One of the first reviews I wrote for PC Pro back in 1995 was a review of the “new generation of graphics software”, Xara Studio. I recently wrote another Xara review this time of its latest incarnation, Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6, and it reminded me just what it was that made Xara stand out.

Xara was such a revolutionary and exciting departure because it took a very different approach to the likes of CorelDRAW and Illustrator. Where these programs concentrated on PostScript-based graphic design built on stroked paths with solid or graduated fills, Xara let you mix up vector handling with pixel-based bitmap effects such as anti-aliased outlines, texture fills, soft shadows and graduated transparency; you could even cut out elements from placed photos and include them in your compositions. Put all these features together and for the first time users could draw truly realistic artwork and, thanks to Xara’s blistering speed, could do so in real time.

Of course nowadays Xara’s current rivals offer all the features that made Xara Studio stand out – vector aliasing, graduated transparency, soft shadows, textured fills and masked bitmaps. However compared to Xara’s direct, hands-on approach both Illustrator and CorelDRAW’s integration of bitmap handling tends to be very technical and almost deliberately hidden away. For example I’m sure many Illustrator users have never realised that they can load a bitmap, drag it onto the Swatches panel and then apply it as a tiled fill; by contrast Xara encourages just this sort of creative experimentation with its dedicated Fills gallery full of ready-to-use tiling textures. More importantly Xara’s sheer speed of handling still puts its rivals to shame.

Moreover over the last 15 years, Xara has kept innovating across both vector and bitmap fields, most obviously with its introduction of non-destructive plug-in effects, artistic brushes and impressive real-time 3D rendering. The latest release continues that tradition with advanced features such as content aware scaling and zooming and the introduction of lens-based adjustments that can be applied to underlying vectors or bitmaps.

In fact Xara now promotes Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 6 as a dedicated image enhancement package as well as drawing app (hence the ugly new name), letting you open bitmap files as special photo documents which you can enhance using non-destructive lens adjustments complete with feathering and graduated transparency. Xara’s speed and creative flexibility are real advantages here, but without direct pixel editing I can’t see many people using it in this way and Xara’s true strength remains creative composition combining pixel handling within an object-oriented vector framework.

For traditional artists the difference between drawing and painting comes down to whether you pick up a pencil or a brush and the computer-based chasm between vector and bitmap handling seems artificial, rigid and creatively destructive. Xara is still the program that comes closest to bridging this vector/bitmap divide and means that in many ways it is still as revolutionary and exciting as it was 15 years ago. Moreover at a price of just £69 inc VAT – a fraction of the cost of an upgrade to Illustrator or CorelDRAW – Xara puts its better-known rivals to shame in more ways than one.