Should I update?

**Helle** · 30 August 2015, 10:25 PM

Not sure if I should update from X. I use Xara mainly for vector graphics, and it's doing fine. Looking at the update, all I see is web and image update. Nothing about the vector part, which I believe Xara is very strong at? It's like Xara only focus on being a web/image thingy. What happend to the vector side of Xara, or is it me not being able to find any information?

**Fred C** · 31 August 2015, 01:55 AM

Suggest you download the trial version and check it out.
http://www.xara.com/us/designer-pro/download/

**PhilM** · 31 August 2015, 09:07 AM

It's always worth updating because, apart from the headline features (and there are some new vector features in V11), every update has a range of valuable stability, performance, compatibility and usability improvements.

But I would say that... ;-)

Phil

**iamtheblues** · 31 August 2015, 11:06 AM

Why not keep both on your machine?
There is a drawback if you use brushes in the new version, whilst they are very pretty to look at, they are not vectors.
I'd keep an earlier version alongside just for this purpose.
Bob.

**PhilM** · 31 August 2015, 03:32 PM

To clarify: Art-brushed strokes are fully editable vectors while they are in Designer. (Draw a stroke and zoom in on it, change it and zoom in again - everything remains smooth).

However they often have to be committed to bitmaps when exporting to other formats or when converting line to shape - and even then they are output as bitmap fills within vector shapes.

In the upcoming patch we have improved things so that exporting and convert line to shapes will output vector versions more often. But remember that there's no way to represent a graduated fill in vector form after it has been fitted to a curve in an art brush stroke - such things have to be converted to bitmap fills.

Phil

**iamtheblues** · 31 August 2015, 04:48 PM

Thanks for the clarification, Phil. Brushes made with just vector shapes in V X10 would happily copy over to Illustrator as vectors. I use them a lot for such things as vector borders and frames.
Sadly that is no longer the case with V 11. It just seems a bit of a retrograde step to me. As I said earlier, the new brushes do look very good.
I appreciate what you have explained and look forward to a future patch.
Bob.

**Acorn** · 31 August 2015, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by Helle

Not sure if I should update from X. I use Xara mainly for vector graphics, and it's doing fine. Looking at the update, all I see is web and image update. Nothing about the vector part, which I believe Xara is very strong at? It's like Xara only focus on being a web/image thingy. What happend to the vector side of Xara, or is it me not being able to find any information?

If you can still produce good artwork, stick with what you know. If you are in any way commercial, upgrade.

Acorn

**Helle** · 06 September 2015, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Acorn

If you can still produce good artwork, stick with what you know. If you are in any way commercial, upgrade.

Acorn

Not sure what you mean by commercial?. I am working for clients. Any image/web work I use Adobe. Just wanted to know if the vector tools etc. is any better than the Xara Pro I have

**gwpriester** · 06 September 2015, 02:36 PM

Commercial means you are a design professional and you can justify the upgrade price as a business expense.

My unbiased opinion is this is a very good upgrade with a lot of cool new features. I would definitely upgrade.

**Helle** · 06 September 2015, 02:47 PM

Thanks for all the input....
iamtheblues: thanks for the tip regarding "transfer" to Illustrator.
Hmm, wish the Xara guys would keep focus on the vector side of Xara. It's so much faster to draw in than other vector programs.
I rarely use brushes with fancy effects. I need to be able to export, without any issues, to other programs.
So I think I will wait a while :-)