Photo & Graphic Designer 10 Released

[planetsquid]

Just spotted that Photo & Graphic Designer 10 has been released today.

http://www.xara.com/photo-graphic-designer/

Some nice new features, but a nothing particularly exciting. Looking forward to seeing what's in the Pro version upgrade next month.

Rich

[Michael]

Donloaded it and gave it a try.
And it leaves me wondering.
a/ What's so smart about smart shapes? They don't stick onto something. Or do I miss something?
b/ Wacom pen doesn't work out of the box. It's THE professional tool that artists use so it should have been picked up from the start. (I'll delve into the registry and fix it, but it's a shame this hasn't been resolved yet and it shrinks my anticipation for the PRO version)
c/ The 'Insert"menu is awkward and anachronistic. (or maybe I am ...) I prefer to drag and drop items in my drawings. It's still possible, i know, but the addition of an extra menu item is confusing.
d/ The online content is f no use when one is working off line (e.g. with a customer ...) and the turn to online content is not something I was waiting for.
e/ after enabling Wacom pressure sensitivity: the fast drawing circles bug still remains
d/ back up bug by disabling tabs still remains...

On the other hand, it's still blistering fast and fun to use.

[DD]

Custom Install to avoid SimpleClean !

( Can't be sure because I didn't do the regular install, but the custom defaults to installing SimpleClean )

[zaphodeist]

d/ The design gallery is still there

[gwpriester]

I wrote a First Look review here http://xaraxone.magix.net/PGD10/

I think there is a lot of cool new stuff, especially some of the new photo filters. Have a look.

[Rob-Xar]

Nice review Gary, like how you brought out the new shadow and colour tools, I had fun playing around with them :)

[mwenz]

Just spotted that Photo & Graphic Designer 10 has been released today...Some nice new features, but a nothing particularly exciting. Looking forward to seeing what's in the Pro version upgrade next month.

Isn't XDP the sum of the other products, like Web Premium + P&GD + P&LD? If that holds true, then once P&LD is released, we'll know what all is in XDP. Which so far, the list leaves me...uninspired (or worse).

Hopefully, the new Content Whatever thing is simply what Corel went to in CorelDraw et al. I really hope it works better/faster than Corel's version. Because CD's version sucks.

[MarcT]

I see there's a kind of "transform along path" in the smart shapes arrows, hope to see this feature working with any shape.
Any PDF I/O improvement is always welcome.

Marc

[gwpriester]

Rob - The attached is a pair of photos that did not make it into my First Look because of the space required.

The photo on the left is before and the photo on the right is after applying both the Shadow and Highlight Brightness filters.

The books are dark blue and tend to go much darker. The lamp shade and even the brass have bleached out a bit. Using these two filters brought out the detail in the dark books and brought out more detail and shape in the white lamp shade.

I have always been a big proponent of the Brightness Levels dialog but I have not been able to match the the effectiveness of the Shadow and Highlight Brightess filters.

Having worked with Photo & Graphic Designer 10 for a few weeks while I wrote my review, I have found that when I work in Designer Pro X9 that I really miss these two filters plus the Insert menu. I did not think I would like it but I like it a lot.

SmartShapes, such as the arrows and the pie chart smart shape offer an incredible amount of control quickly and effectively while at the same time maintaining the ability to go back and modify them. I can do a lot of the things to a not smart shape but I cannot go back at a later time and return to the original shape without quite a lot of work.

[mwenz]

@Gary...is this like Where's Waldo? I cannot easily (i.e., at all) really see a difference in the side-by-side comparison.