Wish List for V12

[mwenz]

...I hate the fact that I'm constantly having to scrub up and down the panel trying to locate a particular colour the client has selected. Hell even a search facility would be a giant leap, but that's and entirely different discussion and pretty much unlikely ever to happen...

Oops. Forgot to mention the Pantone swatches comment I was going to add.

I am using the version 2 palettes. I took the 10 minutes or so to sort the colors by number. While Pantone (the company) would frown upon my so donig, it sure makes for easier finding of particular color numbers.



Xara does really need to add a search facility for the palettes. Else opt to simply sort them.

Mike

[handrawn]

more or less what I said last august :

1] clipping
When you are adding highlights and shadows to a drawing one classic way of doing this is to constrain the visibility of what you are adding as you add it – my preference is to use photoshop style clipping, in other words the ability to ‘paint’ or ‘contrain’ objects you are creating within the boundaries of an existing [clipping] object as you add them – in xara you cannot do this, you can only clip afterwards so you cannot actually see what you are doing in realtime – you can edit afterwards, but this is not organic it is a real time waster

2] brushes
custom brushes need any overhaul, this has been well covered. But for me a greater priority would be absolute pixel nibs for the shape builder tool, thereby bringing it into line with inkscape’s calligraphy tool – otherwise when using the angled nib to draw with, as opposed to editing, you cannot zoom at will and keep the nib size relative to the drawing -this has been done, thanks - but better vector support, and a greater range of fixed nib size would be welcome; as would being able to set a head and tail object in a repeating art brush, and vary the repetition spacing [as in creature house expression 3]

3] layers
It has been said that groups in xara are the equivalent of layers in photoshop – ok, but this is not helpful if you are porting from xara to photoshop in PSD; you really do then need nested layers otherwise organisation in photoshop and equivalent editors is difficult


4] group editing
Following on from 1] there is often a difficulty with xara drawing in that you cannot see the actual results in real time – another example of this is group editing: being able to edit within a group by double clicking is great, but you cannot see the effect in context until you save and exit the group – how to solve? I guess you could have an optional view rest of document behind [locked of course], or you could make the new view update in real time

[digitalphaser]

Some lyrics:

The most common lnternet languages are English, Russian and German.
In Russian and German Internet-segment, the last mention of the Xara dates from about 2007.
In some "best graphic software" rankings, Xara is not even mentioned (at least in Germany).
I remember that in the each advertising agencies had a couple of designers, who had Xara Xtreme on a virtual Windows machine. And now?
Xara is no longer considered to be a professional software. Xara is no longer popular.

Strange marketing, right?

Nevertheless, I find Xara incredibly comfortable, easy and fast tool for all kinds of tasks.

I like Xara and of course I want Xara(as graphical tool) to be developed further.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Is Xara web design tool?

I do not mind to have a web feature too. But I find the strategy of "absolute positioning" a self-defeating. It is good for a hobby sites. But for more or less serious work the strategy like "Bootstrap" and same frameworks more progressive and forward-looking. Webpage with a flexible layout can be filled with dynamic content and more...

Is flash animation now necessary? A more promising direction is an interactive SVG animation or Canvas. I think that in Xara work experienced JS developers. Reprogramming flash to inline SVG is possible.
GIF with trasition effects is good too.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And now a few wishes. I understand that it's not real, but dreaming is not harmful.

UI:

1. It would be nice to store the user interface(buttons, panels) as preset. After Xara’s crash(it happens sometimes with large documents) disappear all custom buttons.
2. Galerie management. For example: I use Xara for many years, but never used the design gallery. I would like to delete not needed and create my own design library.

Vector Tools:

1. Vector brush must be vector. It is applies to art brush.
2. More setting options for art brushes. This feature is well implemented in all known vector editors (including DrawPlus). Why not in Xara?
3. The ability to create vector patterns(fills) like bitmap fill.
4. Smoothing tool.
5. More precise drawing tools (Interpolate Spline, Control Point Spline).



Typography:

1. Baseline Grid.
2. Open type font features

Export:

1. Please complete color management.
2. CMYK PSD export
3. Support guidelines for AI, EPS, PSD export.
4. PS smart object would be super.

Bitmap:

1. Complete transform tool (Skew, Distort, Perspective, Warp etc.) for bitmap. Now any manipulations with raster graphics are unpossible.
2. More transparency types.
3. Select pixels from transparent bitmap.

Boo!

[angelize]

Great input here so far! A cut off date for posting wishes has been suggested by the Xara devs of the 15th. At that point I'll take a day or two to compile a top 10 list and put together a survey. The link will be posted as soon as it's ready and you will have until the 31 to rate each feature request.

The results will be made public and they will also be sent to the Xara Developers.

[pauland]

A cut off date for posting wishes has been suggested by the Xara devs of the 15th.

Seems very soon. People will hardly have had enough time to get used to V11 to know what will enhance that version. I can't help but imagine that the priority should be to capture a good set of requests, not a quick set of requests.

[angelize]

Wishlists usually end up containing every possible feature that the program doesn't yet have. Not really surprising when you think about it...

What would be more useful to us (Xara) is a weighted list so that we know which features would satisfy the most people.

If the community could organise that somehow within the next month it would help in deciding what will be in V12.

Obviously we can't make any promises about which features will be in the next release because there are complex strategic resourcing and marketing pressures involved as well.

Phil

These dates were passed along to me from the Devs My guess is that they need to start planning soon for next year's new versions.

[pauland]

They should know half the wishlist already and they risk missing the other half because people haven't played with V11 for long enough.

For example, Gary's hipster site. What an impact that has had. Imagine how people's wants will change when they've had time to play.

I wasn't doubting that the timescale came from the developers, Frances.

I'd say if a great idea comes forward between now and next January, they should act upon it.

[handrawn]

if this is a version 12 specific list. and I believe it is, surely january is too late...

[pauland]

It's never too late for a good idea..

Anyway, lets not flog my thought to death. There's little time to come up with suggestions!

[handrawn]

the implementation I am thinking of, not the idea - it takes many mice a long time to bell a cat