Bouton's Features Wish List for version 9

[Gare]

I've been requesting a few features for several versions, and some of this might be re-runs, but here goes.

Sometimes wishes come true. :)

• I'd like dynamic Smart Shape tool, where the result of creating a polygonal shape can be modified at any time in the future, with the capability to add control points, subtract them, and change control point as well as path segment properties. These took about 5 seconds in CorelDRAW. Xaraists should be able to do it in 2 seconds. Draw has had this feature since version 5.



• I'd like a bigger set of options, features, controls over the Shape Builder tool. I'd love to be able to draw a tapered end to a shape: CorelDRAW has a "dry-out" feature with their similar "paint a shape" tool, that essentially makes the path narrower as you finish a stroke. It would be a hoot to offer the user a way to design the brush shape, not just direction, but the "leading edge", and the ability to use it as a "skip brush", making anything from cookie cutter shapes to dashed lines in a custom pattern.

• I'd like the ability to make my own Brush Profiles. Some of the tapered presets produce too sharp at point at either end, and it would simply give the artist more control and expression to be able to make their own brush tip. The Saw Tooth is a good preset that has the potential to be great if the artist could make this tip them selves by drawing a tip, and then using some feature to capture the shape as a brush tip.

• I'd like a true B-Spline tool, please? The Shape tool, in an average professional designer's hands, isn't as fast as a B-Spline tool and about 1/2 hour's practice. I used to hate B-Splines until I discovered how to use the off-path control "hull" to quickly make perfectly smooth curves, French curve-style.

•And Phil mentioned that it's do-able to make a brush-type tool that can be used to roughen and/or push the edge or a shape on the page, sort of like Silly Putty. And this has been a feature in the competitors for several versions.

• Calligraphic strokes. Xara 8 is very close with one of the Shape Builder options, but you can't use a stylus right now and create true calligraphy.

I run what I think is a conservative screen resolution, 1280 x 1024 on a 4 by 3 ratio monitor, and there is plenty of room on the toolbox for more drawing tools. And you could go two columns...and get rid of the flyouts that actually require some practice to be able to choose the tool you need, especially if you're used to other programs with flyouts.

• A model for the Mould tool that allows control points to be added, and control point properties to be (more easily) changed. How would a Xaraist create a logo, for example, that's cigar shaped or requires, say, a pentagon of control points?
• I'd like to see more organization, that is my wish and my point. As Xara has grown, you've gotten into a few bitmap functions that I feel should be grouped. In fact, I feel that bitmap functions should be on a gallery. By doing this, you keep bitmap tools out of the way of artists who are solely interested in vector tools, and for someone who is even the slightest bit experienced with Photoshop, a gallery—a palette with everything Xara can do to modify a bitmap—puts masks, plug-ins, Levels, other tone and hue adjustments, all under one easy-to-find roof. It's taking me longer than I feel it should to find stuff, and although there clearly is more to work with, Xara was "Spartan" for many, many years—the Galleries would just come up and tuck away, instead of this new sidecar deal that I don't think a lot of people like in Photoshop and CorelDRAW.

Add to this the Dark UI, and it just feels cramped and more disorienting than need be. My suggestion to segregate the bitmap features is just a suggestion. If I could get more advanced path-drawing features, I'd live with the clutter! It's not a #1 priority on my Wish List.

It would also help alleviate some clutter, because as the features have grown, the UI is denser around the edges than when a lot of us first started out.

I hope I'm not talking to a wall here, and I'm honestly suggesting, not complaining.

For the sake of comparison, this is an example of a complaint: "WHY DO YOU GUYS MAKE YOU NAME SHAPES in FLASH ANIMATIONS???!"

:)

My Best,

Gary

[gwpriester]

Can anybody post in this thread?

[handrawn]

some thoughts on what you said Gare:

even if its not possible [yet] to have custom stroke shapes it would be good to have the option of drawing the existing ones starting from either end of the shape - ok you can reverse the path afterwards but that's not exactly dynamic

the shape builder tool could do with an option to draw in absolute as well as screen pixels

a B-spline tool is not as fast as a freehand brush and a couple of years practice [ok - this, though true enough, is tongue in cheek ]

[Gare]

Can anybody post in this thread?

@ Gary, I have no idea what you mean here. I posted elsewhere and was questioned for doing so, and you know that.

So here's the public post, as sledger suggested.

-g

@handrawn,

Interesting take on my Wish List. You didn't really disagree with anything so much as refine my thoughts, thanks for that.

[angelize]

That's a good wish list! How ever the plugins are something that you maybe don't want to tuck away from the vector side of things, Xara's plug ins can be applied to vector shapes and/or groups just as easily as to a photo and one thing that most don't seem to take note of is that the LIVE in live effects makes them very useful. You can apply a live effect to a vector group at 300 dpi (or even more if you want) and if you resize that group up from say logo size to sign size the program will reapply the effect to your much larger vector group at 300dpi (or what ever you have set on the info bar)

And while we are talking plug ins how about vector plug ins? Why not get in touch with the authors of some of the utilities that are gathering dust in the archives of the Xara Xone and look at turning them into plug ins that can easily be accessed from within the program? Things like Spray and SPX by Dmitry Malutin for example, update them and turn them into a plug in. I realize that vector plug ins are a whole different critter than the Photoshop plug ins but hey as long as we are wishing

[Rik]

I think Gary was asking if we can add to the wish list in this thread.

Well, if you can, then here's mine.
If not, then please feel free to delete this post.

I'm not sure anyone's mentioned this, but doing shadows is something that is problematic, in my opinion.
If you want to draw a shadow that is sharp near the object and then gets softer further away, this is difficult to do.
The way I do it, is by combining two or three images and using transparency etc... Very cumbersome and sometimes a bit hit and miss.

My thought was that if you could have graduated feathering, then this could be used on the shape that you've drawn for the shadow.

Does this make sense?

[Big Frank]

No idea if anybody ever listens to me but for what it's worth I would like to second what Gary has suggested/recommended/requested. All of those things would make for an even more professional vector drawing application and in some cases, like the brush and mould tools, are way overdue.

[Albacore]

I honestly think that Gary (Gare) has hit the nail on the head with this list!
The Dynamic Shape Builder Tool:- Would it not be easier to do this with a stronger more dynamic Duplicate Tool? Using the origin and the using "Ctrl+Shift+D" and if the origin was not moved it would be linear or conversely it would be on a arc (circular0.
The Advances Using Shape Builder Tool:- I am all for anything that just restricts Xara being used as a scatter brush. We need some form of sophistication with this tool.
Brush Profile:- This has been my gripe for many years. Just don't like Xara brushes and line controls.
B-Spline Tool:- This is the only one I have doubts over. In Tech. Drawing the spline tool can be bent into most reasonable curve shapes but a computer programme must use some form of maths to construct curves. In French curves you have a set which can be used so that with trial & error you will be able to get the curve that you want with a selection process. If my memory is correct in some paint programmes you had the ability to click the mouse, the smaller clicks away from your starting point in the X axis would give you steeper curves, the larger the clicks on Y axis would also do the same. Very hard to be accurate much easier to use Freehand Brush and then use the Bezier points to edit.
The Silly Putty Tool:- Not a big fan of the way Illy & Corel do this, hardly ever use it, but I do frequently use the Blob Tool in Illy that would be worthwhile.
User Defined Calligraphy Brush:- Would be outstanding to have. Lines drawn in Xara are too clean! they look artificial. This is where any of the competition has Xara beaten hands down.
Tool UI:- It is hard now to buy a PC package with a 4:3 ration as most are aimed now at watching movies and playing games so palettes/galleries are not an issue I think. It is having both on the interface which clutters it up if you use the default. (not well explain).
Mould Tool:- Yes in one.
Tool Organisation:- I would love to see one single button that would bring up vector tools/ a button for bitmap tools. This could be done using various methods but restructuring needs to happen. It is like AI where really powerful features are so well hidden that nobody uses them would not like to see that happen in Xara but it is happening already with Live Effects.
Dark UI:- Not worried about this at all.

A well written request list which should be treated seriously and it has my backing really for all. Maybe the Pro version should be loaded with all Gary's suggestions which are all vector in there nature and a Lite version should be marketed with what is available at the moment.

[gwpriester]

1. Pantone spot color support for bitmaps exported in PDF.
2. Support for true Grayscale export.
3. Support for Glyphs in Text mode.
4. Return to the selected font in the Fonts drop down list instead of always returning to the first fonts on the list. This would be really helpful when you are auditioning fonts.
5. Customizable forms module that is not a widget but part of the web design features.
6. Automatic page numbering, plus headers and footers.
7. Remember the folder where a document or website was last published. Store this info in the document.
8. SUPPORT FOR NON-FLASH ANIMATION
9. Option to open a published website in the browser (the physical site, not the file)
10. Highlight current page in drop down menus in the same way as on the main level pages.
11. On 4 Color Fills, each control point is independent so user can apply this to a skewed rectangle or rhomboid.

More as they occur

[Gare]

@Rik—

You are certainly welcome, as all members are, to contribute and extend this wish List. After all, we might (and apparently do) have overlapping wishes/needs, but as individuals, we certainly have unique ones.

Interesting that you want a tool that automates the creation of shadows with diffuse falloff. You do realize that this is a highly specialized request, and I’d hesitate to throw 5 programmers onto this feature when there are so many other, much more basic features a lot of people want? FYI, the type of shadow you’re looking for is sometimes called an “Area Shadow” in modeling programs, and it is very processor-intensive to calculate, more so than a simple bitmap (soft) shadow map, or a raytraced hard shadow.

@Gary P.—Thank you for these “Production-oriented” additions to the list. I wasn’t really considering our professional program here for some of its output capabilities, but to have them would push Xara farther toward the “Professional Design Program” that people have been grousing about, with Xara’s apparent attention to the “hobbyist stuff” recently.

FWIW, I feel some of the features set, and some of Xara’s advertising, is not on the mark, because of a psychological truth. All novices want simple features that produce expected results, but no novice wants to be seen with an “amateur program.” My sister-in-law insisted on using PageMaker for years even though a word processor would have cost far less, and all she used it for was word processing. The point? She wanted the prestige, the Bragging Power! So, Dear Xara: it’s okay, in fact many of us want your pitch to new customers to be that Xara Designer is a professional level program. It won’t put off many novices, not with its current price tag!

@albacore—

I think there has to be some way of reconciling the Shape Builder and the Pressure Profiles features so that defining both a shape and a pattern for a tool is within our reach. I’m attaching a ruffle-edge postcard file that I went through hell and back to create, because Xara doesn’t have an easy feature to define the basic outline pattern and then let it repeat across a rectangular shape.



I created the basic shape by tracing over a scan of a Fiskars Paper Edges scissors cut, copied it to the clipboard, and then pasted it into Microsoft Expressions Public Beta 3 from 1995. Interesting, Microsoft can take a path copied from Xara (and not a bitmap), and it can access the Adobe Illustrator ClipBoard, although I understand you might need to pay a licensing fee to Adobe Systems unless you can clean room the feature. I defined and applied this little snippet of a path pattern, exported as a PDF, and somewhat pointlessly got it back into Xara—I suppose I could have finished by design in Expressions, but the tools aren’t as fast to work with as Xara’s.

I’d like this sort of feature with the Strokes/Pressure Profiles, I’d like to see the AICB feature in Xara so I can paste a path into Photoshop any time I like. But most of all, I’d like to be able to work in Xara, creating what I’m thinking up or paid to think up, with as few excursions to other programs as possible.


I don’t think there’s anything exotic on my Wish List.

My Best,

Gary