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Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Xara Group Ltd. |
Any of you who know me, know that I have been using CorelDRAW since its inception in 1989. As I review Xara Xtreme Pro, I will be writing it from the perception of a CorelDRAW user. For those of you who are also users of CorelDRAW, you'll learn about some of Xara's unique features that may be of interest to you.
Before we get into the product itself, we should take a brief look at the history of Xara Xtreme because there are often misconceptions about its previous life as CorelXara. First and foremost, Xara has never been owned or developed by Corel Corporation. Corel simply had a marketing agreement with Xara to distribute earlier versions of the software. Xara didn't feel that Corel sold enough units and the deal was terminated after five years. Two years ago the code for Xara Xtreme was released to the open source community so that versions for other operating systems could be developed. As of now, there is only a version for Windows and that's what we'll discuss in this review.
Xara Xtreme comes in two versions, standard and Pro. The standard version sells for $89 US and the Pro version is $249. The features added in the Pro version are shortcut key configuration, color separation support, PANTONE color support, PDF/X export, XPS support, support for multi-core processors, HD photo import and Panorama Studio. Beyond those main features, the products are the same. I'll do my review using the Pro version. You can download a 30-day trial version of either product so you can give it a good test drive before purchasing.
No review of Xara Xtreme would be complete without mentioning the speed of the software. No matter what you do, it seems as if Xara completes it instantly. When compared with any other vector graphics software, there is no question that Xara is the fastest and it isn't even a close race.
The icons look different and the menus are not the same as CorelDRAW, but there is enough similarity to easily figure out the tools very quickly. One feature CorelDRAW borrowed from Corel Xara was the Property Bar so you'll find that changing settings is nearly identical in functionality. What really jumped out to me is that each of the icons is tastefully colored making them easier to recognize. There are two areas where I feel Xara could improve the interface a bit. The toolbox is one long strip of buttons and it could be a lot more compact if similar tools could be grouped onto flyouts. I also found it frustrating that only one size of buttons is available. I work on a very high resolution screen and the included icons are a bit smaller than I'd like. These are certainly minor and don't take away at all from the usability of the software.
One of the upgraded effects really caught my attention-Extrude. CorelDRAW has had an Extrude feature since v2 and it has remained mostly unchanged in the past few versions. Xara's Extrude tool absolutely blows away the feature in CorelDRAW. The shading is much smoother, the effect is more photorealistic and yet it isn't any more difficult to use. The example shown not only uses the Extrude effect, but also the Bevel effect. The Bevel effect is another example of an effect that is head and shoulders above a similarly named effect in CorelDRAW. You can even use the Extrude tool to put your your imported bitmaps into 3D perspective. While these effects are built from vector objects in Xara Xtreme, they will always output/export as bitmaps. This certainly gives you beautiful output, but it also means you can't import the vectors into other programs for further editing.
As you may have already guessed, Xara Xtreme excels at creating graphics for the Web. The cool effects and the high-quality anti-aliasing result in stunning graphics. Since the original files are vector based, they are also easy to modify. This includes creation of Flash (SWF) files and SVG files, navigation bars with mouseovers, flyouts and much more. You can even integrate the graphics with Adobe Dreamweaver.
New to this version is the ability to export HTML. This means you can design entire Web pages in Xara Xtreme. Rollovers are created via layers. Create the alternative graphic for a rollover on a separate layer and Xara will automatically create the different graphics and write the code to execute the rollover. Xara even includes some very sensible templates you can use to get started.
Xara has always excelled at exporting beautiful bitmaps. Xara also offers a number of other choices including the ability to export your artwork to PDF or XPS formats. You also have the ability to print color separations in the Pro version. A sample of the Print Options for separations is shown at right. There certainly aren't as many options as CorelDRAW, but that doesn't mean you can't create files that will output well on press.
I find that Xara is a nice complement to CorelDRAW. If you are going to be using the two products together, you are probably better served going with the standard version. Most of the cool effects will be rendered as bitmaps and it is probably easiest to export those bitmaps and bring them into CorelDRAW to integrate with the rest of the project. While Xara has certainly beefed up the output options, there are enough features missing that I would find it a big step backwards from CorelDRAW even in the Pro version. Users who focus mainly on Web design will find that the features of Xara are far better than those supplied in CorelDRAW. So it really depends on your workflow as to whether Xara Xtreme meets your needs. Since you can download a free trial, I highly recommend you give it a try and see if it works for you!
Foster D. Coburn III has written nine best-selling books on graphics software and is currently the Webmaster of the Graphics Unleashed Web site.
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CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
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