Well, in terms of intuitive functionality, is there a way to place a light source?

When you create an object with a cast shadow that goes along the floor, it is difficult to cast shadows on other objects consistently so that all the shadows feel like they are all on the same floor plane. The solution is to eyeball it.

What I would like to see is an indication of where the light source is. Similar to the vanishing point with a mould, you should be able to see where the light is coming from. Once you pinpoint it, you could put an intersection of guidelines at that location and make it so that other objects that have shadows all have light sources that originate from the same point. It would be nice to be able to drag colors to the origin point of the light source. Or if the light point was selected, you should be able to click on colors to update the shadow color.

By that same token, I realize that the shadow is probably generated, by duplicating the shape, filling it with color and skewing it, so there is no real light logic that Xara is following.

In order to create the illusion that light is coming from above, you have to clone the object, fill it with a shadow color and compress it vertically, as the default shadow tool casts a shadow that is sometimes not attached to the object.

I like the shadow function, I just wish it didn't choke my machine when there is a lot of text.

Again, more wishful thinking on my part. I would just like to a new version that resolves my pdf issues.

Sheff
www.sheff.com