Xara has to concentrate on vectors if it wants to be used by professionals, take the example of Illy and that is where the money and the numbers for sales are.
Why is it used by so many print based companies:-
Because it produces a quality PDF,
Consistent colour in both RGB and CMYK.
It has got a good Text engine
Can it be used to produce small brochures - Yes
Has it got enough vector tools - probably too many
Can it integrate with other applications easily - Yes all that you have to do is look at its export list.
Can it be used by many different types of designers easily - yes for web to high end mags including cartoonists.

Where does Xara stand in the market place at the moment? Well it has a niche market for home user that want to use their own printer or even do the occasional bigger jobs. Some might say it is easy to make simple websites with the tools available. Here I would agree at the moment but wait a couple of years and I think that the way CMS is developing then even this will be over taken as it is nearly drag and drop now.

Now you are going to say why is a moderator saying all of these things against Xara and why do you still use Xara. Well I am comfortable with it firstly and it is so easy for people to pick up. Having said all that and after now working with Illy over the last really 8 years I am now just as comfortable with that. I used to use Xara in my day job for laying everything out as I was much quicker than my collogues in my vector work and then bringing it across into Illy for the final part like adjusting the colour and other small jobs. In my current work I produces literature for the NHS from local newsletter to national handouts and info sheets and I find now I am doing more and more with Illy. I am not saying that I still don't use Xara for still some of my work but is is less now than it was.

Now that was a rant and I apologise as this is a request topic for the next version of XPro. What that I want to see is certainly the brushes sorted and a few more usable vector tools so that I will use Xara as my first tool.