If you have priced professional-level graphics packages lately, you know that resale prices are through the roof. Some popular packages will cost you as much as a down payment on a nice car!
Xara Designer Pro and Photo & Graphics Designer buck that trend. Now at version 7, the Xara programs are easy to use, fast and powerful. Their display rendering engine is one of quickest and most faithful available. And the results that you can obtain with these programs are nothing short of amazing.
I have been a loyal user since 1996, and Xara keeps getting better and better. The programs offer a solid set of tools for vector and bitmap editing and I typically use them for DTP, web design and compositing. Xara unseated Corel as my primary “go to” package for that type of work.
Version 6 did throw me for a loop since Xara did a major overhaul of the interface and it took a while to find out where all of the tools lived. Those new to the program should not have a problem figuring out the interface because it is well-designed and quite intuitive.
New features in version 7 include magic erase, live copies, edit inside groups, improved anchoring, magic snap, widgets, improved page management, quick preview, sitemap support, HTML5 video and more. It would take quite a bit of space to describe all of these new features, so I urge you to check out their web site for details. Professional designers will want to specifically look at Designer Pro 7 since it has the prepress and 4/c capabilities that you need.
If you are in the market for an affordable graphic design and editing package, I urge you to check out Xara 7. The power and ease-of-use of these packages will surprise you. And the price tag is easy on the wallet.
www.xara.com
