Xara Xtreme on the Mac
Xara today announced the new Xara Xtreme package is going to be made open source with the end goal of not only enhancing and improving it, but porting it to Linux and Mac machines. Given that this is the only app that I use on my PC these days (apart from IE for site testing &*$£%# ) this is truly great news. The Mac and Linux versions will take some time to appear, mainly due to the number of developers that get involved, but I am very excited about the future. There are some wonderfully talented Mac and Linux developers out there. For those that don’t know, Xara X is an insanely fast vector graphics design tool. It is spectacularly good, there is no other word for it. For more info hop over to the Xara site and grab a demo of the Windows version right now. I really don’t think you will be disappointed. Xara X is the world’s fastest and we believe the most versatile graphics software. It’s primarily a vector graphics (drawing and illustration) program but is one of the new generation of cross-over products that handles photos and drawings with equal ease. Xara X is also renowned for its slick, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn approach. I personally don’t think it would be a stupid move if Apple were to buy up Xara. Someone definately needs to break the graphics monoploy that Adobe has in general, and specifically in the Mac market. iXara, very nice. Comments... |
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It would make a great doodle program for the new video iPods
Xara have a point, though, in trying to inject some competition on the Mac in terms of vector design software. As we are about to wave goodbye to Freehand, there will be no mainstream package left apart from the all-conquering Illustrator (CorelDRAW, RIP). There ARE other higher-end vector packages but these tend to be specialst. And lower end (hobbiest) software exists too, such as Eazydraw – www.eazydraw.com
However, I there is now a huge amount of work necessary to get Xara up to Illustrator’s technical standards. There is very little that Xara can now do that Illustrator can’t (ignoring ease of use for the time-being). But there is masses Illustrator can do that Xara can only dream of. Professional essentials such as true CMYK handing for starters. Clipping, anybody? cough Native PDF print-press ready handling – including import? (Please! Nobody mention “SVG” in front of me!)
Then you have the question of how to make a GPL-opened product make money. I think Xara were very honest in their answers to this and other related issues, which is encouraging.
But all this is very negative of me. What this announcement is, is a miracle. Charles Moir is staking many, many man-years of development on this decision. A very brave decision? The only way left forward? It doesn’t matter – it allows Xara to live on even if the company doesn’t (their statement!) and it brings the possibility of a good alternative coming to my Mac desktop. Best of luck to them!
Nick