Xara Designer Pro X10 Released

[Big Frank]

The explanation for Xara's priorities is probably the takeover by Magix, a company whose business model is selling boxed products in Media Markt.

almost certainly, been s aying that for the past few years
but...
xdp is still the best stanbdalone allround art and design app
look how many people here use illustratar and yet prefer xara
they have a way to go in many areas
but theyre stiil way ahead in many areas

[feklee]

they have a way to go in many areas
but theyre stiil way ahead in many areas

Don't get me wrong: I love Xara's speed, its usability, and its stability. Just the world is moving on, and that forces me to look at other software packages, one reason being interoperability. I am currently toying with Inkscape. It is impressive how Inkscape has progressed over the years. Only it is dog slow, even with the new Cairo based render engine.

[handrawn]

I think he maybe talking about when Xara had a special offer last autum/winter to bring people from v7 or less up to v9. I'm not sure if it was as low as $40 but it was lower than the usual $99.

right - that would explain it thanks... but that was a special offer, not a trend... ?

xdp is still the best stanbdalone allround art and design app

surely what you mean is :

'xdp is still the best stanbdalone all round vector art and design app'

no good for raster art [as opposed to design using bitmaps] because it has no raster drawing tools, unlike say serif....

[JLX]

There is a new software on the market (from Serif) called Affinity Desingner, but for Apple OS https://affinity.serif.com/. It is CMYK application from the ground. I don't know what is Xara waiting for? They are going to be a REALLY serious competitor to Adobe products (Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher), not Xara.

Interesting. I'd never heard of Affinity (I'm not a Mac guy) but it looks really promising and affordable. It seems to be avoiding bloat and aiming at polished set of core features - an approach which I value. I wonder how it supports OpenType/ligatures etc. which are very important features (as well easy/fast/precise kerning) for me too. Shame there isn't a Windows or Linux version to try. A bigger shame that Xara isn't using it's well established expertise to fill this gap so that I wouldn't care if there was a Windows/Linux version of Affinity to try.

[Petar_MK]

From this link http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/photo...creative-cloud you can see that Serif took just 10 developers for their Mac software (Designer, Photo and Publisher) from total of 30 developers in Serif depeartment. As you can see, they are not a big team, but a very experienced and skilfull developers.

[mwenz]

Interesting. I'd never heard of Affinity (I'm not a Mac guy) but it looks really promising and affordable. It seems to be avoiding bloat and aiming at polished set of core features - an approach which I value. I wonder how it supports OpenType/ligatures etc. which are very important features (as well easy/fast/precise kerning) for me too. Shame there isn't a Windows or Linux version to try. A bigger shame that Xara isn't using it's well established expertise to fill this gap so that I wouldn't care if there was a Windows/Linux version of Affinity to try.

Serif introduced OTF features/support in their applications in 2010 if I recall properly. It has only gotten better since. So I would expect the Mac Affinity line to also support it out of the gate.

Affinity is not a rewrite of any Serif apications, but a ground up application that has been in process for at least a year before going to public beta, perhaps more than a year.

But if you are curious, sign up on their forum and ask the question. I'm sure Matt P would be happy to answer it quickly.

[JLX]

Interesting. I'd never heard of Affinity (I'm not a Mac guy) but it looks really promising and affordable. It seems to be avoiding bloat and aiming at polished set of core features - an approach which I value. I wonder how it supports OpenType/ligatures etc. which are very important features (as well easy/fast/precise kerning) for me too. Shame there isn't a Windows or Linux version to try. A bigger shame that Xara isn't using it's well established expertise to fill this gap so that I wouldn't care if there was a Windows/Linux version of Affinity to try.

From this link http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/photo...creative-cloud you can see that Serif took just 10 developers for their Mac software (Designer, Photo and Publisher) from total of 30 developers in Serif depeartment. As you can see, they are not a big team, but a very experienced and skilfull developers.

Tnx for the link Petar, good read. I like their philosophy and how their going about doing it.

Serif introduced OTF features/support in their applications in 2010 if I recall properly. It has only gotten better since. So I would expect the Mac Affinity line to also support it out of the gate.

Affinity is not a rewrite of any Serif apications, but a ground up application that has been in process for at least a year before going to public beta, perhaps more than a year.

But if you are curious, sign up on their forum and ask the question. I'm sure Matt P would be happy to answer it quickly.

I have no intention of switching to a Mac so didn't bother signing up for an account. But, as I am curious, I may do so.


However, to bring this thread back on topic: Xara/Magix, please think carefully about where you want to put your resources. If it's true, as some have suggested, that you're following the money and focusing on the majority of your user base (that don't seem to be represented in this thread) by providing static web publishing features, prefab graphics/templates and hobbyist (for lack of a better term) functionality... It may not be what I want but fair enough - that's you're prerogative. But as a $300 Designer PRO package? It just doesn't fit. Pros have different requirements which haven't been getting needed attention.

The disappointment (from me anyway) is that I believe that Xara has the ability to do something really great in this space but, for whatever reason, financial or otherwise, is opting not to. They're relying on old momentum rather than new energy to drive them. I think this is opportunity lost. As Petar said, "What are they waiting for?"

[Petar_MK]

You are welcome JLX. I am switching to Apple as soon as possible.

[Odat]

If it's true, as some have suggested, that you're following the money and focusing on the majority of your user base (that don't seem to be represented in this thread) by providing static web publishing features, prefab graphics/templates and hobbyist (for lack of a better term) functionality... It may not be what I want but fair enough - that's you're prerogative. But as a $300 Designer PRO package? It just doesn't fit. Pros have different requirements which haven't been getting needed attention.

Back when the first versions of Xara Pro came out, it really seemed like it was meant for Design Professionals, what with having Pantone support and such. I don't think that's really the focus any longer, and maybe that's where the disconnect is for everyone.

Now Xara has the Web designer, the Graphics software, the Page designer, and the Pro package that just combines all three of them together. The name Pro may just be attached because that's what it was originally referred to when it was primarily about drawing.

In such a case, the Pro version isn't really for people that are making a living doing anything so much as it is for people that do enough of A, B and C that it is cheaper and easier to purchase a version of the software that has the capabilities of all of them.

[Petar_MK]

There is another interesting piece of software named PhotoLine (www.pl32.com). Mainly, it is Photo editor, but...
It is 32/64 bit, run from USB, supports PS plug-ins, multipage docs, barcode generator, DTP, RGB, CMYK, Grayscale...
The price is 59 EUR, it is abot 79 USD.