Pro X9 user needs advice on current versions

[Contours]

@Egg Bramhill: Thanks for that clear comparison. It's a real eye-opener for trying to guess "what are the developers thinking?" It also provides an excellent basis for evaluating any other illustration software.

@Acorn: Thanks for the additional information. I would pick Page & Layout Designer were it not for the issues you've mentioned. 32-bit isn't a problem ... but having it shelved by the developers certainly is.

@pauland: You ask "on what basis?" The answer is two-fold. 1. Xara Pro X9 has amazing tools for illustration. 2. I haven't found any comporable package. So my question is: what would you recommend?

Conclusions at this point:
Page & Layout Designer is an apparent "winner", except that its on its way out.
Web Designer Premium lacks PDF Export for some reason. Otherwise, it's a viable choice, its name notwithstanding.
Both lack the Photo Healing Tool ... which is about the only photo feature I ever use for gathered images, and which others would find useful.

But, mainly: there is not a great choice among the current offerings.

Thanks, again, for all the information.

[pauland]

@pauland: You ask "on what basis?" The answer is two-fold. 1. Xara Pro X9 has amazing tools for illustration. 2. I haven't found any comparable package. So my question is: what would you recommend?

You haven't found a comparable package because Xara is the only swiss-army knife design package I know of.

I absolutely love Xara software, but in terms of capability for drawing and now on price it has been matched and superseded by an alternative. If you take Xara as an all-in-one tool there is little to compare it with, but on many fronts it has serious shortcomings and I'd say it's long-term future with Magix is questionable. A swiss-army knife cuts things, and it has scissors but you wouldn't use it to carve your Sunday roast, or cut out a clothes pattern. Xara does a lot well, but falls behind on so many fronts.

So specifically, I would say that Xaras clear and obvious competitor is the Affinity series of software, which beats it hands-down on price and capability. There are places where Xara can do better but those are few and while I can understand why people who have used Xara in the past continue to do so, I really don't see it as software to recommend to other people unless they want a jack-of-all-trades tool and need to make basic static websites.

The three affinity programmes together tackle everything that Xara does besides website creation and generally they do it better.

Since you specifically mentioned illustration, there's Affinity Designer. Supports CMYK for a start. No issues on high-res screens either..

You can always find niches where Xara is better and I think many of us were fortunate when Affinity was super cheap (it's now just under £50 per program), so I really would recommend anyone to go for Affinity before Xara, particularly if they are looking for industry acceptance - there is growing acceptance of Affinity software in professional circles, and absolutely no acceptance of Xara.

Check out Affinity if you haven't already done so. It doesn't make websites. It doesn't do everything in one program.

Paul

[mwenz]

...
@pauland: You ask "on what basis?" The answer is two-fold. 1. Xara Pro X9 has amazing tools for illustration. 2. I haven't found any comporable package. So my question is: what would you recommend?

...
Both lack the Photo Healing Tool ... which is about the only photo feature I ever use for gathered images, and which others would find useful.

But, mainly: there is not a great choice among the current offerings. ...

Xara Photo & Graphic Designer fits your requirements, including the healing tool. It is also quite inexpensive.

Whether or not "industry acceptance" is important to you is a matter to consider. I generally never share my design files, so it isn't important to me. Whether the learning curve + different capabilities (and lacking some capabilities) in Affinity Designer is/isn't important to you, it should be still useful to install the trial (14 days or less from first run up. I don't know what it is these days) and check it out.

My thoughts on AD? For what I design, it isn't worth it. I want to like it, but don't for several reasons.