2016 - 2017 new feature requests

[angelize]

One thing I'd like to see is a small but really useful addition to the fills and transparencies a button that would reverse the default values for the fill handles. So very very often the first thing I wind up doing when applying a transparency or a fill is to reverse the start and end values.

[iamtheblues]

As Peter said above, I wasn't going to post here, because so little advancement has been made to the vector/text side of the program in many years. Dear Xara seems to be a sop to the consumer, whose wishes seem to be at odds with those who decide the path that Xara takes. It's a huge shame, because if Xara could set to one side its apparent fixation with widgets and push-button results and just concentrate on dealing with full Open Type capabilities, we could all think twice before looking in the direction of Affinity Designer and Illustrator.
Attached is a simple graphic using a fairly ordinary font, Salamander Script. It does, however have optional ligatures that transform it into a thing of beauty.
Xara users cannot access these ligatures without using Character Map in Windows, which is a royal pain to use. For all of Illustrator's faults, it is an easy operation to get the result I've attached here.
I did use Xara's Contour Tool which is one of their better vector tools, (much better than any of the competition).
Come on Xara, for Pete's sake (and mine) sort it out for the next upgrade for goodness sake!
Bob.

[angelize]

I agree with you Bob, Magix is making a huge mistake by not putting vector development at the forefront. So I'm glad that you and Peter have posted here. Support for all the extras that can come with open type fonts is a must.

Also the brushes still need work
- ability to set heads and tails on repeating brushes
- ability to set corner pieceson repeating brushes (the deformation in sharp corners on repeating brushes is awful!!)
- ability to set transparency on art brushes
- unified controls on all brushes

Another much needed tool is a vector mesh fill some capabilities it should have are:
- the ability to easily subdivide the mesh
- the ability to set both colour and transparency to any node on the mesh

Also Development time on the dark UI is desperately needed, it needs to be user adjustable.

[Gare]

I'm asking for the same things I've been asking for since 2008.



A conversion from a typeface glyph to simple curves that doesn't go Control-Point Happy in the process. CorelDRAW produces a shape that's easy to work with. In contrast, Xara produces too many unnecessary control points, and even if using the Node Reduction feature was an adequate excuse, smoothing a curve to auto-reduce changes the shape slightly.




A calligraphy tool that has a core you can edit with the Shape tool later. The Stroke Shapes hasn't been improved since it first was introduced and both Illustrator and CorelDRAW have leapt ahead in versatility for a calligraphy brush. Why can't we create our own pressure profiles?



A Polygon tool that allows a polygon shape to be edited! Add control points, make curves into line segments and vice-versa, and let the artist add or subtract sides all along the process as I've pathetically illustrated here.

TIA,

Gary

[gwpriester]

Master pages for both print, and web. Discretionary numbering. For example starting to number pages 17 pages into a document with the front matter table of contents, introductory or preface, not numbered or numbered in lowercase roman numberals.

[angelize]

An effects panel that would be separate from the 3rd party plug ins. These effects should be built into the program and include the bevel tool, 3d, shadow tool a blur and sharpen tool that can be applied to vector shapes, feathering etc

Styles: a way to save combinations of the aforementioned effects as well as fill, stroke as a style, that could be saved and used in another document or even shared with other users.

[Igor01]

I wish editable colour and transparency gradient - as Mesh-tool in Illustrator

Igor

[Gare]

An effects panel that would be separate from the 3rd party plug ins. These effects should be built into the program and include the bevel tool, 3d, shadow tool a blur and sharpen tool that can be applied to vector shapes, feathering etc

Styles: a way to save combinations of the aforementioned effects as well as fill, stroke as a style, that could be saved and used in another document or even shared with other users.

+1 on the Gallery paradigm rather than the drop-down list.

On the subject of Text features, I'd love to be able to highlight a character in a word and move it. I misspell, I own up to it, and Word and several other programs allow you to move characters around that are highlighted. IMO, this is yet another step towards a full-featured DTP-mode for Designer.

TIA,

-

[KIR23]

I also asking all the same things I did decade ago and multiple times.

1. 16 bit color depth for depth maps and other images to use in 3d CG

2. Lighter (max), subtract, erase blending modes

3. Objects independant transform linking irrelevant to groups. Maybe names based , So I could move/scale several linked objects within different groups having all the other parts of same groups intact. Pretty much like I can in Photoshop.

4. bitmap mesh deform like in Affinity Photo with ability to tweak the mesh same way 3d soft can. Multi node editing with rotation center etc

5. Please borrow skeletal strokes from Creative house expression with its all advantages like being able to use 10 alternating bitmap pieces deforming along the curve smoothly

6. "layer/objects compositions" based on names. Basically a button to quickly show only objects with a specific name tag to quickly switch in between document states .

7. Please bring back the old Xara way to feather bitmaps with alpha as an option. When only vector borders are feathered and not the alpha itself



In general I would like Xara to cover more needs, not only web design. I used it for years for composing textures and UI ellements for 3d graphics but had to move on because of new needs and requirements in CG and Xara unfortunately didn't suit them anymore. Still would love to came back.

[Gare]

+10 on all of the above.

I, too, used to use a vector drawing program to composite rendered layers.

I finally turned to Photoshop after eons of disappointments.

-g