"When the guy who made the first drawing board got it wrong, what did he go back to?" - Steve Wright (Xara X)

Member Name: ILoveJackDaniels

Product:	Xara X
Date:	30/04/02 (241 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Very flexible, Great Value

Disadvantages: No Filters

Since the tender age of about 13, I've been designing websites pretty constantly, starting as so many people do, with hobby sites. Again, as many other amateur designers did at that time, I used software like paint and Corel Draw to do any graphics I needed, if I couldn't find ones that fit the bill on the net. It wasn't long before I was then introduced to Xara, a graphics program from Corel.

Xara was a new experience for me - a simple, fast and complete graphics package. Even as a professional website and graphics designer over the last two years, it has been my software of choice. Compared to other popular packages, like Adobe's Photoshop and Macromedia's Fireworks, Xara is easy to use, and though old and therefore lacking in a few of the more modern graphics formats, I would not defect and use any other software, save to do those things that Xara just did not know how to do.

It's also amazing sometimes what little surprises life has in store. My newest PC has been nothing but trouble since I bought it, and for ages simply crashed whenever I tried to do complicated things like open Notepad. And then one day it decided it had had enough. It just refused to start Windows. On the advice of a few people, I installed a new operating system, Windows 2000 Professional, and then installed all of the other little bits and pieces of software I have grown to love over the last few years (have a look for Trillian and Mailwasher - both great). Unfortunately, Xara would not work. 2000 is built on an NT platform, which basically meant I'd lost the only decent graphics package I'd ever found.

All was not lost. A quick potter around with google turned up a program called Xara X. No longer a Corel product, it claimed to be "the best value vector graphics app you'll find". Having used and loved Corel Xara, I downloaded the demo and started playing. Within about 10 minutes I had returned to the site to cough up
the fee for the full version.

Down to the nitty-gritty then. Xara X is a cheap program for a start - $149 is a great price (for a graphics package), and I would have been happy to pay more than double that. The software was very easy to install, and I had no problems along the way. It is compatible with Windows 95, 98, Millenium, NT and 2000 (a search round various sites has not indicated whether or not it is compatible with XP, so probably worth mailing Xara themselves if you are interested).

The program is very simple to use and the interface intuitive. The program starts with a basic rectangular blank canvas. Along the left is the toolbar, and along the bottom is the colour selector. The toolbar is clearly labelled, and offers buttons for selection, lines (freehand and straight), all types of shapes, text, transparency and shape-filling options, bevelling, contours, blending, moulding and more.

The tools are extremely easy to use - simply point and click to perform whichever action you choose. Shapes, once drawn, can be editted and filled with whichever colour you wish. The borders to shapes can also be coloured and set to different thinknesses. The fillings to the shapes can be editted dramatically as well, allowing you to use other graphics as backgrounds to shapes, and make them transparent if you wish. I could literally write a 20,000 word review of all the options themselves, and get extremely technical with it, but suffice it to say that everything in XaraX is easy to use and very very fast.

For webmasters, it is especially useful. It is built with internet design in mind, with the ability not only to export graphics in PNG, JPEG and conventional GIF formats, but also in the new form of GIF, GIF89a (don't worry if none of that made sense - technical jargon), which allows transparent images to be exported; as well as exporting straight to Dreamweaver and Flash. Flash designers will appreciate this, as it means that t
he images can then be manipulated in flash, as they retain their vector form.

The exporting options also allow you to keep your images nice and small (file size), which means that your web pages will load fast - always an important factor with websites.

XaraX is equally good for inexperienced graphic designers and veterans equally, allowing those new to graphics to play with functions at their own pace and gradually get to grips with everything at their own pace, and veterans to perform all of the functions they expect from a graphics package quickly and easily.

Their is, as with everything, one fault with XaraX, though a minor one. Adobe's Photoshop has the ability to import filters, that allow you to apply, with the click of a button, specific effects to an image. XaraX has no feature to allow you to do such effects so easily. They are possible, but take a little longer, and it would be nice to have a range of filters available to use with the program, though it is no great loss.

I would reccomend XaraX to anybody who ever does, or is considering doing, graphic design. Even Photoshop veterans will like its classy, fast and intuitive interface, as well as its speed and versatility. I would have to agree with Xara themselves, it is the best value - actually, just make that the best - vector graphics app I've found.

Summary: