Not much graphics chat on Talk Graphics any more

[Acorn]

I attach a screen grab from a "What's New" search earlier today and it shows what some of us feared on the forum when Xara unleashed Web Designer.
Not much Talk about graphics these days. Most talk is either about Web design or Magic/Xara's extremely complicated pricing structure.

Bob, there is always web chatter around a new version of Xara Web Designer - the hint is in the name. So Xara has offered up 166 Business Templates and "improved" CSS3 features so it is a big plus for them to drive us all on-line to these resources. This is pure marketing as the numbers people see value in scooping up newbies interested in building for the web. Those of you who are genuine graphic artists just knuckle done and craft wonderful images but keep the tools they know (Xara Xtreme), which has no market revenue for Xara whatsoever. If I had any artistic skill, I probably be working with ArtWorks. Give Gare a burnt stick and he still produce art, but to communicate it he needs the web. Equally, I am in thrall to those who can take images all the way to print, a thing I stab at for my partner's artwork occasionally but it is a skill I have yet to master. I come to TG and somewhere there is a solution from you waiting to cover over my ignorance.

I think Xara has decided Desk Top Publishing is too niche, OpenText Fonts unnecessary and proper line management marginal.
To its credit, there are many features that rarely emerge but the innovation behind them is powerful: presentation sites and WYSIWYG documentation that is not Adobe PDF; anything that knocks down PowerPoint and Acrobat get my vote (bloated and fail screen readers so can marginalise people in large numbers; I work in business with a public-facing aspect).

Xara probably wants to move all functionality to the browser and keep us locked in over a web connection.

My personal wish is for some form of automation.
I still have Acorn's Risc PC running !Draw and being driven by a utility that has BBC BASIC controlling parameters to vector draw bevelled cogs and other arcania.
Xara still imports these outputs but i would prefer a few improvements that would leverage repeatability and productivity.

</rant>

Acorn

[Mike Bailey]

It started going downhill several years ago when they downgraded the Galleries. We used to get lots of artwork posted on a daily basis, so much that some folks on their mobile devices started complaining about having to wait for images to load. Its a shame, so little graphics and art these days.

[Albacore]

I think the lack of chatter and conversation is down to an age thing, well it is for me. When Xara came out with their package in the mid to late 90's we were all working and now 20 to 25 years on we have retired and not doing the same amount of graphic work. I am still using Xara on a daily basis as I don't like being retired and I have taken a further education job which requires me to write an illustrate course work but I know how to use the software. Yes there is less reason to read and look at print as everything is now based in a small screen that you carry around with you all of the time. That only requires bitmaps for visual impact with banners and buttons not hard to produce.

I see Magix and Xara parting company soon if Xara's online editor expands and gets more users, as for me, its the way forward in producing websites but it will have to improve.

Yeh Gary B getting a kick in the balls has really stifled any real communication here in Talkgraphics. But also you have to say that the number of post with real content has been going down for many years. Hey-ho I still visit nearly every day but it's habit rather than posting content. Who wants to see graphics of a Cold Weather Front or such like I wouldn't so that's why I don't post.

[pauland]

Who wants to see graphics of a Cold Weather Front or such like

Me.

[Acorn]

Me too. People then ask how do you draw an occluded front line...
Oh, how did you manage to get your thumb in the image? A selfie?

Acorn

[Albacore]

What i was trying say was the people who use TG are either getting old, they use Xara products for drawing need little or no help and have been doing this for years. Or they have started to do there own websites using a Xara programme, want and need help to do certain things. They maybe getting on years too but are new to the design of websites. We a fewer postings placed in the Xara Galleries than we had maybe 10 years back where I used to get inspired by Bob H, Norman, Ron Duke, Derek Cooper, Kane Rodgers, Gray, Zeb, Gary P and many more to do better. Now I am doing a boring drawing of an Occluded Front which would only interest a few so no way would I now post these.

[pauland]

Now I am doing a boring drawing of an Occluded Front which would only interest a few so no way would I now post these.

That's really a pity.

So many silent people here would like to see the techniques to put that together.

It's a mistake to think that what you consider as mundane, isn't of value to other people.

Few people are making the artful, most people creating graphics are looking for the basic techniques and workflow to get a job done. We can all learn from the techniques used by a professional going about their work.

You don't mind teaching people outside TG, Albacore, why shouldn't that be the case on TG?

[Mark321]

Well, let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, there was a young photographer who loved shooting on film. Then, one day, there was this new thing on the market, a camera that could take pictures without film, a digital camera. Of course the image quality was inferior to film and the young photographer would pooh-pooh this new technology. It would never be as good as film. In fact, while in college the young photographer wrote an essay in English class about how film was so much better than digital images and digital would never live up to the standards of film, mainly because film had been around for such a long time.

In the end, though, digital was here to stay. And it got better and better. Now, years later, that young photographer uses digital cameras all the time. A change of heart, maybe?
Well, in the end that photographer learned a very important lesson. The world moves on. It gets better and better. So, now, that young photographer is no longer young but he learned to embrace the changes that are destined to take place. He now thinks, "go with the flow or you'll get heart-broken often".

Now, that photographer is older and sees even newer technology on the horizon. Many professional photographers are scared of that new technology. But the technology is coming, no matter what. The new technology is called "mirrorless" cameras. And the old photographer has already bought one and couldn't be more happy while others are pooh-poohing it. He smiles because he has learned the lesson from long ago about embracing change instead of resisting it.

That photographer was me.

Embrace change. Don't let it get you down. If you'll embrace the changes of life, life will be so much easier. At least that's what this old photographer has learned.

Mark

[Fred C]

@ Mod. OT Move to http://www.talkgraphics.com/forumdis...51-Photography

[wizard509]

Well, let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, there was a young photographer who loved shooting on film. Then, one day, there was this new thing on the market, a camera that could take pictures without film, a digital camera. Of course the image quality was inferior to film and the young photographer would pooh-pooh this new technology. It would never be as good as film. In fact, while in college the young photographer wrote an essay in English class about how film was so much better than digital images and digital would never live up to the standards of film, mainly because film had been around for such a long time.

In the end, though, digital was here to stay. And it got better and better. Now, years later, that young photographer uses digital cameras all the time. A change of heart, maybe?
Well, in the end that photographer learned a very important lesson. The world moves on. It gets better and better. So, now, that young photographer is no longer young but he learned to embrace the changes that are destined to take place. He now thinks, "go with the flow or you'll get heart-broken often".

Now, that photographer is older and sees even newer technology on the horizon. Many professional photographers are scared of that new technology. But the technology is coming, no matter what. The new technology is called "mirrorless" cameras. And the old photographer has already bought one and couldn't be more happy while others are pooh-poohing it. He smiles because he has learned the lesson from long ago about embracing change instead of resisting it.

That photographer was me.

Embrace change. Don't let it get you down. If you'll embrace the changes of life, life will be so much easier. At least that's what this old photographer has learned.

Mark

I liked that Mark.