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However, during a conversation with the Canadian Marketing Manager
representing Xara,
I was told that I really should look at the newly released
Xara
...because it was 'great for professionals like me and also for
amateurs.' (Needless to say I could not really visualize how that
was possible!)
After seeing
Xara
demonstrated later in the day, I was impressed ...very, very impressed
and I said so to the Product's Marketing Manager. A few weeks later,
just in time for Christmas, a box arrived at my home ...a gift from
him containing a newly minted copy of
Xara
1.0 among other things!
Needless to say I was
grateful, and also very excited at try all the unique features I had
seen demonstrated! However, as far as I was concerned the small
Xara
program (under 10MB) could not possibly replace my 80Mb mainstream
package ...but it would make a great companion program for it ...I
thought.
I decided to give
Xara
a try on a project I'd been commissioned to do ...a crest for a division
of our federal government. I was amazed at the speed of
Xara
and how it's small size dramatically improved the performance of my
486 computer (it was the early 90's ...remember?)
The project went so smoothly
even though I was in the midst of a learning curve with
Xara,
and it became very evident to me what had been meant by the
program being great for professionals and amateurs alike ...now I
could visualize what had previously been a complete dichotomy!
One of the very first
things I noticed, and very much appreciated about
Xara,
was it's incredible on-screen anti-aliasing! I could truly see what
the printed result would look like. Then I began to also appreciate
it's ability to handle bitmap/vector combinations and blend them together
into seamless images in record time, with minimal effort ...leaving
me more time and energy to devote to the creative side of my projects!
The bottom line was, and remains, that I was creating more innovative
materials in far less time and that is just one more bonus of this
remarkable product. I have found that
Xara
is a wonderful tool for doing technical drawings, illustrations and
animations and there are numerous examples throughout this website.
[
logo samples
illustration samples
crop circle rendering ]
Xara's
user-friendliness goes beyond the software. Over the years and throughout
the upgrades, I have had occasion to make inquiries of
Xara's makers
with various needs, requests and questions. The quick and personal
service was astounding by comparison to so many other companies ...software
or otherwise.
To say I'm impressed understates
it. The footnote to this relates back to an earlier paragraph where
I told you that I planned to make
Xara
a companion to my big mainstream program ...the way it actually turned
out is that the big boy succumbed and became
Xara's
companion ...but only for a short while before it was retired to my
library permanently. Since then I have used
Xara
for all my print and web projects, technical drawings and animations
...it doesn't need a companion!
Now Xara X1 is out ... this software
just keeps getting better and better! If I had five thumbs, I'd give
Xara a "five thumbs up" ... however I only have two ...but they are
both up for this amazing software!
Sincerely
Paul Jacobsen
Download a trial copy of Xara X1
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