Xara is soon (hopefully within the next week or two) to release a new version of their excellent drawing program Xara X, known for its speed, excellent anti-aliasing, and clean and useable interface. The new version will go under the name Xara Xtreme.
The new version offers Live Effects features, allowing you to apply Photoshop-compatible filters to vector objects.
Similar live filter features are found in ACD Systems Canvas (formerly Deneba Canvas), albeit at a higher price, and in Microsoft Acrylic (an updated variation of Creature House Expression), still under development.
Also new in Xara Xtreme - improved speed when rendering multi-step blends, an improved bitmap editor (which can be used as a plugin or standalone), transparency improvements (group transparency, feathering slider for all transparency types), and various other improvements - shadow attribute copying, improved brush reponsiveness, dockable galleries, improved bitmap alpha support, third party expandabililty, PDF export while preserving vector qualities such as gradients.
Preview notice and download.
Review of new features.
An official release announcement is expected soon.
Xara X exports to .ai that imports reasonably nicely into Moho, allowing for the artefacts introduced as a part of the .ai to .moho curve conversion.
It is also great for creating backgrounds.
Edit: and the first views on the preview version are starting to arrive.
Regards, Myles.
Xara Xtreme - new version
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Xara Xtreme - new version
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