[XaraXtreme-dev] Xara's Features

["frank gaude'" <tanzen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, everybody!

I've been a graphic designer since 1978, using computer tools to do 
designs since about 1985, starting with Pagemaker from Aldus in Portland 
Oregon. From there to CorelDraw!, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Freehand, 
InDesign, Fontographer, Fontlab for custom font creation, and now, 
Inkscape, GIMP, and Xara Xtreme for Linux. I retired from making money 
at graphic design, newspapers and magazines, in 1996, just about the 
time I first started using Linux, Redhat. Still do designs for the web 
and mailing lists.

When Xara was ported to Linux last year I started using it on Fedora and 
now on Ubuntu. It is to slickest way to do graphic design 95% of the 
time, faster than any other design program I use or have used. The way 
it does shadows, feathering, multipoint filling and transparency, 
bevels, contours, blends, and handles text is the way most graphic 
designers would like Illustrator to work. And all in real time, all so 
fast and quick with few keystrokes or mouse clicks. Xara is one neat, 
cool program!

So, folks, can't we come together to move the program into the future, 
even though it is almost complete now. I would like it to import WMFs as 
vectors, copy and paste to the Linux clipboard, and export true PDFs. 
For me, that would be sufficient. To ever get it to the level of the 
present Windows Pro version is almost too much to ask. For me, SVGs are 
of little importance.

frank