Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 9

I have been using Xara for almost two decades. Not only is it a great drawing tool, but I have also found it useful for general design work, photo editing and compositing. Xara has been able to replace several other tools in my arsenal.

The latest incarnation, Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 9, does not disappoint.  It provides even more powerful photo editing, vector drawing and compositing tools at a rock-bottom price.

New features include:

- A “photo healing”  tool that allows you to remove blemishes and other defects quickly and easily.

- A “background erase” tool that makes it easy to perform tasks that generally require expensive photo editing software.

- New masking tools for complex photo and vector editing tasks.

- A “shape painter” tool that allows to to draw shapes using vector art.

- Google Font support as well as support for multi-weight fonts, graphical bullets and numbers.

- Faster recoloring of grouped items.

- New photo FX plug ins for adding a creative touch.

In using version 9, I found that there are a number of new flyouts in the toolbar interface making it easy to find just the tool you need without any fuss.  There are also a number of new and updated templates that make it easy to get your project started.  I had a lot of fun playing with the new filters and the shape painter and I know that these features will be useful in future projects.

All in all, Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 9 is a strong offering that builds on the solid foundation of the Xara engine.  There is nothing like it for the price!

www.xara.com

Xara Web Designer 9 Premium

Xara Web Designer 9 Premium is the newest version of the powerful and popular web design application that uses the blazingly-fast Xara graphic engine. I have been a Xara user since 1996, and it has largely replaced my former favorite design tool, CorelDRAW. The latest version of Designer Premium offers a number of great new features. Here are some of them: 64-bit Windows support: if you use a 64-bit version of Windows, you can now take advantage of any memory that you have installed above the former 4GB limitation. What that gives you is the ability to create much larger websites with richer content and high-resolution images. Google Fonts support: One of the biggest recent developments on the web design front is Google's new font collection. Now, from within Xara Designer Premium 9, you can choose any one of the more than 600 fonts that Google offers for free! Drag and Drop Navbar Replacement: Do you need to replace a NavBar in one of your designs? All you need to do is drag and drop the new NavBar on the current one and all of the existing menus and links are copied automatically. New Backgrounds: Designer 9 Premium adds a new collection of color-editable backgrounds including repeating bar designs, tiling textures and graduated fills. To use them, simply drag-and-drop. New Widgets: The program also includes a new collection of widgets that include support for things like basic tables, Google+ buttons and Google's Ad Sense ads. There are also six new photo slideshow and gallery widgets. New Web Theme Designs: Twenty new web themes are included with 15 page layouts each— a $200 value. In addition, there is a new category of themes for businesses like travel agents, hairdressers, pubs, etc. These are completely customized with linked pages and professional photography suited to each business type. High-Resolution Screen Support: Many new devices support high-resolution screens and designer is now up to the task of creating the high resolution photos and web graphics to support them. Not only that, the program automatically creates smart web pages that load the best resolution graphics for system and browser used.

Improved HTML Compatibility: Designer now follows HTML5 standards transparently and without user intervention whenever possible. Shapes and graphics are now displayed using native HTML instead of graphics files. That makes for a faster, more memory-efficient website that is still compatible with older browsers. Quick Re-coloring: This new feature makes it easy to change the individual colors of grouped objects adding both flexibility and speed to the design process. Free Web Hosting: Owners of Web designer premium receive one year of Magix World M hosting with 2 GB of free space, one free domain name and free, web-based e-mail worth nearly $25 a year. For those on a budget, there is also a non-premium version of Web Designer 9 with a slimmed-down feature set at half the price. (Not that Web Designer Premium is that expensive. It is only $99!) While checking out the program, I found that all of the new features are seamlessly integrated into the program’s attractive and clean interface. Designer Premium 9 is as fast and powerful as ever and is an absolute joy to use. These new enhancements make Web Designer Premium 9 a must have program for professional web designers. Its amazing feature set, ease of use and speed make it a tremendous design tool!

http://www.xara.com

Xara Web Designer

Designing web pages is an arduous process using most tools. As someone who has built web sites with simple tools and occasional hand coding for the past 14 years, I can attest to the complexity of the task.

Xara Web Designer enables anyone to effortlessly build killer web pages and sites without having to learn HTML or JavaScript. All you need to do to get started is to select a template and load it. Edit the content to your liking and customize to taste and you are done. You can export your site to HTML complete with graphics or upload it directly to your server using its built-in FTP client.

With Web Designer, you also have the ability to create web pages manually and save them as templates, providing tremendous flexibility to the experienced web and/or graphic designer. Another huge plus is true WYSIWYG display of web pages--something that anyone who has designed web pages with simple HTML editors will instantly appreciate.

Those who have used any of Xara's other programs (Xara, Xara X, Xara Xtreme) will feel quite at home. The GUI is very similar and the tools are where you expect them to be. The resulting quality is incredible, just as you would expect from any Xara product.

Xara Web Designer also allows you to perform tasks which would be daunting in many other programs, such as liquid text flow around objects, Flash creation and easy mouse-over. That makes for a very compelling offering.

And the price--$49 US. All I can say is: Wow!!!

www.xara.com

XARA XTREME 4.0 REVIEW

Xara Xtreme 4 is a evolutionary update to a truly revolutionary product platform. I have been an ardent user since it was released in 1996 and can say that the folks at Xara have built this product, block by block, into a formidable competitor in the once-crowded graphic design application field.

Unlike many other programs I have used, Xara has not re-invented itself over and over again. It has a user interface that has been solid and consistent from day one. Thus, there wasn't a huge learning curve to scale when moving from one iteration of the program to the next.

Xara Xtreme 4 builds on the Xara legend by offering breathtaking speed and a smooth work flow to both amateur and professional graphic designers, illustrators and web designers.

Xtreme 4 adds welcome new features, such as:

- A slick new 3D extrude feature that designers everywhere will surely love.

- Superb integrated photo editing capabilities that are 10 times faster than other photo tools and produce files that are 1/10th the size.

- A complete website creation feature. This is something I have wanted to see for a long time. My tests have proved that this feature works great! Now, you can produce teriffic websites from within Xara Xtreme 4 without having to use another editor!!

- Real-time liquid text flow around shapes. This makes designing complex pages a snap!

- Panoramic photo creation from within the program. Drop in a bunch of pictures, optimize the picture transitions and you can have great panoramic pictures with just few clicks of the mouse.

For professionals, there is an Xtreme 4.0 Pro version which also includes: color separation support, PANTONE® color support, PDF/X export, XPS support, HD Photo import, Panorama Studio (an advanced version of Xtreme's panorama editor) and multi-core processor support.

To top it off, Xara Xtreme 4 only costs a fraction of what many competitive programs cost. It is one of the true bargains of the graphic software world. file:///home/tony/Desktop/techtrnd.htm

I rate it Five Stars. * * * * *

http://www.xara.com

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