Introduction
  Click this button to start the demonstration of CorelXARA. (Read Demonstration Notes  before running the demonstration.)

CorelXARA is an advanced, very high performance but low cost, drawing and graphics illustration tool. It offers a number of significant advantages over any alternative graphics tool. This means that not only can you produce graphics more quickly and more effectively, but you can also easily experiment and so make your graphics even better.

Producing graphics is a creative process and we believe that anything that gets in the way of that creative process is counter-productive. We've made great efforts to ensure that CorelXARA enhances your creativity by offering you the highest possible level of performance, slick ease of use and amazing new graphics tools not available anywhere else.

To see some examples of what can be achieved with CorelXARA, load some of the examples off the CD with CorelXARA Viewer. There are also a few examples in the CorelXARA Examples section below.

•	Key points

•	Speed & Performance

•	CorelXARA Examples

•	What's in the Box?

•	System requirements

•	Ordering

•	Corel and Xara On-line

This documentation is Copyright Xara Ltd. 1995

Corel & CorelDRAW are trademarks of Corel Corporation

Illustrator is a trademark of Adobe Systems Inc.

All other trademarks acknowledged


Key points

CorelXARA offers a number of new and unique features not found on any other graphics program, as well as enhancing those features you would expect to find in top-flight graphics programs. CorelXARA is much more than just another drawing program - by combining new features, such as transparency, with traditional object-oriented drawing features, we have created a new class of graphics program. It offers the advantages of object-oriented, editable, graphics programs but is able to do many of the jobs traditionally done by photo re-touching programs and is able to produce graphics and illustrations of a quality not traditionally associated with drawing programs.

Speed & Performance

Anti-aliasing

Transparency

32-bit program

Zero memory blends

Direct action tools

Accuracy and Precision

Infinite Undo

Compatibility

Bitmap support

Bitmap Textures

Text

Smooth graduated fills

Other utilities included

Value for money

To see what you can produce with CorelXARA, visit the CorelXARA Gallery.


Speed & Performance

CorelXARA is quite simply the fastest, highest performance drawing and illustration package available. Graphics programs are one of the few areas of software that are still severely computer-bound. Anyone who has ever tried creating or editing even relatively simple drawings or bitmap graphics will be aware that you can waste a lot of time just waiting for the computer to catch up with your actions - usually just waiting for the screen to redraw. By making the program (particularly screen redraw)  faster, you not only have a less frustrating time, but save time and money. The bottom line is that CorelXARA is more productive.

By using unique graphics engine technology, designing the program for speed from the ground up, and having clean 32-bit design, we can provide not just a small gain in speed, but a huge improvement in speed. We can typically display complex graphics ten to twenty times faster than any other equivalent package. The above timings are from a plain 486 DX2-66 computer and demonstrate that this performance is achievable on "standard" PCs.  Indeed CorelXARA running on a 486-SX25 is many times faster than most other drawing programs running on the most powerful Pentium available today.

Graphics quality

Not surprisingly, the quality of graphics is usually dictated by the amount of time spent working on a particular image. Therefore speed does not just make a more productive program, but allows the user to create higher quality graphics in a shorter time. This is as true for simple knock-together graphics as it is for complex professional illustrations.

"Creating an illustration as complex and detailed as the gold-watch would not be something I could even contemplate using a traditional drawing program"

                                                                      Alan Burns - designer of the watch graphic.


Anti-aliasing

This is a software technique designed to reduce or remove the pixel "jaggy" edges that are so common in computer screen graphics. While some photo re-touching programs now offer an anti-aliasing option, CorelXARA is the first object based drawing and illustration program for Windows to offer fast, high quality, real-time anti-aliasing of all drawn objects and text. The result is a far higher quality screen display than is normally possible. Anti-aliasing not only provides a much more smooth accurate display of lines and polygons, but it also allows much more detail to be seen. The advantages of anti-aliasing are rather like having a graphics card and display of four times the normal resolution.

The effect of anti-aliasing on text.: left, without anti-aliasing, right with

Anti-aliasing is particularly effective with italic text or text at an angle

These show the same drawing without anti-aliasing (left) and with (right). Notice how much more realistic it is with anti-aliasing

Anti-aliasing provides a much more accurate screen representation of detail

Multimedia and presentation graphics

Because anti-aliasing is primarily a technique to improve screen display quality, it is ideally suited for producing screen based graphics, for areas such as multi-media, presentation graphics and World Wide Web graphics.

Microsoft uses anti-aliasing extensively in its multi-media products such as Microsoft Dinosaurs and Musical Instruments CD ROMs. Also the best Web pages always use anti-aliased graphics, but traditionally these have been created on specialist graphics workstations.

Anti-aliasing provides a level of professionalism, class and quality to screen graphics that is simply not achievable any other way. CorelXARA allows everyone, with just a plain PC, to produce graphics of quality.

See also Multimedia and the Web


Transparency

The ability to create objects or bitmaps with varying levels of transparency is an incredibly powerful facility. Some recent photo re-touching programs have had the ability to support semi-transparent overlays. However, CorelXARA is the first object-oriented program to allow all objects, polygons, text and bitmaps to have any degree of transparency and even graduated transparency.

The uses of transparency go beyond the obvious ones such as simulating glass. In fact the uses of transparency are almost endless.

Soft Shadows

The difference between simple "flat" artwork and illustrations that have depth and much more realism is often only a matter of a few well-placed shadows and highlights. Look at any real-world picture and you will see shadows everywhere - and nearly all shadows simply consist of areas that are slightly darker or less colourful. In CorelXARA you would just draw a shape around where you want the transparency to occur. Give this a black or dark grey colour and then make this object semi-transparent or, more usefully, a graduated transparency so the shadow fades. This object now becomes a "floating shadow" and because of the inherent object-oriented nature of CorelXARA, you can move, edit, resize or re-colour this object at any time.

Notice how much more realistic the semi-transparent shadow on the left looks compared to the solid shadow on the right.

A drop-shadow such as this takes only a couple of seconds to produce, but compare the difference between a traditional non-transparent shadow and a transparent one.

Transparency brings greater freedom, greater levels of realism and greater simplicity.

Highlights and reflections

Like shadows, highlights and reflections can be created by overlaying semi-transparent areas of colour, usually white.

This drawing shows various uses of transparency - the windscreen, the sunlight reflection on the windscreen, the shadow under the car, the reflections in the car's panel work, even the sky and road use transparency to fade into the distance.

Photographic compositions

Because bitmaps are treated like all other objects in CorelXARA these can be made to be semi-transparent providing some amazing effects not normally possible with object-oriented programs.


32-bit program

CorelXARA has been designed from scratch as a new 32-bit application. This means it runs straight away on 32-bit operating systems such as Windows NT and Window 95.  Using a Microsoft extension called Win32s it is also able to operate under the existing Windows 3.1 (and 3.11) operating system. Indeed the same 32-bit program  is used on all three operating systems. When running under Windows 95 or NT it detects and takes advantage of new features such as long filenames and new common dialogues and the new look-and-feel.

Being a 32-bit application also brings other advantages, mostly concerned with not carrying any "baggage" of a 16-bit past - this is not a 16-bit program adapted to run in a 32-bit environment.

Internally many features such as the coordinate system are held to 32-bit and, in some cases, 64-bit accuracy allowing extremely high levels of precision and dynamic range.  For example CorelXARA works to 72,000 dpi internally, offers zoom levels of over 25,000% and also allows page sizes larger than A1.

By using our own rendering engine we can also provide all the advantages of this precision and range, not to mention speed, on the existing Windows 3.1 operating system.


Zero memory blends

The ability to "morph" or blend one shape into another is one of the most powerful features of any drawing or illustration program.  CorelXARA goes further than most programs by not only allowing "dialogue free" blending (see Direct action tools) but doing it near instantaneously. The process couldn't be simpler - you just click on the first object and drag to the destination object and CorelXARA will immediately calculate a series of intermediate steps.  This technique is ideal for creating highlights or regular repeating patterns etc.

The zero memory aspect comes because CorelXARA is able to calculate all the intermediate steps on the fly and does not store the intermediate steps in memory. So, unusually, no matter how many steps you create it requires no more memory and your file size does not increase.

Blends can be used for all sorts of effects, such as the multi-stage blends to create the highlight on the apple.  The water drops were also created using the blend facilities.

This example is simply a blend between a random shape and a star. Note how the graduated fill on the shape is blended to the 'flat' yellow on the star.


Direct action tools

Once you have used our direct-action tools you will never want to revert to any other way!  Perhaps the best example of this feature is the use of the fill tool, although almost all tools offer the same advantages.

Trial and error design vs. right first time design

Traditionally to create a graduated colour fill in an object, you select the appropriate tool, which brings up a dialogue control box. Into this dialogue you type numerous values into various fields, such as the angle of the fill and the offset of the start and end points. You may also want to select the start or end colour by bringing up yet more dialogue boxes. Finally you press the OK button and wait for the screen to redraw to show the effect (which as we've shown can in itself be a very time-consuming process).  If it's not right, you go through the whole process again.

With CorelXARA, to create a graduated fill you simply select the fill tool and then just a single click-drag-release (i.e. one operation) on the document creates a fill-arrow.  This single operation allows the start point, end point, extent, and direction of the fill to be specified. What's more the object is filled as you drag. There are no complex dialogues boxes and no waiting for the screen to redraw and hoping you have the right effect.

To alter or edit the graduated fill simply involves clicking and dragging the ends of the fill arrow around as required. Again straightforward, simple and direct.

Many other tools in CorelXARA work the same way. For example the transparency tool.  Many controls or sliders are also direct action - e.g. the transparency slider. This controls the degree of transparency from 0% (completely opaque) to 100% (completely transparent) of the current object. The program is fast enough to be able to adjust the transparency as you drag - so again you can get the exact degree of transparency you want, directly, in a single action.


Accuracy and Precision

The program uses 32-bit, and in some cases 64-bit coordinates for numerical positioning of objects. This allows not only a huge range, but also a very high degree of accuracy.  Internally the program works to 72,000 dpi, (greater than half a micron accuracy) many times higher than the highest resolution printer or image typesetter.

This degree of accuracy allows an incredible amount of detail to be put in drawings, meaning they are more scalable than ever before (and of course one of the inherent advantages of object-oriented graphics, compared with pixel-based bitmap graphics, is the ability to scale objects without introducing visible pixel artifacts).  The ability to work on minute detail is vital not only to give drawings and illustrations realism, but to allow them to be scaled up without loss of detail.  At a very simple level it means you can print poster sized images from the simplest drawing and it will still look pin-sharp.


Infinite Undo

The ability to undo your mistakes is one of the great benefits of modern computer software. CorelXARA is very forgiving not only because you can undo your last action, but all your previous actions. All operations are recorded and so you can freely experiment in the sure knowledge that you can't mess things up, it won't matter.  And, because it's only the action that's recorded (and the inverse undo action), this undo record doesn't require huge amounts of memory that would typically be required by painting or bitmap programs.

Skill reduction

Painting, bitmap programs, are very like traditional paint and canvas. Once you've put your paint on the canvas you cannot undo any mistakes. If you want to go back and change something usually the only way to do this is to paint over what's already there. This obviously requires a certain amount of artistic skill, not to say confidence. Computer based painting programs are sometimes better in that they may offer one level of undo, but inherently require this artistic skill since things are not editable after you have drawn your work.

By combining infinite undo with the inherent ability to edit objects after you've drawn them, CorelXARA provides a very high level of freedom and requires a lower skill level than other programs. In addition the new features such as transparency allow the quality of work to compare with the best painting programs around.

This apple was drawn by someone who is artistically incompetent.  The water drops took several attempts to get right, but it was possible to change them in the sure knowledge that it would not be possible to mess up the rest of the apple and everything could be undone if it the desired effect was not achieved.


Compatibility

CorelXARA can import vector files from a wide variety of sources including WMF (Windows Meta Files) and EPS files from the most common sources, such as Adobe Illustrator and MacroMedia Freehand.

It also has the ability to load CorelDRAW CDR files from CorelDRAW versions 3, 4 and 5.

It can also load a huge variety of bitmap files, including all the common formats such as TIFF, BMP, JPEG and PhotoCD.

Export

Because many of the features of CorelXARA, such as transparency, are not available on other vector based graphics programs it is not always possible to export illustrations in a completely editable format to these programs. However it can export vector files in the most common industry-standard EPS formats that are loadable by all good drawing programs. It can also export images, or any part of an image, as a bitmap of any required resolution in a wide range of formats including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP etc. Bitmap formats are perhaps the most common and universally accepted by almost all programs.

The ability to export anti-aliased bitmaps, including interlaced and transparent GIF formats are particularly useful for multi-media or Web uses.

Import & Output formats

ArtWorks EPS	(import & export)

.bmp bitmaps	(import & export)

Brook Trout bitmaps	(import only)

CALS bitmaps	(import only)

CorelDRAW (3, 4 , 5)	(import only and slightly restricted, see note)

DCX bitmaps	(import & export)

Freehand EPS	(import only)

GIF bitmaps	(import & export)

GX2 bitmaps	(import only)

Halo CUT bitmaps	(import only)

IFF bitmaps	(import only)

IMG bitmaps	(import only)

IOCA bitmaps	(import only)

Illustrator (88, 3, 4)	(import & export)

JPEG bitmaps	(import & export)

KOFAX bitmaps	(import only)

LaserView bitmaps	(import only)

MacPaint bitmaps	(import only)

Microsoft Icons bitmaps	(import only)

Microsoft Paint bitmaps	(import only)

PCX bitmaps	(import & export)

PhotoCD bitmaps	(import only)

Photoshop bitmaps	(import only)

PICT bitmaps	(import & export)

Sun Raster bitmaps	(import & export)

TARGA bitmaps	(import & export)

TIFFs	(import & export)

Windows Metafiles (WMF)	(import & export)

WordPerfect Group bitmaps	(import & export)

XWindows bitmaps	(import only)

Operation compatibility

CorelXARA follows many industry standard conventions. It has a Microsoft Office look and feel, so includes configurable button bars, tool tip help etc. It even follows the latest Windows 95 guidelines with respect to things like drag and drop and right-mouse button pop-up menus.

While CorelXARA includes many new and advanced features we are aware that many customers may well be familiar with other graphics programs and so we made sure that many operations and tools work in a familiar and traditional way. For example while we provide a new and advanced bezier curve editing tool, we also provide an industry standard bezier editor that works exactly like those provided by CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator.

Note

Some objects will not import from CDR files correctly with CorelXARA Viewer 1.0. These restrictions do not exist in the full-package.


Bitmap support

CorelXARA is not a bitmap painting or photo re-touching program. However it can be used for many types of job normally associated with these programs.  For example, because bitmaps can be made semi-transparent, it can be used for photographic composition work.

And of course, because of the inherent object-oriented nature of the program, the picture is never "flattened" into just a single non-editable bitmap - the component parts remain editable at all times.

Bitmaps are objects, like all others and so, for example, you can cut them;

This is achieved by simply drawing a a shape across the picture and selecting the "slice" option.

Bitmap fills

You can also use any bitmaps to fill shapes and text, automatically repeating the pattern as necessary. The CorelXARA CD includes hundreds of high quality, real-world natural texture fills. Like the other direct action tools the size and angle of the bitmap fill tile is directly controlled by dragging the mouse in real-time. One of the best demonstrations of the sheer speed and power of CorelXARA is to see a 1Mbyte scanned bitmap being used as a repeating pattern fill, and for this to be repeated a hundred times or more inside a polygon. Yet this repeating fill can still be scaled, stretched, and rotated in real time, on a DX2 PC!


Bitmap Textures

CorelXARA has an unmatched ability to use bitmap textures for fills. The package includes hundreds of natural high-resolution textures for use as fills.

This example heading uses a stone texture as a background, the lettering uses a range of other textures. In order to fill text with CorelXARA it is simply a matter of dragging the appropriate texture from the fill gallery window onto the lettering - there are no complex import or control dialogs - just direct, intuitive drag and drop operations. The object orientated nature of CorelXARA even allows the text to be edited directly on the page, even after it has been texture filled. The above heading illustration also uses a variable transparency applied to the shadow, which has been perspectivised using the 3D perspective tool. An illustration like this takes a couple of minutes to produce. CorelXARA can tile (seamlessly repeat) any bitmap as a fill. What's more the user can interactively re-size and scale the texture fill, in real time. It also offers a wide variety of fractal fills, which using transparency can be combined with other artificial or natural fill types.


Text

CorelXARA is not a DTP program and does not pretend to be suited for producing complex page layouts incorporating columns of text - it is primarily a graphics creation tool. However we realise that text has a very significant role to play in many graphic situations, for headings, annotations and so forth.

CorelXARA supports a wide range of text handling abilities. It uses TrueType or ATM (Type 1)  fonts, hundreds of which are included in the package. Text can be fitted to a curve and edited on the curve. Text can be edited directly on the curve, and the program supports kerning and tracking. It is even possible to fit some text to a curve, rotate this and then apply a texture fill to the inside of this text and still edit it, as text. If you want to edit the actual outlines of the characters then this is also possible.

The effect of anti-aliasing: left without anti-aliasing, right with

Anti-aliased text

Like all objects in CorelXARA text text can be anti-aliased. This is particularly beneficial for small point sizes, rotated or italic text.

Compare the screen quality and legibility of normal text as it might appear in other programs (left) and anti-aliased text as it appears in CorelXARA. (Both examples in 8pt.)


Smooth graduated fills

Just compare the difference between CorelXARA and other drawing packages. The second screenshot shows what CorelXARA displays on screen in a 256-colour screen mode, the first screenshot shows the display produced by another drawing package.

Because CorelXARA uses its own unique graphics engines it does not have to simulate graduated fills unlike other traditional drawing programs. They do this by splitting the shape up into bands or strips, and drawing each of these individually as a slightly different colour.  The bottom line is that each shape has to be drawn from dozens of sub-shapes, not only slowing the program down enormously, but giving a striped appearance to all graduated fills.

With some programs, you can choose how many bands the program splits each graduated shade into. The choice is simple: you can make the graphics looks better by having more bands at the cost of a considerable slow down. Or you can make the program go faster by reducing the screen quality.

CorelXARA has no such compromises. By using its own rendering engine it can not only draw the graduated shade in one go, meaning fewer polygons to draw, but it also means that you get perfectly smooth graduations all the time.  A huge gain in both speed and quality.

Smooth dithering

In addition CorelXARA uses a special dithering system to provide super-smooth graduated fills and a huge range of colours. This is particularly useful in 8-bit, 256 colour screen modes. Dithering in 8-bit modes includes a special greyscale system that provides 256 shades of grey in addition to a full spectrum of colours using only 256 colours!

CorelXARA also uses dithering for 16-bit screen modes giving improved screen display with less banding on graduated fills.


Other utilities included

CorelXARA not only offers technical excellence, but also competes by being low cost, and including a huge range of valuable fonts, clipart, bitmap textures and support utility programs. Rather than supplying these as separate, stand-alone programs, they are integrated directly into CorelXARA, so they are available where and when you need them.

Bitmap tracer

Not only is this useful for converting bitmap scanned images, such as logos and other simple shapes, into editable outlines, but it has modes for producing almost photographic quality traced output from colour photographs.

Bitmap effects

The program includes a range of image processing facilities so you can alter the brightness, contrast, or blur or sharpen bitmaps etc.

Font support utility

Available from the font gallery, this enables you to see an anti-aliased preview of all fonts - those installed in the Windows system as well as uninstalled fonts available from the huge range we include on the CD. It also includes simple one-click font installation and de-installation of fonts

As with the clipart and fill galleries, items can be dragged from the font gallery. So for example when you have chosen a font in the gallery and want to use it on some text it is simply a matter of dragging the font from the gallery onto the text on the page. No pop-up menus - you don't even need to know the name of the font. (if you attempt to use an uninstalled font, it will be installed for you).

Other galleries

CorelXARA includes clipart and fill texture galleries. These present small thumbnail representations of the clipart and bitmap fill textures. The clipart is all categorised and searchable by keyword. You can even use the galleries to select from your own drawing libraries.


What's in the Box ?

Value for money

CorelXARA would be excellent value for money just for the program on its own, but when you consider the technical benefits, the speed and performance and the utilities and other data, it offers by far the best value for money of any graphics package.

•	The highest performance graphics program around

•	Over 10,000 clipart and example files

•	Clipart and picture file managing utility and viewer

•	Hundreds of high quality scanned natural textures on CD

•	Over 500 fonts in both TrueType and Type 1 format

•	Font-managing utility (preview, install and de-install)

•	Integrated bitmap tracer utility

•	Integrated bitmap effects and image processing utility

•	Fully illustrated manual

•	Fully illustrated on-line Help including dozens of live multi-media demonstrations

See Ordering


Multimedia and the Web

CorelXARA has the best on-screen quality of any drawing program. This is great for producing "normal" graphics designed to be printed because it gives a more realistic on-screen representation of what a high quality print will look like - it's more WYSIWYG.

But this on-screen quality means the program is particularly suitable for any application where the final resultant graphics are to be used on-screen. e.g. multi-media applications, computer presentations, and new Internet applications such as World Wide Web publishing. For examples of CorelXARA being used for WWW publishing, visit the Xara WWW site at www.xara.com.

Transparent and interlaced GIFs

Web publishing has two main forms of graphic - JPEG and GIF compressed images. CorelXARA can save and load in either format. However, recently a variation of GIF format has become popular, called interlaced GIF. This allows progressive image loading which feels as if the image is displayed faster. CorelXARA not only supports input and output in GIF but is one of the few programs around that outputs interlaced GIF format.

Transparent GIFs are another variant being used increasingly in WWW publishing.  CorelXARA also supports transparent GIF export where the background is transparent. This allows graphics to be overlaid on the background so you can "see through" the parts of the picture that are not covered by the drawing.

Compare the quality of an exported 8-bit GIF from CorelXARA (first picture) to the same thing from other programs (second picture) :

The conclusion is that if you want to present the best image to the world, you need the best quality graphics.

See also Anti-aliasing


System requirements

486 processor (or Pentium) and 8Mbytes of RAM. A sound-card is also required to get the most from the multi-media on-line demonstrations that are included on the CD. The program can be installed from the supplied CD - a floppy version is also available.

The package includes Win32s so that the program functions perfectly well under Windows 3.1 and 3.11.  It runs native on Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51. (Intel processors only). CorelXARA does not currently work with OS/2.

As with all graphics programs, the more memory you have the better, however the sheer speed of CorelXARA does compensate to a great degree. For example, CorelXARA on a 25MHz 486SX is faster than other drawing programs on a 120MHz Pentium.

Because of the special dithering and smooth graduated fills CorelXARA does not require very high powered graphics cards. It's able to produce near 24-bit quality in 8-bit screen modes and perfect 24-bit quality in 15-bit and 16-bit (32K and 64K colours) screen modes.

Because CorelXARA uses the OS blit function it does prefer to have local bus graphics cards as  this operation is usually significantly faster on this type of graphics adapter.


Demonstration Notes

This demonstration will show you more of the features available in the full CorelXARA package.

If your machine uses a screen-saver, we suggest you disable it during the demonstration as it may cause problems with speech synchronisation during the demonstration. (The Windows User Guide describes how to disable a screen saver.)

You will only hear the sound track of the demonstration if your computer is fitted with a sound card. You may find that the sound goes out of synchronisation with the vision during the demonstration. This is particularly likely if you fast-forward or pause.

The demonstration was recorded at a resolution of 800x600. If your screen is smaller than this, some of the demonstration will not be visible.

Sometimes, parts of the screen might not update correctly. Please be assured that this is a problem with the ScreenCam demonstration software and not with CorelXARA. (The ScreenCam demonstration software was written by a third-party and not by Xara Ltd or Corel Corporation.)

Some computers can display the wrong colours in the demonstration. If this happens on your computer, minimise Viewer to an icon. (The Windows User Guide describes how to do this.)

Note that the demonstration refers to Xara Studio, the old name for CorelXARA.

  Click this button to start the demonstration of CorelXARA.


Ordering CorelXARA
To find out how to order a copy of CorelXARA, contact your nearest Corel customer service point.

Corel Customer Service North America

Tel.	1-800-772-6735

Fax.	1-408-644-2000

Mailing Address

Corel c/o UCA&L

P.O. Box 3595

Salinas, CA

93912-3595

Corel Customer Service Worldwide

Call Corel toll-free on one of the following numbers :

UK	0800 581028

France	0590 6512

Austria	0660 5875

Denmark	800 18755

Germany	01308 15074

Norway	800 11 661

Sweden	020 791085

Switzerland	155 8224

Belgium	0800 1 1930

Netherlands	06 022 2084

Italy	1678 74791

Spain	900 95 3538

Ireland & other countries not listed :  353-1-706-3912 (Toll Line)

Fax.	353-1-295-7723

Mailing Address

Corel c/o UCA&L

P.O. Box 3878

Dublin 1

Ireland

Corel Corporate

Customer Service	613-728 3733 (Toll Line)

Fax	613-728-9176


Xara Ltd

Xara Ltd are the developers of CorelXARA and a Corel Reseller

Xara is a new company set up by Computer Concepts Ltd. to develop CorelXARA (originally known as Xara Studio). Computer Concepts have been developing mainstream application software since 1981. CC was one of the pioneer microcomputer software houses of the early eighties in the UK developing applications such as the Wordwise word processor which sold a quarter of a million copies.

With nearly 15 years of development experience, the last six of which have been developing 32-bit windowing based applications for RISC based computers, this has given us an unrivalled experience of developing microcomputer application software. This experience predates the arrival of 32-bit Windows based environments by many years.

The recent arrival of 32-bit Windows programming environments (Windows 95, Windows NT and Windows 3.1 with Win32s) has meant we can now exploit that experience in the wider PC and Windows market, rather than the more niche markets we occupied before.

The CorelXARA project was started at the beginning of 1993 and currently involves 22 programmers based at our headquarters, Gaddesden Place (pictured above).

     	Xara Ltd

Gaddesden Place

Hemel Hempstead

Hertfordshire HP2 6EX

United Kingdom

Tel:	01442 350000

outside UK +44  1442  350000

Fax:	01442  350010

outside UK +44 1442 350010

Email	info@xara.com for general queries

sales@xara.com for sales, licensing and ordering information

WWW	www.xara.com


Corel and Xara On-line

Corel Corporation and Xara Ltd (developers of CorelXARA) are both accessible using the Internet.

Xara Ltd

Email	info@xara.com for general queries

sales@xara.com for sales, licensing and ordering information

WWW	www.xara.com

Corel Corporation

Email	custserv@corel.com

WWW	www.corel.com


CorelXARA Examples

Below are some examples of the outstanding images that can be created with CorelXARA. To view an image, click on the name. Don't forget you can use CorelXARA Viewer to load many more example images from the CD!

Xara Watch

Cat

Lion

Leaf Girl

Ferrari

Ghostship

Apple

Fog

Midget

Mini

Spitfly

Testarossa

Watch

Chess

Floating

Firestorm

Island

Balls


Cat

Even though this drawing does not use any of CorelXARA's advanced features, like transparency, it shows that a few simple shapes with well placed graduated fills can produce very high quality drawings.


Lion

A very simple outline was filled with the three colours. The wavy effect is a very simple overlaid grey shape with fractal transparency.


Leaf Girl

This drawing makes extensive use of two key CorelXARA features - transparency and texture fills. The outline of the girl on the beach was drawn by hand. This was filled with one of the repeating leaf textures supplied with CorelXARA. The shadow and white highlights use transparency. The Sky is a fractal fill. The ground is stone texture re-coloured to a sandy colour. Both use transparency to fade into the distance.


Ferrari

This high quality drawing illustrates that the good positioning of a few well chosen graduated fills can give a very realistic, airbrush effect.


GhostShip

A superb example of the capabilities of CorelXARA. This 'Turneresque' picture involves only a few simple shapes. The key to the picture is the extensive use of transparency with multiple overlaid areas of colour combined with a subtle fractal texture. What other vector program could produce anything like this?


Fog

Another fine example of the use of overlaid semi-transparent areas of colour combined with a low-density fractal to give the effect of a swirling fog


Midget

One of the classic CorelXARA drawings, using many different effects. Note the semi-transparent shadow under the car. The sky is a fractal texture and the road is one of the stone textures from the full CorelXARA package. Both use transparency to fade to white in the centre to give the effect of going off into the distance.


Mini

This drawing was created by the same artist as the Midget. The windscreen glass on the car consists of two overlaid transparent shapes, one to give it a tint, the other to simulate the sunlight reflection (elliptical graduated white transparency). The mini uses the unique 'linked-colour' feature of Studio, so that all shades of blue are linked together, so that editing the master colour will re-colour the entire car including all the lighter and darker shades in one go (shown on the right).


Spitfly

A great drawing using a number of unique CorelXARA features. Transparency is used for the cockpit and propeller effect, but also some of the more subtle highlights and shading is done with overlaid transparency. The ground is covered by a single rectangle containing a low-density transparent fractal fill to simulate the clouds. In CorelXARA the transparency of a shape is altered by a single slider control. Altering this for the sky can interactively adjust the density of the clouds and so make the ground fade in and out as you desire.


Testarossa

A drawing which makes full use of blends and transparency to provide highlights, shadows, and realistic windows. Note the reflective highlights on the bonnet and windows, achieved with several layers of transparent fractal-filled shapes. All colours on the car are linked to the base red, so that the paintwork can be changed to a different colour at a moments notice.


Watch

A few well placed transparency highlights and the perfect use of one of the more subtle texture fills (supplied with the full CorelXARA package) for the Watch face really improve the quality of this drawing.


Xara Watch

The watch graphic is a very good example of the high quality, detailed, realistic images that can be created with CorelXARA. Extensive use of transparency for the metallic highlights, soft shadows under the watch. It is also used very effectively at the ends of the straps so that it fades into the background. This effect would be near impossible in any other drawing package.

Being a vector based object oriented illustration program allows an almost infinite level of detail to be put into illustrations. Unlike painting programs this means you can zoom in, scale and rotate the drawing with no loss of detail or pixelation. The enlarged view of the watch face illustrates this - and you could zoom in a lot further. Anti-aliasing ensures a smooth, realistic look at all times.


Balls
A simple but very effective example of the use of a few circular graduated fills. The window reflection is a simple overlaid transparent shape. The floor shadows are blended ellipse shapes. By using transparent shadows it gives the correct visual results no matter what background you put the balls on (note how the wood grain shows through the shadow).


Chess

The pawns are simple shapes filled with a wood texture (one of those supplied with CorelXARA) along with some overlaid transparency to produce the highlight and shadows. The board itself is given an extreme perspective using the CorelXARA perspective tool. A simple skewed fractal is overlaid to create this reflective surface effect.


Floating

They don't come much simpler than this! Just five simple shapes using fractal textures and graduated transparency. the right-hand side shows the drawing in 'wire-frame' mode and shows the simplicity of the drawing.


Firestorm

A perfect example of the airbrush effect that can be created with the use of graduated transparency and overlaid objects. In this case elliptical transparency. Would you guess this picture was produced by a vector illustration program in less than 30 seconds ?


Island

By copying objects, flipping them, and applying graduated transparency, it is very easy to create excellent reflection effects.


Apple

A classic example of the use of blends. In CorelXARA you can blend from any shape to any other. The highlights on either side of this apple are three-stage blends from the outer apple green, to a mid-green to a white or yellow highlight. CorelXARA blends require no memory, so this file is tiny. The water drops are also examples of blends. Much use of the infinite undo feature of CorelXARA was made in the creating of this drawing. The highlights had to be started from scratch several times until the desired effect was achieved.