Xara Xtreme Pro / New(ish) Version

[tomos]

I got a mail today about a new version of Xara Xtreme Pro - 

I don't think it's that new -
they say: "The retail version has arrived"

Anyways couldn't find any post about it here so this is what's new:

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Flash animations use vector graphics. Unfortunately existing Flash tools have a reputation for being unintuitive, difficult to master and over complex. As a result Flash has been restricted to those willing to dedicate substantial time to mastering these tools. On the other hand, the Xtreme drawing tools have the reputation of being extremely easy to learn and slick. So now we bring the ease of Xtreme to Flash animations.

Xtreme Flash animation doesn't use complex time-lines. Instead it's more like traditional animators art, where you produce snap-shots or key frames of your animations at points in time. Xtreme automatically produces in-between frames to create smooth, really compact Flash animations.

Note: Xtreme Flash animation does not support complex advanced features such as scripting, sound or embedded movies. Instead it's Flash animation for the rest of us.

don't know anything about flash myself, but the PDF export sounds very good 

Xtreme Pro now includes class leading PDF support including these features:
•  Choice of PDF version from version 1.3 through to version 1.6, as well as PDF/X-1a 2001, x-1a 2003, X3-2002, and X-3 2003 standards.
•  Full support for vector transparency (PDF version 1.4 or later)
•  Font embedding and font subsetting options
•  Export any selected page range
•  Optional down-sampling of large bitmaps (reduces the size of PDFs for designs containing large photos)
•  Full control over bitmap embedding options and compression (native, Flate, JPEG)
•  Full control over bitmap transparency flattening, bitmap effect rasterization, to any required resolution and compression type
•  Embedding of native JPG files for lossless JPEG transfer
•  Support for Adobe Reader Layers. For PDF 1.5 and above you can now output and control Xtreme's layer visibility in Adobe Reader
•  File embedding. You can embed .xar files into your PDF and launch them from Adobe Reader
•  Full pre-press PDF/X support including:
    •  Embedding page crop and printer's marks
    •  ICC color profiles, including all the common paper stock options (e.g. US Web coated, ISO, etc)
    •  Embedding of custom ICC profiles

•  Document encryption, with full control over document permissions:
    •  Password protect any PDF file, with 40 or 128-bit encryption
    •  Control over exact permissions, e.g. allow / disallow printing or commenting or text copying or extraction.

•  Spot color support

and here's a screenshot of multiple page file.

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[EDIT: if you are thinking of buying (any Xara product) do use the link in Carol's signature below!]

[Carol Haynes]

Yes - it has been available for a while now (I bought mine before Christmas and the CD arrived at the end of January).

Xara have a habit of releasing software once it is stable but they don't produce the CDROMs until they have had it out in general use for a couple of months. That way any bugs that are found are fixed and an updated version is supplied via the mail.

Generally the bug fixes are pretty minor (or esoteric) as they generally have pretty solid release software (and have since they were founded in the 80s) so this makes sense - though it can be a little disconcerting for new customers to be told the CDROM won't arrive for 3 months (I think that was the longest I waited). Having said that the download version is the full version and you have access to all the tutorial materials and extras via the built in updater.

[tomos]

I probably got a mail at the time but never read it .. 

PS - Just added the info about flash to first post

[iphigenie]

I do think it's a bit silly of them to make PSD compatibility a pro feature.

I don't need to do the kind of flash it will support, I don't need DTP, but i would appreciate being able to open/import from PSD and also pantone support from an illustration program. But it turns out I have to shell out over $100 to get this... not worth it for me.

It is a nice illustration program, though. Worth trying now that freehand is probably disappearing, and Corel more expensive than ever.