Xara Ships "Xtremely" Cool Illustration App
Okay, I lied. A few weeks ago I mentioned that the British software developer Xara Corp. was rumored to soon be shipping a new version of its eponymous Windows illustration application. In fact, I knew it all along, but was sworn to secrecy. I also knew the new version would improve on the current Xara X. But what I didn't know was that the latest iteration, now dubbed Xara Xtreme, would be dramatically less expensive—to the point of running the risk of not being taken seriously. But Xara Xtreme is in fact a serious, highly-capable illustration tool.
It's perhaps not well known that Xara Corp. has been creating Windows graphics applications for a long time, and quickly attracted attention with its vector drawing app Xara Studio in the 90's. So much so that Corel Corp. rather surprisingly licensed it and sold it as CorelXARA for a few years, without much success. But that lack of success was due more to Corel already having a capable vector graphics application in its stable, in the form of CorelDRAW, than to any deficiency on the part of Xara. In fact, DRAW was to notably absorb many of Xara's innovative features over the years, as did Adobe Illustrator.
To cut a long story short, Xara Corp. eventually regained full control of its baby and relaunched it first as Xara X, then last week as Xara Xtreme. I won't wax rhapsodic about it here, but I can only say that at $80, it's a ridiculous value. The images created with Xara speak for themselves, and you can see some great examples on Graphics.com, as well as on the Xara site. The image at right is by Gary Priester, a well-known Xara evangelist. There is also a Xara-sponsored user community in the form of the long-running XaraXone site, loaded with articles, tutorials and discussions.
If you have even the slightest need for a fast, capable Windows vector illustration application (note: Mac and Linux versions are on the way), I encourage you to check out Xara Xtreme and give the trial version a spin.
Chris Dickman
Editor, Graphics.com
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