New Xara Xtreme for Linux

(PRWEB) May 27, 2006 -- Xara are pleased to announce a milestone target has been achieved with the release of Xara Xtreme LX version 0.5. This is the Open Source version of the commercial Xara Xtreme graphics and illustration software.

With the new save and export of designs as bitmaps Xara LX is now a functional, really useful design tool.

There has been substantial progress since the previous 0.4 stable release. All tools are now fully functional with most menu options and some galleries also completed. Xara recently passed build number 1000, representing more than 1000 patches, submissions and fixes to the public code repository.

There are still a number of areas of the program that need work before Xara will reach the 1.0 milestone, which will be the first official 'finished' version of Xara LX. Despite the current 0.5 version number, Xara estimates they are much more than half way there now.

Xara would like to thank those who have given their time to help the project. Without their support this project would not be progressing anywhere near as quickly.

Now that the program is more functional, Xara hope people will start to use it vigorously and that more developers will want to help them drive this forward to become what they hope will be the greatest graphics program to exist on Linux. Developers should visit www.xaraxtreme.org/developers/ for more information.

Several screenshots can be seen at www.xaraxtreme.org/about/screenshots.html

Editors: For further details please contact: Nova Fisher, Communications Director.

For North America please contact:

Tom Wolf

206-903-1730

http://www.ascendpr.com

New features since the 0.4 release:-

* New Autopackage installer. It now appears in the Applications menu

* Save

* Bitmap export (JPG, PNG)

* Bitmap import

* Bitmap Gallery

* Colour Gallery

* A choice of document templates

* Layer Gallery and operational layer system

* Guidelines, guide snap and magnetic object snap

* Simple colour editor

* Ability to set the font in the text tool

* Status line & progress bar

* Many new menu items e.g. convert lines to shapes

* Clipviews - path clipping

* Improved combo boxes, drop down menus, buttons and sliders

* Improved toolbars

* Options dialog (and most options now operational)

* Freehand tool smoothing

* Many other features. Many bug fixes

* Full comprehensive Help now integrated

About Xara

Xara has been developing low-cost mass-market software since the early years of the Microcomputer era in 1981. It has focused mostly on publishing related software products, starting from Wordwise, a hugely popular Word Processor in the '80s, to desktop publishing software (Impression) and graphics products in the '90s for the Acorn RISC computer. Xara's first Windows product, Xara Studio, was quickly snapped up and marketed by Corel in the late '90s. The rights were acquired back from Corel and it has since evolved into Xara X and the most recent Xara Xtreme.

Xara has particularly strong technology and innovation history. It pioneered many of the graphics technologies and techniques used by the industry today. It was the first to introduce vector anti-aliasing, the first with vector transparency and graduated transparency, the first with vector feathering. Many of its User Interface techniques have been adopted by the industry. The graphics engine that is at the core of Xara Xtreme still remains the world's most powerful.

The technologies used to create Xara Xtreme have been developed by Xara over the years and incorporate many pioneering features. It has been modelled on the successful Xara X¹ (sold for $179) as used by many professional graphics and illustration artists but has been significantly re-engineered to open it up to third-party plug-in developers.

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