Introduction:

An integrated image editor, user interface improvements and an overall speed boost make Xara X1 the fastest and easiest-to-use drawing package around for business users, home users and professional illustrators alike.

Anyone accustomed to big-name vector graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia FreeHand should give Xara X1 a test drive. We warn you, though, that going back to your old program afterwards will be very hard. With Xara X1 there is no waiting around for complex artwork to redraw on-screen nor is the interface weighed down by floating palettes and overloaded toolbars. Xara X1 just gets on with it.

Functionality:

For those new to the program, Xara is a classic vector drawing package, letting you create original resolution-independent artwork and edit clip art using lines, curves and fills. But while Xara has never enjoyed the industrial acclaim of Adobe and Macromedia in the prepress world, it has pioneered vector art while everyone else has followed. Xara was the first program to let you edit graphics in anti-aliased preview mode. It was the first to offer live object blending and special effects. It was the first to take complex object editing out of dialog windows and put it in easy slider controls in the main interface, no 'OK' button required.

Most importantly, Xara has featured an on-screen vector graphics rendering engine that is second to none in terms of speed and image quality. Almost unbelievably, this has been accelerated further in Xara X1. For example, when you click and drag on an object, you see the entire object being dragged, not just an outline. Of course, other programs support a similar feature in which you click and hold the mouse button down for a couple of seconds before dragging. But in Xara X1, you just click and drag straight away: live dragging and editing is the default. And unlike other programs, this works instantly whether you are editing a single object or a group of 300. It also applies to objects with transparency fills, bevelled text, anything. The speed and simplicity of the Contour feature alone should force Macromedia to hang its head in shame.

Simplicity is a key point here too. There are no hidden tools in flyouts and all the tool options are made available in a context-sensitive bar across the top. For example, you can change the zoom level and preview rendering quality at any time by dragging on sliders in this bar -- no need to switch to the Zoom tool or navigate menu commands. In fact, there are only six menus in the entire program so you won't be hunting around long for expert commands. The few floating palettes which exist in Xara X1 are mainly reserved for browsing (clip art, fills, strokes, text, colours) plus a couple for document editing (layers, animation frames). A scrolling bar across the bottom of the window lets you pick stroke and fill colours quickly.

On a more general note, the tool icons and many of the buttons and controls have been given a makeover since the previous version of the program. Another usability improvement is the introduction of a built-in Picture Editor for dealing with bitmap photo images. Designed to look and feel similar to the Picture Viewer in Windows XP, Picture Editor lets you rotate, resize and crop images as you might expect, but also adjust contrast, brightness, saturation and sharpness settings using interactive slider controls. As well as being more powerful and looking prettier than Picture Viewer, Picture Editor works a damn sight faster, and you can use it on standalone images or pictures you have incorporated within your vector artwork.

At the other extreme, Xara X1 offers improved support for professional designers and illustrators. You can now preview CMYK separations on-screen, be specific about overprint ink settings, and the rendering of artwork to CMYK TIFFs has been accelerated considerably. In fact, the speed of file saving and exporting is astonishing for all formats, rarely taking longer than a split-second no matter how complex and involved the artwork appears to be. Very usefully, it's now possible to export layered artwork as multiple PNG files, so you can use Xara X1 in conjunction with photo editing programs such as Photoshop.

Our only concern is that the program's improved support for printing to PostScript printers with regard to transparency, drop shadows, feathering, bevels and so on is not matched by an equally well-featured Adobe Illustrator export filter. There is an EPS filter but this generates a rendered bitmap, not a PostScript vector graphic file. If you want to bring your artwork into QuarkXPress or InDesign, for example, you might be advised to render it anyway. Xara X1 produces superb quality rendered bitmaps, and includes a powerful visual optimised renderer specifically for preparing Web graphics.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, the clincher when choosing between Xara X1 and the big-name alternatives comes down to speed. If you are a general computer user wanting to bash out a logo, Xara X1 makes it easy and quick. If you are a professional illustrator wanting to create highly complex artwork, again Xara X1's speed and beautifully rendered gradients win over the competition. Not least, the fact that it costs less than a third of the price of its nearest competitor makes it the bargain of the year.

Specs: Pentium II; 64MB of RAM; 5MB hard disk, colour display; Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

About the author: Alistair Dabbs is a freelance journalist based in the UK. You can visit his site at Dabbsnet.com