Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 review

Photo & Graphic Designer is an illustration package in the same vein as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, where graphics are created using vector coordinates rather than bitmaps. This means that shapes are easy to edit, and that they scale up and down without degrading quality – just the thing for a range of graphic-design tasks including logos, technical diagrams and web graphics.

This package differs from Illustrator and CorelDraw in a number of ways. It’s much cheaper, although Xara Designer Pro 7 (£249 inc VAT) makes for a fairer comparison as it’s better equipped for commercial printing jobs. It’s also much quicker to get to grips with, thanks to a streamlined set of tools and incredibly quick screen redraws, constantly updating as settings are adjusted rather than only after the mouse button is released.

It also differs in the extent to which it branches out from its core vector graphics features. Because Xara doesn’t produce as wide a range of creative software as Adobe and Corel, it can afford to pack more in here without the risk of treading on its siblings’ toes.

Text handling is up to the demands of DTP tasks

Its text handling is good enough for desktop publishing (DTP) duties, with the ability to flow text across multiple boxes on different pages and around graphics. Version 7 is better than ever in this respect, with the ability to set separate horizontal and vertical borders between graphics and text. It’s now possible to anchor graphics to a specific line or word within the text so it keeps its relative position as the text is edited or reformatted.

Also new in this update is the ability to set objects to repeat on all pages. Changes made to one instance are duplicated throughout the document, but it’s also possible to delete these objects on certain pages, as might be necessary for a front page of a newsletter.

Saving animations as AVI files means they can now be used for video as well as web projects

The software can produce animations, exporting in GIF or Adobe Flash format for use on websites. Animation options are basic but it is possible to apply gradual transformations to the position, shape, colour and opacity of objects. As such, it’s perfect for simple web animations such as banner adverts without the cost and complexity of Adobe Flash Pro.

Version 7 adds AVI video to these export options, including the ability to export with a transparent background so graphics aren’t bound inside a rectangular box. This is a great way to go beyond the template-based text designs offered by most low-cost video-editing software. However, transparent backgrounds are only supported for uncompressed AVIs, which means enormous file sizes. We found that these files’ transparency was recognised by Adobe, Avid, Corel and Magix’s consumer editors, but not by our two favourites, Vegas Platinum and Cyberlink PowerDirector. That’s hardly Xara’s fault but it does have practical implications.

Photo & Graphic Designer is also surprisingly effective as a photo editor. There’s considerable scope to optimise colours, skew geometry and apply a wide range of artistic effects. Unusually for an illustration package, it can also apply localised edits to specific parts of a photo, such as red-eye reduction and cloning.

Joining this line up is a new feature called Magic Erase. It removes unwanted objects from photos by replacing them with cloned areas of the background. In our tests it was clever enough to reconstruct the soft verge of a path, but anything with straight lines or recognisable shapes was less convincing. Still, it was only marginally less successful than a similar feature in Photoshop CS5. To deal with the occasional crisp packet marring an otherwise great shot, it’s extremely welcome.

The Magic Erase function isn’t infallible but it has a good stab at replacing objects in a photo by extrapolating the background

Other improvements aim to speed up operation even further. The Snap to Objects function is more sophisticated than before, snapping to the centre or edges of other objects and using on-screen indicators to help users keep track of what’s going on. It’s now possible to edit an object within a group without having to ungroup it first, and there are various refinements to the cut, copy and paste functions.

There’s more than enough to justify the £29 inc VAT upgrade price. For new users, it’s hard to imagine a better product for people who want to produce design projects with the minimum of fuss. We’d stick to Photoshop Elements for photo-editing duties, but to have such capable illustration, graphic design, DTP and web animation tools for just £69 is a real bargain.