Pen Tool

[Albacore]

I dont want to take over this thread so this is my final posting on FreeHand but I enjoyed using Freehand MX only and it was sad to see it go. In windows 8 it wont run! so as I stated Stagestruck has been developing but has run into funding problems. Over 3 years I have donated around £60 but it has stalled but have a look here: http://www.stagestack.com/pledge/

There are legal ways to download Freehand MX if you are interested.

[pauland]

Albacore, you are in mourning for FreeHand.

Stagestack looks like a dead project to me.

Imagine how the vector tools for Xara might have looked if the funds raised for Stagestack had been applied for that purpose?

[JET]

As I said, FreeHand's Pen Tool is the best I've encountered. That doesn't mean a still better Bezier drawing interface can't be devised.

What Xara users need to understand is just how far behind Xara is in this matter. It not only falls far short of FreeHand, but also of Deneba Canvas, Corel Draw, and even cumbersome and convoluted Adobe Illustrator.

Meanwhile, modest little Serif Draw's Pen Tool (more in the same class as Xara, and priced considerably lower) also puts Xara's to shame. In fact, it even has an innovation not present in FreeHand: Press Ctrl while dragging a curve point to shorten/lengthen the outgoing handle while the incoming handle remains the same length.

As I've said elsewere, this matter is Designer "Pro's" Achilles heel. The primary Bezier path drawing tool is the heart and soul of a vector drawing program. Most of those disgruntled Illustrator users will not tolerate the lack of a properly full-featured Pen tool. They'll look elsewhere.

Xara needs to get real about this. Soon.

JET

[Albacore]

No Jet I just cant sit back and let you put down Xara like this. The Shape Editor is a fast tool it has a few foibles, but no it's not always about a Pen Tool, it's about getting a shape down on a artboard. Good grief why has the shape builder tool been so successful in Illy? because its another way to quickly get a shape down without using a Pen Tool. How many variants of the Pen Tool are there in Illy to complete a shape, I think at least 2 and it is best to count 3 that is a lot of key pressing along with any constraints that you place on a node. You experiment on drawing a shape in Xara and pick your fav. vector programme and count the number of key presses that you use to get the shape you want then do the same thing in Xara using the Shape Editor and do the same count. Don't worry about the time as your not as accomplished with the programme as yet, give it a try!

Please use Dear Xara if you think something could be improved in the programme when you are doing your trial of the product. Even join in Gare's thread about what should be in the next version here: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...dn-t-have-them!)

[JET]

No Jet I just cant sit back and let you put down Xara like this.

You can't "let" me? I don't need your permission.

The Shape Editor is a fast tool...

Not compared to working proficiency with what has long since become the defacto standard interface for Bezier pen tools: click for a corner, drag for a curve, invoke a momentary key for cusps and constraints. This has happened for good reason. It works. Xara's Pen Tool is half-baked. It just doesn't measure up. And the Shape Editor tool is not a viable substitute. It's simply more efficient to fluidly draw most of a path correctly and only have to go back and adjust a few handles/segments than to have to plonk down on-path anchors and continually have to go back and adjust most handles and curves.

Good grief why has the shape builder tool been so successful in Illy?

?? For the same reasons the similar Virtual Segment tool in Corel Draw was successful years before. What does that have to do with a discussion of the Pen Tool?

You experiment on drawing a shape in Xara...give it a try!

Excuse me? What do you think I've been doing?

...your not as accomplished with the programme as yet...

Get off your pedistal. How would you know how "accomplished" I am? How "accomplished" are you in programs other than Xara? I'm just not emotionally devoted to Xara (or any other particular software). Others are. Devotees of AI or CD or DC are not devoted to Xara, either; they'll have to be won over. A substandard Pen Tool will be a deal breaker for them.

...use Dear Xara...join in Gare's thread...

I'll participate in the threads I choose, thankyouverymuch. This thread is about the Pen Tool specifically, and here's where I chose to comment on the Pen Tool.

JET

[Big Frank]

Most of those disgruntled Illustrator users will not tolerate the lack of a properly full-featured Pen tool. They'll look elsewhere.

Where?

[gwpriester]

JET - Take a deep breath and calm down.

It's a matter of preference. I find the Shape Tool much more intuitive than the Bezier Curve Pen Tool. But some prefer the Pen Tool. No big deal. It's the end results that matter.

[angelize]

@ Jet and others I think Albacore's suggestion about creating a thread in Dear Xara is a good one, the program devs do watch that thread and they will even often reply there. just list the features/improvements that you'd like to see.

Now back to the OP's questions about the Shape tool it does take practice but the shape tool can be used to quite quickly do quite accurate tracing.

Here is a video of a tracing done with the shape tool

[JET]

JET - Take a deep breath and calm down.

Calm as I can be, bud.

Frances,
You're making my point. Can you post that image somewhere?

JET

[richinri]

Frances, JET has a point...no pun intended.