaking process of a work-a-round" which clearly means I am not looking for a "work-a-round" yet he/she quickly posted a work-a-round which is their right I suppose.

Anyway, I apologize if I offended. I suppose I'm more upset about the direction of Xara and it's becoming bloatware and ignoring the vector tools for so long that I come off as someone with a chip on my shoulder but I have been a customer for longer then most of the people on this forum, so I guess I feel that I have a right to bitch now and then but others may disagree. Next time I'll move it to off topic as suggested and people can flame me from there.

s.g.

[steve.ledger]

I suppose I'm more upset about the direction of Xara and it's becoming bloatware

Unlike some other software which is truly bloatware (Software that is overpacked with features a result of feature creep and therefore slow or unwieldy), Xara doesn't load everything into memory or become slower to use.
For example, if you don't ever choose the HTML or Bitmap tools, then you don't ever load any into memory.
You can even remove all the HTML or bitmap related toolbar buttons if you wish.

[sgiff]

True dat, but we'll see when 6 comes out. My guess is that they are just going to take all of the features from Web Design 6 that just came out and put them into XX6Pro. But I wouldn't say it's not bloatware now necessarily, it does take a good bit more time to load then it did 5 years ago.

[handrawn]

sgiff:

sorry if you took it as flaming - not meant that way... when I said 'bitching' it was me I was refering to, and me alone....

we are free to do what we want [subject to the usual] - if you want to bitch go ahead I say, for what that's worth

it just seemed a strange way to approach things thats all.....

PS: see steve has just come in on the subject of bloatware.. never had a problem with CS4 in this repect on my current machine..... tortoise and hare.....

[zaphodeist]

Honest, sgiff, my XXP5 takes 7 seconds - just timed it I agree with waiting to see what XXP6 has in store ... you never know!