Xara Designer Pro X9 Released

[Nostaw]

cmon xara
give us back the strong stinky stuff!

LOL! I think Magix would have the final say of all product feature development. Magix seems to be sure web features are the selling key (based on sale reports?)?

The 64bit update would have been a massive job by itself and very often requires a complete rewrite of most of the core. If that was the case, Xara might have planned for future integration of new tools? Who knows, it's my wishful thinking out loud.

[Know1]

http://astutegraphics.com/products/vectorscribe - Vectorscribe
http://vimeo.com/41237505 - Spiro

Those look great. (Spiro for Inkscape starting at 6:20)

I'll add Colliderscribe to this list. It would be lovely to have some of those controls directly in Designer Pro.
http://astutegraphics.com/products/colliderscribe/

Or how about DynamicSketch:
http://astutegraphics.com/products/dynamicsketch/
Repeat sketching (1:12) - Intelligent path joining (1:28)

Or check out some of the features of Livebrush:
http://livebrush.com/

I'm with Nostaw on this, I'd pay more for functionality like this directly in Designer Pro. You had Designer and you had Designer PRO. Now you have basic spin-off programs like Layout Designer/Photo & Graphic Designer/Web Designer.

In general I find Designer Pro a lot easier to use than other software, the basic features are implemented in a way that's intuitive, easy and fast. There are still a lot of things Xara can improve upon, and that's just not happening. Not a single improvement to the core vector tools. A real shame.

[FLySOLO]

wow - livebrush looks nice - just brushed around a little bit with the free version. how good is vector export with the pro version?

things like drawing aids in vectorscribe i hope to see some day in xara. like the rounding corners tool. or some of the vector filters in illustrator. eg generate a waveline or add some distortion or roughen a line.

bb,

Fly

[Rik]

The new FX button isn't available in the buttons palette. All the rest of the buttons from the photo tools flyout are there but not the FX button.

I agree with you Frances.
A few have suggested that you can drag the tool you want from the 'flyout' bars.

The problem with that, is that when you now select this tool, the 'flyout' changes to this tool as well.
So, now you have two indications of the tool.
Not good in my opinion.

[BobMoyer]

As an amateur and casual user of Xara (but an owner of every version since X1), I have one comment and one confused observation:

The observation: Several comments have been made about the missing FX button on the flyout bar, well, I have installed the 32 bit version and the FX button is available on the Photo flyout along with the clone/red eye removal, etc. What am I missing on this discussion?

The comment: Once installed (the 32 bit program on a Win7/64bit system) the desktop icon is the same as XaraProX. Is that to be expected? I would have thought that it would have been different. Likewise, if I decide to install the 64 bit version I would like to think that I could distinguish between the two versions due to them having different icons.

Thanks for the program. So far, I am having a great deal of fun with it.

Bob

[steve.ledger]

....if I decide to install the 64 bit version I would like to think that I could distinguish between the two versions due to them having different icons.

They are different, Bob

[gwpriester]

Bob - The concern with the FX tool is it used to be on the main tool bar.

The 64-bit version icon has a small 64 in the lower right corner.

[Fred vanderZee]

Still no support for dpi > 300 and pdf-export of my images still doesn't work (gets stuck on the old 28% barrier). And not much news in the vecor drawing department. Oh well, maybe next time...

[gwpriester]

Fred - Have you filled a support request at Xara.com. And can you explain what you mean by no support for dpi > 300? Do you mean resolutions that are higher than 300dpi? If so, highlight the number and key in the resolution you want.

[sdbritton]

Well, I'm a happy customer :-)

I have been around since the Corel days and have always upgraded and will continue to do so.

My attitude about upgrades is you need to support the program. There will be some years where you might not see as many improvements as others, but it's important to keep the program going. I am happy to see the 64-bit version and the addition of Google fonts. I still use Photoshop for bitmaps, but now that Xara has added features to its photo imaging, I might start using it. (Especially now that Adobe is going the subscription route.)

I use Xara almost exclusively to design web graphics and logos.

I don't see any reason to complain or feel disappointed. I use Adobe Illustrator CS6 at work and I cannot find anything that I can do in Illustrator that cannot be done in Xara. I find that Xara is faster and easier to use because it isn't filled with tons of features. Xara Designer Pro 9 is an amazing program, especially when you consider the price.