Xara Delivers Great Graphics at a Low Price

About this time every year, I look forward to the latest refreshes from Gaddesden Place UK, home of Xara software.    I have been a dedicated user of Xara’s graphics offerings since the mid-90s and am always amazed at how they manage to deliver such amazing software for such a small price.   Although Xara was acquired by Magix AG back in 2007 (a company known mostly for multimedia software), the quality of their applications has not suffered one iota and just keeps getting better and better.  Let’s take a look at the latest versions:

Xara Pro X and Xara Photo and Graphic Designer MX

The eighth iteration of Xara’s graphic design tool comes in two flavors: Xara Photo and Graphic Designer MX (their base version product), and Xara Pro X, which includes advanced features targeted to professional graphics designers.  That doesn’t mean that you cannot achieve professional results with either tool; you certainly can!

Installation and activation of the apps was quick and easy, and their footprint is comparatively small at less than 100MB.  On boot up, the apps look very similar to version 7 with its modern, dark-gray color scheme.  The nice thing is that the basic program layout is quite similar to previous versions of Xara, eliminating the steep learning curve that often accompanies new versions of programs.  

Among the new features of both programs are: an improved clone/magic erase tool, enhanced panorama stitching, allowing you to knit together up to 8 photos (previously just 6), support for multi-threaded processing, a shape eraser tool, support for inline graphics and improved import/export capabilities.  In addition, there is a color select/erase tool, hue adjustment, smarter photo replacement and a media exchange feature, allowing for integration with other Magix/Xara apps, as well as Flickr and Facebook.    

One new feature that I am particularly excited about is text styles, which allows you to globally format text attributes just as you can in many word processors and desktop publishing apps.  Text handling has always been Xara’s weak spot and this addition gives it a big boost as a graphic design app for documents as well as graphics.

Xara Pro X adds support for chart drawing, QR code widgets, embedded fonts, automatic object positioning and smart resizing, graphic bullet and number lists, resizable Java widgets, presentations and professional web design.

Web Designer MX and MX Premium

If your needs strictly involve web design and you can’t afford Xara Pro X, Xara offers Web Designer MX and MX Premium.   These programs allow you to easily create great-looking websites via a library of attractive themes without knowing any HTML, Javascript or other code.  If you have web design chops, then you can build pages and sites from scratch using Xara’s powerful design toolbox.  

The program is completely WYSIWYG and web-standards compatible (W3C, XHTML, CSS).  You can import all kinds of formats including PDF, RTF, RAW, PSD, TIFF, JPEG, PNG and GIF.  Web Designer MX offers many of the new features of Xara Photo and Graphic Designer MX and Xara Web Designer MX Premium adds presentation templates, GIF and Flash animation, animated transitions, additional graphics tools and more.  

If you need an app for graphic design, vector drawing, photo editing, compositing, desktop publishing or web design--one of Xara’s apps is certainly up to the task at a price that is refreshingly low in these tight times.

For more information:

http://www.xara.com

Xara Designer Pro and Photo & Graphics Designer 7

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

Xara Xtreme Makeover

Xara is well known for producing high-quality, low-cost, graphics programs that are jam-packed with functionality and features. Their new offerings: Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6 and Xara Designer Pro 6 are no exceptions. They continue to offer superlative capabilities at a price that won't break the bank.

Version 6 is the biggest makeover of the Xara UI that I have seen since I first started reviewing it back in 1996. Gone is the pedestrian Windows interface that we have come to know and love. In its place, is a shiny, new, charcoal-colored interface with revised icons, fly-outs and buttons. The design gallery now has a hierarchical arrangement. There were numerous drawing tool improvements, enhanced pressure support for tablet users, an enhanced text tool and a great new vector-based photo-editing capabilities.

As always, using the program is a dream. The screen refreshes are lightning fast and, with a bit of creativity, there is very little that you cannot do using this program. It exports to a wide variety of file formats including JPEG, TIF, Adobe Photoshop, scalable vector graphics, PDF, EPS and many more.

While casual graphic designers will probably be more than happy with the feature set of Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6, professional graphic designers will appreciate the more advanced feature set of Xara Designer Pro 6 which includes all of the capabilities of Xara Web Designer 6 plus support for CMYK, color separations, Pantone, PDF/X., multi-core processors and HD photo import.

Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6 is only $89 US and Xara Designer Pro 6 is $299. For the capabilities that both of these programs offer, they are an amazing bargain!

www.xara.com