Just Released: Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 9

[handrawn]

background erase, colour replace, region tools - you done a good job - looking forward to the pro release

[slavelle]

So I downloaded the demo. I was looking at the "replace color" in the first look and in the example it says how to change the color of a navigation bar. So I figured I'd use that as a jumping off point...

But I can't find the Create Navigation Bar command anymore - would usually be in the arrange menu but it's not there any more. Not grey - just not there. And there are no demo web templates included in the demo or any navigation bars in the demo designs gallery. Now, I don't really use this feature often, as I usually just use Xara for the graphics part of the sites I build custom templates for in Joomla, but I found it odd that they would've removed this feature.

Am I missing it somewhere? Did they just recraft how it works again?

Thoughts?

[steve.ledger]

Perhaps you are thinking of Web Designer or Designer Pro Scott?
Photo & Graphic Designer is the replacement to the old Xara Xtreme. Geared towards Graphics rather than web.

See the comparison list here
► http://www.xara.com/us/products/designer/compare/

[slavelle]

Yeah - maybe so. I've never used P & GD. But I thought each higher version had all the features of the lower version plus some. I guess not!

And so now I feel like I'm losing my mind: I just looked back at the "first look" article and sure enough there's no mention of the navbar color replacement. What the heck was I reading that showed exactly that? Hmmm...ah - it was the Web Desinger 9 first look article. But I guess here's where I mentally merged these - there's some text on the P&GD article talking about the color replacer that says "If you have a Navigation Bar or buttons that you are using for a website, you can edit both the visible MouseOver button as well as colors for the button on the MouseOff layer which is hidden behind the MouseOver button"...you can see how I might have thought those features would be there, right?

Anyway - kind of strange that the export as website options are still in there, as are things like the 955px webpage base template, the mouseover layer, the option for "this document is intended to be a webpage", the "page background" right click menu with things like "tiled", "fixed" and "scrolling" as options, none of which would be useful outside of the context of a website - but they would remove some of the web options from the intermediate application.

I'm also a bit confused as to which things are really new vs. named something different or just added to P & GD where they maybe used to be pro-only features. For example, the "shape painter" tool. In the new version it's called shape painter, in Designer Pro X there was a tool with the same icon called shape builder. I played around with the two and aside from a few gui changes on the top bar (notably a size slider added and the sketch mode removed), I don't see a difference.

I really AM looking forward to the embedded Google Font selector to come to the Pro version, as I like to use things outside of the standard web-safe font list, but it's a pain to deal with downloading all the fonts individually as you must do currently to work with the Google font library and being able to design with a choice of those fonts is much better than having to sift through them all online, removed from the design to try to imagine which variation on a slab-serif font you might want that day!

I also look forward to the better background eraser and the seemingly easier/better object removal options that are sure to come in the Pro version as well. I know a lot of these features are there in varying degrees already, but it looks like their interfaces and abilities have been cleaned up a bit. But I do have to say that, which the example removal of an orange background from some blueberries looks impressive, most images the we have to deal with removing backgrounds on are not so color-opposite and harder to get seperation. I'm glad for the removal of the slight white haze, as this constantly plagues me with taking a jpg off a white background, but we'll see how this all works out in the real-world practice, I suppose.

[camelot217]

Just caught up with the 5/21 announcement and the comments above. I've got Pro X -- and have already downloaded the eval of WD9, and now see P&GD9... really would love the v9 of Pro! Of course I'd like to see you guys get it as solid as you can and iron out bugs before release -- but I'm really looking forward to the upcoming release. I've got a great new project that would be perfect for it. Would love to be able to use the full product, rather than piecemeal it with evals of WD9 and P&GD9. Fingers crossed for an imminent release of a fantastic product!

I'm in the same boat as you Jon. Several projects that requires bits from each of these new releases. So much better to have them all in one! I hope it is here soon too!

[FlyRed]

I'm in the same boat as you Jon. Several projects that requires bits from each of these new releases. So much better to have them all in one! I hope it is here soon too!

Hi,

I am new to Xara and this web site. Do they offer upgrade pricing? I do not see anything on the web, but I just bought the 2013 version. I am thinking of switching from Corel Draw, which is more than I want to keep paying. So I would like to upgrade, but I do not see an upgrade path on the Xara web Site..

THANKS

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics FlyRed

CorelDRAW, what's that? (Just kidding).

Have you looked at this page http://www.xara.com/us/photo-graphic-designer/buy/

[jon404]

If anybody knows -- who made the artwork for the P&GD 9 splash screen? It is really good, very professional, and I, for one, would like to congratulate the artist on their design. Way to go!

[jonazen]

I'm in the same boat as you Jon. Several projects that requires bits from each of these new releases. So much better to have them all in one! I hope it is here soon too!

Very frustrating -- I have 2 days left on the eval of the new Web Designer, and no sign of v9 of Pro-X on the horizon yet. Also frustrating that virtually NONE of the elements such as nav bars are included. I can look at them, but not use them unless I purchase. I don't generally use the prebuilt stuff as a cookbook because I don't like cookbook results, but these have always been a great starting point for me, help tremendously in prototyping, and can then be modified or replaced as I firm up a design.

It's a shame -- I wish Xara / Magix would consider an idea such as:
- let us license these separate packages as they become available
- when Pro-X v9 is released, allow us to "upgrade" to it, crediting us with whatever we paid on WD9 and P&GD9. They could also disable the license for the other two products.

No doubt there are logistics issues involved, in case people pirate copies of the software so it can't be decommissioned. But this shouldn't be any different than normal pirating management processes and procedures.

If Xara would consider doing this, I would sign up immediately for both WD9 and P&GD9, and upgrade to Pro-X the moment v9 was available. Seems like a win-win for everyone -- and Xara would actually benefit by getting more revenue, sooner, and "locking in" more customers earlier in the product release cycle.

If any Xara executives are watching...please consider this!!!

[xtom]

Or you could just resist the temptation of WD and P&GD and wait for the Designer Pro. I know it's hard to ignore all the exciting new stuff but it makes for a less interrupted work flow