Staying true to their drag-and-drop, easy-to-use nature, Xara allows you to, well, drag and drop a simple chart of your choice onto the canvas and, after a double click, change the percentage by the movement of your mouse. Granted, a much more flashier chart can be easily vectored in Illustrator, but since this is Chart SmartShapes we're talking about, you can virtually create a simple chart within all of 35 seconds. This alone is literally the reason that solidified my love for this program. Oh, and the icing on the cake? Xara allows you to export your project, et al, in. As a graphic designer who has to design the occasional infographic and/or any piece of design where charts are implemented, I see this as a huge relief. This incredibly sexy wasn't available in the previous version of the software, and I cannot stress enough just how much of a heaven-send this is for me. Scrolling past the myriad of photo effects one can apply non-destructively (meaning, the original properties of the initial subject are not lost while making the edit) and the smart text wrapping features, what caught my eye was Chart SmartShapes. Right off the bat the canvas is populated with tutorials detailing some of the more impressive features of the software. Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 365 is perfect for that machine. Naturally 365 gave zero problems to me, but there's a good chance the average household has that one common computer with less-than-enviable specs. I have a fairly powerful machine - and it should be, otherwise how the hell am I going to play GTA V and Metro: 2033? - and I'm able to run a wide variety of Adobe products with ease, sometimes simultaneously. Xara's products are well-known for their practicality as such 365 should be able to run even on the most modest home computer. Don't worry, the UI / UX is the same, as are the shortcuts and practically everything else - it's just some of the jagged edges of 11 have been given smoothed out for a slightly enhanced experience. The latest addition to the family, Photo and Graphic Designer 365 (or V12) is an improved and updated version of the aforementioned 11. I'll be more than happy to make the jump if necessary, but till the time comes when computer academies start adding Xara to their official curriculum, all I can do on my part is recommend rising graphic designers to learn Xara's products as a viable alternate. My dependence on Adobe Illustrator is more out of the awareness of the brand name here in Pakistan than that that of allegiance. It's not that I think Adobe's products are better than Xara's - they might be, but this is not the sort of discussion I want to encourage in my review. However, due to the ubiquity of the Adobe brand, and every academia's insistence on teaching the much more popular Illustrator, I quietly retired Xara's much more friendlier Photo and Graphic Designer package. Though I had been quite adept with Adobe Illustrator by that point, the WYSIWYG nature and low pressure on my GPU, it was only natural I veered toward Xara to act as the stepping stone when I first started my professional logo design career. Last year I had the opportunity to review Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 11 which satisfied my early logo designing needs. Just take a look at any of our gazillion reviews around the website (fine, there are just three) - and they've all been very enthusiastic and positive. We are CGR are big fans of Xara's products.
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