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XARA X is an advanced graphic illustration package
for Windows, that offers unrivalled speed and a user
interface which other developers have tried to imitate, but
never matched. Producing illustrations is quick and easy using
the sophisticated drawing tools, but many of the advanced
features which Xara pioneered - such as transparency
and real-time anti-aliasing - can be applied to both
vector and bitmap images.
Add to this new features, such as pressure sensitive
brush stroking and automated shadows, bevels and contours,
multi-stage graduated fills and feathering - and you have
a tool which is both highly creative and very productive.
Xara X can produce compact, highly optimized graphics,
making it an ideal choice for creating web graphics,
and with this in mind, the web tools have been strengthened
further. Creating rollover buttons - along with the
necessary HTML and JavaScript - is simple and
straightforward. You can also export to Flash and Xara
X seamlessly integrates with Macromedia's Dreamweaver
web design product.
This document describes the main features of Xara X. The
first section covers versatility and compatibility, while
the following three sections explain the creativity, Web,
and productivity elements of the program. The final section
touches on CD-ROM contents, system requirements, pricing and
availability.
The vector factor
 BECAUSE
Xara X is a vector drawing package it gives you greater
freedom compared to traditional bitmap programs.
While bitmap graphics distort when you resize them, vector
images retain their quality no matter what size they
are. This is because a vector file uses mathematics and geometry
to define shapes, while bitmaps remember every pixel used.
The added bonus is that a vector image has the same
small file size whether it's 10 x 10 pixels or 1000
x 1000 pixels, while the file size of a bitmap increases along
with its physical size.
Almost all sophisticated graphics systems, including
CAD systems and animation software, use vector graphics. In
addition, many printers also use vector graphics.
Bitmap handling
 WHILE
vector graphics might be the more flexible option, bitmaps
are still a valuable and much used format. Some images,
such as photographs, can only be bitmaps. Most web graphics
(jpegs and gifs) are bitmaps too.
Xara X allows you to import and export in all common
bitmap formats and provides numerous methods to manipulate
them. You can resize, rotate, reflect, mould, alter brightness
and contrast, and change the number of colors they contain.
You can also apply a wide variety of effects with both
the in-built features and third-party plug-ins.
Bitmaps can be masked, used as fills, you can add transparency,
or even trace over a bitmap to produce a vector image
of the graphic.
When working with web graphics, Xara X has a number of features
to make sure images are at the highest quality while
keeping file size to a minimum. Xara X is now even better
at presenting bitmaps than ever before because it anti-aliases
them as well.
Compatibility
 XARA
X has been designed to be the only graphics solution
you need, and therefore is highly compatible with other products.
It supports all the common graphics formats, such as
bitmap types like GIF, JPEG, BMP and PNG, as well as vector
types like AI (Adobe Illustrator) and CDR (CorelDRAW) - and
some that are not so well known. It works with Macromedia's
Dreamweaver and Flash software, and has OLE support
so images can be embedded in documents made by programs
like Microsoft Word.
When manipulating bitmaps, Xara X can also work alongside
third-party plug-ins, such as those designed for Adobe
Photoshop. These plug-ins can complement the range
of bitmap effects already included in Xara X, allowing
you to create stunning graphics in any format you choose.
Printing / imagesetting
 XARA
X provides a wide variety of options for printing your
documents.
You can choose paper orientation, how to fit images
on the paper, which layers to print and so on. Xara
X also supports PostScript.
If you are printing large numbers of your document, you may
need to have it imageset at a service bureau.
Xara X supports all the features you would expect from a professional
color separation system, such as crop marks,
customizable registration marks, emulsion down,
negative plates, and overprinting.
Color support
 XARA
X has a comprehensive color system which enables you
to alter the colors of objects directly or create your own
colors, with names, which you can apply to multiple objects.
With Xara X it is very easy to create a drawing containing
many shades of a color and with one alteration,
change the color of the whole picture.
Xara X includes full sets of PANTONE® colors,
you can work in CMYK, RGB, HSV, greyscale
or Hexadecimal RGB web color mode.
There is also a color picker which, like an eye-dropper,
you can use to select the color of any object on the
screen - even in other applications.
Like many features in Xara X, the color dialog works with
direct action which means when you change the color in the
dialog, it changes in the object immediately .
Anti-aliasing
 ANTI-ALIASING
improves the quality of on-screen images by smoothing
the edges of objects.
It does this by inserting extra pixels of calculated colors
around the edges of objects on screen, blending them
into the background. This has the effect of smoothing
the edges and of appearing to improve the resolution
of the display. Anti-aliasing is particularly useful for web
graphics.
Xara was the pioneer of real-time anti-aliasing, a feature
which has made its way into all major graphics programs.
When you do use anti-aliasing in Xara X, it works in real-time
so you can see the effect straight away. You can use anti-aliasing
when working with vector images and bitmap images.
Drawing tools
 XARA
X uses two types of drawing tools: Freehand tools
and Shape tools.
Freehand tools, such as the Pen tool and Freehand
and Brush tool allow you to hand-draw shapes, lines or
objects on the page. With the Freehand and Brush tool you
can choose how closely you want the computer to follow your
movements, or whether you want it to smooth out any
minor bumps with Xara X's retroactive smoothing. You can even
draw one shape, then add another bit to it by drawing some
more and joining up with the original object.
Shape tools, like the rectangle, circle/ellipse
and Quickshape tools allow you to draw pre-set
shapes very quickly and easily.
Any object you create, either Freehand or Shape, can be resized,
and manipulated simply by dragging its handles.
Brushes
 THE
new real-time brush feature of the Freehand and Brush
Tool is a fun but extremely powerful addition.
It enables you to create any shape, then use it to 'draw'
with, giving endless possibilities. One such possibility is
to create airbrush-like effects. There are also a number of
pre-defined brushes that you can use.
The brush feature's power lies in the fact that you have complete
control over the way the brush paints to the screen. You
can alter the size of instances, color, spacing, rotation
and offset properties, and each of these has a randomize
option which can give a less ordered look.
When using brushes, you can also take advantage of Xara's
pressure sensitive feature by setting the brush to adjust
the scaling or transparency of brush instances according to
how hard you press with your graphic pen.
Each brush you create is saved along with the document it's
used in, so you can re-use them whenever you wish.
Transparency
 ANY
object you create (including text and bitmaps) can be made
transparent using the wide variety of transparency options
available.
Like real-time anti-aliasing, Xara was the pioneer of vector
transparency. Transparency can be used in a number of
ways - one of the most common is to simulate glass, but it
can also be used to create subtle reflections and highlights
that are very difficult to achieve in any other way.
Another common use is to overlay parts of your drawing with
additional transparent objects which can then be used as filters
to modify colors or contrast in your image, for example.
Transparency can be applied in a linear graduation,
or in fact in a variety of shapes such as diamond or conical
to get some very unusual effects.
Xara X also allows you to create textured transparencies
by using bitmaps of your choice to give a special effect to
any graphic or selection of graphics.
Blending
 THE
Xara X Blend Tool allows you to blend or merge between
any two objects. These objects can be any of the available
object types (text, bitmaps, shapes), or even other blends.
Using the tool creates a set of intermediate objects
so you get a transition from the start object to the
end object. You can change the number of steps in the blend
and also have more than one stage so you can blend between
several objects.
Blends can be used to create complex highlights, blurred
edges on objects, repetitive patterns and many
other effects. You can even edit objects within the
blend once you have created them. You can also set blends
along a path, such as a curve.
Xara X performs blending in a very quick and memory-efficient
way compared to other drawing packages - meaning less waiting
for you and less draining of your systems resources.
Feathering
 FEATHERING
is a technique of slightly blurring the edges of objects
and until recently has been impossible in vector drawing programs.
Simply by selecting an object - any object - and moving
the slider on the feather bar, it makes the affected object
merge into background objects and avoids a sharp
line at the boundary. This is particularly useful when
overlaying bitmaps.
Xara X allows you to change the feathering profile,
altering the transition across the feather. You might
want a regular rate of change or a more pronounced change
towards one end or the center.
Note that feathering affects only the object's edge
and no other part of the object.
Contours
 CREATING
contours around objects is easy with the Xara X Contour
Tool. Contouring is a special effect which adds
evenly-spaced concentric rings inside or outside an
object. These rings can be made to fade in to the background,
or progress through a rainbow of colors.
When you have applied a contour to an object, if you resize
or alter the object, the contour changes with it. The
contour itself can be edited and you can change any
of its properties, including the distance between the steps,
the number of steps, contour width and profile.
The Inset Path button lets you convert your
contoured object into a larger or smaller shape, removing
the actual contours. This gives you more flexibility than
simply resizing an object, as it deals with thickness
as opposed to size.
Bevels
 BEVELS
give objects the appearance of depth instead of being
flat on the page. They are particularly useful when creating
buttons or headings for web pages.
The Xara X Bevel Tool allows you to quickly apply customized
bevels to any object you draw. There are a range of
set bevel types to choose from, such as flat, frame
and rounded, and each one can be altered to make it unique.
You can alter the depth, contrast and lighting
elevation (unique to Xara X) and angle, and you
can choose whether the bevel should be inside or outside
the object.
Xara X also allows you to treat a bevel like you would any
other object in a document - so you can apply transparencies,
color bitmap fills and so on. And again, the Bevel Tool takes
advantage of Xara X's direct action feature.
Fills
 FILLS
allow you to flood the center of an object within a
drawing. Xara X offers a wide range of fills - flat, linear,
circular, conical, elliptical, diamond and three and four
color fills. You can also use bitmaps as fills and have multi-color
or multi-stage fills.
You can apply fills to Quickshapes, shapes and
even text. If you apply a fill to a compound object
(a blend, mold or group) it affects all the objects
in it.
Once you have applied a fill to an object you can change
its size, position, direction and the colors it uses as well
as the way the colors change across the fill. With bitmap
fills you can change the bitmap used and with fractal
fills you can change the properties of the fractal.
One of the nice features of Xara X's fills is the simple and
interactive way colors can be applied. Just drag a
color from the color line and drop it onto the object you
want to fill, then move the arrow. This direct action makes
working with fills much easier than in other programs.
Shadows
 CREATING
realistic shadows has commonly the realm of the bitmap graphics
package. Xara X's new Shadow Tool changes all that
and lets you apply, remove, and modify semitransparent (or
"soft") shadows to any object, with a single click.
There are three different shadow types to choose from
- Wall, Floor and Glow. Wall shading
produces drop shadow effects, the Floor option works
like a sundial would and Glow creates a shadow effect
around an object.
Any shadow you make can be manipulated in a number
of ways, allowing you to change the color, blur, transparency
and profile. Again, the Shadow tool takes advantage of the
direct action feature.
Moulds / envelopes
 MOULDS
allow you to distort any object you select according
to a set shape - rather like a jelly mold does.
There are two types of mold - Perspective Molds
and Envelope Molds. Perspective Molds are ideal for
creating banners and three-dimensional effects.
They distort an object by making it appear to have perspective.
With Envelope Molds you can have curved sides
and you can distort and warp a shape using the four
corners of the mold shape.
Molds and Envelopes can be applied to shapes, bitmaps and
text, and all objects remain editable.
Text handling
 THE
Text Tool allows you to create text objects consisting
of as many lines of text as you want.
Like any word processing program, you can change the font,
size, color and justification of the text, alter the line
spacing and kerning, and have bold, italic, superscript or
subscript.
You can also set your text along a path, so you could
draw a line and make the text follow it, curves and all.
Additionally, just like any drawn object in Xara X, you can
grab hold of the corners of the text object and resize
it on the page that way, and apply all the usual formatting,
such as transparency, fills, molds and so on - and yet the
text remains editable.
 ClipView
XARA X has several ways of using objects to "mask" or "clip"
other objects. You then see part of the objects through that
mask.
ClipView is one of these methods, but it is different from
the others because it is dynamic. It lets you use an object
as a 'window' onto other objects. You see only those
parts of other objects that are within the window.
We call this creating a ClipView. You can move the
window object to change your view while the window
object remains visible.
Name Gallery
 THIS
unique and powerful new tool sees an end to
the days when graphic designers had to put each object within
their image on a separate layer just so they could easily
select them when they wanted to make an alteration.
The Xara X Name Gallery automatically lists all fonts,
bitmaps, colors and Named Objects in a document - and you
can name any object or group of objects within
a document. It means you are able to see at a glance all the
objects you have in a document and you can then use the Name
Gallery to select objects you want just by clicking
on their name in the list.
You can also edit objects at group level - for example,
you could change all the occurrences of Times New Roman within
a document and apply a shadow to each instance. This saves
valuable time because in the past each item would have
to be edited individually.
When naming grouped objects, you can then make group
alterations, or export them all in a particular way.
XARA X has a host of new features especially for web designers.
It means that you can use Xara X as a one-stop web graphics
solution, enjoying the scalability and versatility of
a vector package, combined with the functionality of the new
web features.
 Navigation
buttons
BUTTONS and navigation bars are an essential part
of most web sites, but making them can be a time-consuming
and frustrating experience.
The Xara X Button and NavBar Tool allows you to create
standalone buttons or fully functional navigation bars within
minutes. You can also create rollover buttons which
change as you interact with them (like the buttons
used on this web site) - and Xara X will write all
the HTML and JavaScript for you.
The tool works by taking your design for a button and creating
as many copies as you wish, either vertically or horizontally.
Each button can then be edited - by changing the color,
text, adding bevels, shadows and so on. When making rollovers,
you can edit each button and each of its states.
Flash export
Animation
 ANIMATED
gifs are still the most common form of animation used on the
web. Used for banner advertisements, spinning buttons
and character animation, animated gifs will be around
for a long time yet.
The Xara X Frame Gallery allows you to create animations
one frame at a time. It gives you complete control
over every aspect of the animation from pauses between frames
to the transparency of objects.
When exporting, Xara X is able to fully optimize animated
gifs so they have as small a file size as possible, meaning
you can create eye-catching animations without hindering
the performance of your site.
Dreamweaver integration
 MACROMEDIA's
Dreamweaver is one of the leading web design packages and
is used by designers across the world to create stunning web
pages.
Xara X has a special option when exporting an
image in a web format (gif, jpeg or png) which saves some
extra information used by Dreamweaver, along with the
graphic. Then, when you're making a web page in Dreamweaver,
you can insert the graphic as normal, but if you want
to edit it at any point, just click on the image and
Xara X will automatically load up with the graphic open.
Note: only works with Dreamweaver 3.
Hexadecimal RGB web color
 BEING
able to select colors based on their hexadecimal value is
vital for web designers. That way you can match
your graphics with colors from the standard web safe color
palette, that you use on your web page.
Often a designer will want to match a graphic color
with the background color placed in a cell of a table for
example. As HTML uses hexadecimal values (eg. #CCCCFF) to
represent colors, it is extremely useful to be able
to specify these colors within a drawing package.
Especially for web designers, Xara X has a Hexadecimal RGB
Web Color option which allows just this.
 Image
slicing
LARGE, complex graphics for web pages can produce large
files, which take a long time to download over the
Internet.
However, often these large graphics contain areas of flat
color or little detail. To reduce the amount of
data to download you can 'slice' the image into sections,
which can be download separately.
The advantage is that areas of flat color/little detail can
be saved at a lower quality (eg. as a 2-color GIF)
than complex areas, which can be saved at a higher resolution.
The 2-color GIF file takes less time to download, but
it means you can still have high detail areas within your
image.
Xara X not only slices and saves the images for you, it also
writes all the necessary HTML too, so you can
just copy it into your web page.
 Image
maps
IMAGE maps are used in web pages to create clickable areas
or hotspots on a graphic. For example, if you had a
map of the United Kingdom - as shown in the example - you
can use an image map with a hotspot over each country.
Xara X allows you to assign a web address to any object
in a document. You can then export the complete image
along with the necessary HTML required to make the image map
work.
When assigning a web address to an object you have the option
to make the hotspot fit the object exactly or roughly outline
the area with a rectangle which can produce much less code
than a complex shape.
You also get the option to select where the link should point
to - to a new window, the current frame, the parent frame
and so on.
Exporting and optimizing
OPTIMIZATION of web graphics is an essential factor
if you want to keep fast download times for your web
pages.
In order to make graphics have the smallest file size possible,
yet still look good, it is often necessary to optimize them.
Xara X has fantastic built-in optimization for web
graphics, and also allows you to take complete control
of color palettes yourself.
This means that you can choose the exact settings you
want, including: color depth, dithering and transparency.
You can also lock specific colors to make sure they
are retained within the image. You can preview every
change you make so you can see what the result will be before
committing yourself and in the Export Dialog you can compare
different export options so you know which one is best.
Linked stretching
 LINKED
stretching is the process of using named objects to stretch
or extend other named objects.
One of the most typical uses for Linked Stretching is when
making a button with text on it. It means that when
you change the text, the button automatically stretches
so the text fits on it perfectly.
This feature is particularly powerful when used in conjunction
with the NavBar Tool. You can make one button with some text
on, then produce a number of similar buttons to form a bar.
The text on each button can then be edited and the
individual buttons will stretch to accommodate the text.
Speed
 XARA
X has one of the most sophisticated rendering engines
in any graphics package.
For the user that means that the redraw speed - how
long it takes to draw the image when you create, move or resize
an object - is one of the fastest you'll see.
Many graphics packages will keep you waiting a few seconds
while objects are drawn on the screen. In a complex document
that can mean you have wasted a significant amount of time
which can be very frustrating. With Xara X, when you
create an image it appears instantly on the screen.
Speed isn't just restricted to creating and moving objects
though - any time you manipulate an object by using
one of the Direct Action Tools, the Profile or Attributes
dialogs, or the Color Editor, any changes you make also appear
instantly.
This means that when you move a slider it's not the preview
of the image that changes - it's the image itself, so you
can instantly see how the changes work in the context
of the whole picture.
Direct Action Tools
XARA X's Direct Action Tools allow you to create effects
such as transparency, bevels or gradient fills by selecting
the tool then dragging over the area you want to affect.
Traditionally, to apply these effects you make your changes
in a dialog box and they are transferred to the drawing.
With Xara X's Direct Action Tools, you can apply all these
effects on the object itself - without having to enter
any numbers in a dialog box! And the changes take place instantly
- it's as close to using your hands as you will get
with a graphics package.
This is a BIG advantage, because it not only saves time,
but also keeps the creative work and the image itself at the
center of your focus. It makes experimenting with effects
and settings much easier too.
Direct Action Tools include the Bevel, Shadow, Transparency,
Fill, Contour and Blend tools.
Drag & drop
 MANY
tasks in Xara X benefit from being able to use the
drag and drop principle. When changing the color of an object,
you can just drag a color from the Color Line and drop
it onto the object, or its outline.
With gradients, you can drop colors along the gradient path
and make multi-color fills.
Drag and drop also comes into play when using the galleries.
You can place any gallery item on a page simply by
drag and drop.
Pressure sensitivity
 THE
closest thing to actually drawing for real today comes from
using a graphics tablet.
Xara X just made using a graphics tablet even more realistic
though as now you get the advantage of pressure sensitivity.
What that means is that when you are using the Brush Tool
you can alter the size and/or the transparency
of the brush by applying pressure to the pen.
Xara X allows you to choose whether you want the pressure
to affect scaling or transparency - or both, or neither.
Profiles
 WHEN
adding a blend, transparency, contour, fill or shadow to an
object, you can change the attributes or properties
of the effect by using the Profile dialog box.
What the Profile dialog box actually allows you to do depends
on which effect is being used, but in all cases, you can either
choose one of the set profiles or use the sliders to
create your own.
With transparency you can change the shape of the transition
from start to end, while with blends and contours you can
alter how the steps are spaced and how the colors,
lines and transparencies are used.
Altogether, the Profile dialog box makes a very powerful
tool to help get your graphics just right.
Zooming
THE Zoom Tool allows you to alter the magnification
of the current document, giving you a closer, or more distant
view.
Using the Zoom Tool you can zoom to the whole page,
so you see the complete document, you can zoom to the drawing,
which magnifies just the drawn image as opposed to the whole
page, or you can select an object and then zoom to that selection.
Another method is to zoom to a particular area by clicking
and dragging the tool over the area.
The Xara X Zoom Tool is capable of zooming in to 27,000%
- that's 72,000 dpi (dots per inch).
Undo / redo
 BEING
able to change what you have done is vital in a graphics
package. Xara X allows you to easily Undo your most
recent changes to a document.
Undo allows you to get rid of changes which you've applied
by mistake, those which went wrong or ones which
you simply don't like the look of. Undo is a very powerful
tool when combined with Redo because it gives you the
freedom to experiment with a drawing, secure
in the knowledge that you can always undo any changes or if
you eventually decide you do actually like the changes, to
redo them again.
Some graphics packages only let you undo a limited
amount of actions, but Xara X has an unlimited undo
so it remembers everything you've done.
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