Xara DPX update available - 15.1

[handrawn]

is it worth the subscription cost, I don't think so.

the fixes are welcome but reasons to upgrade from ver 12 are not there for me either

[rsrsrs]

i have not problem to pay money for new features,
but paying for bug fixes´
is a pita.

BTW, the decision what looks poor and what not is done by me and my customers.
And i would like to override your error.


When stretching text or images using the Selector Tool top, bottom and side handles, Designer will try to avoid distorting them, because usually distorted text and images look poor. However you can now override this and stretch or squash the image/text by holding down the Alt key as you drag."

update: sorry i did delete some wrong quoting

[webmaster]

Is "snap to object" work to these blue handle ? Without the "snap to object" it is impossible to use productively!!!
However, this is not written releasenotes ... most likely not working(((. "Snap to ..." are the basics of working with vector images! How much can you expect to do ...

Smart snapping is currently only fully implemented when the old bound handles are enabled - which you can do by selecting the 'show selection bounds handles' control from the Selector Tool InfoBar.

[handrawn]

"Other New Content
When stretching text or images using the Selector Tool top, bottom and side handles, Designer will try to avoid distorting them, because usually distorted text and images look poor. However you can now override this and stretch or squash the image/text by holding down the Alt key as you drag."

so asymmetric change to aspect ratio is automatically 'distortion' is it ?

[webmaster]

Sorry to say but still no fix for the zoom to object bug which has been known about for at least 3 years.

Hi Christine, can you give a bit more detail on that and I'll check the status for you, thanks, Kate

[webmaster]

i have not problem to pay money for new features,
but paying for bug fixes (which xara described as New Content)
is a pita.

BTW, the decision what looks poor and what not is done by me and my customers.
And i would like to override your error.


"Other New Content
When stretching text or images using the Selector Tool top, bottom and side handles, Designer will try to avoid distorting them, because usually distorted text and images look poor. However you can now override this and stretch or squash the image/text by holding down the Alt key as you drag."

I think I'd better step in to avoid any further confusion on this - this quote about changes to the Selector Tool is from the 'Other Improvements' section of the Release Notes, but if you are interested in finding out what the new content is, you'll find it under Other New Content, page 8 @ http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/designer-pro/

[Christine Farrelly]

Kate, thank you for your reply. You really need to try this to understand. Draw a small shape on the page switch to the fill tool and select a fill type (the fill handles show) now go to the zoom percentage and select zoom to selected. If your not aware of this bug you won't believe what happens without seeing it.

[ss-kalm]

Not only that, the ZOOM FACTOR - SELECTED and the Toolbar Icon ZOOM TO SELECTION work very bizarrely, as they seem to zoom in multiple stages. I'd expect them both to zoom to a fixed area (i.e the selected object) but if you use either multiple times, they change the zoom factor each time they are used - they should zoom to the same position every time.

[MarcT]

Although interesting for occasional situations, this will not improve my daily work.

What would really help :

Art brushes are amazing, but without proper control of stroke offset, pressure profiles they kind of fall short.
It’s like if 90% pecent of the heavy lifting is done and the rest is abandoned at the finish line.

Mould tool is in need of improvement, bitmap warping is a must.
Warp deform brush should also work on bitmaps.

I love Designer and its my everyday workhorse, the productivity details still makes it the most efficient tool for my work.
I just hope the developpers also puts some love in the creation tools.

Thanks

[handrawn]

it depends what the creative focus is

if in ver 15 xara didn't initially understand/facilitate creative warping of bitmaps - bearing in mind that not all bitmaps are photographs [and even then...] - I would guess the creative focus must have been on 'photo gallery' websites and page design by 'fixed asset'

I do hope the true creativity focus returns