Xara Xtreme 5

Picture editors generally come in one of two flavours: so-called bitmap editors are used for working with photos while vector editors are used to make ‘drawn’ illustrations.

The split is something that has persisted over the years with separate programs for each task, even though that can sometimes be quite frustrating. Xara Xtreme 5 is one of the few programs that can be used for either role or for a combination of the two.

The interface of Xara Xtreme is unassuming and unthreatening, without too many options on screen the moment the user starts. The main editing tools are listed down the left-hand side of the window, with a toolbar at the top showing the settings for each of them.

There are plenty of templates with which to start projects – they cover a diverse range of photo albums, CD covers, postcards and more, along with some more business-orientated templates such as newspapers and business cards. It is possible to use Xara for desktop publishing projects as well as for creating illustrations.

Although it may take a little while to get to grips with the different tools, the help on offer here is better than average. The help files are pretty much what you might expect from any similar program, but there is a comprehensive selection of videos on the Xara website that demonstrate different tasks.

There are plenty of ways to produce finished projects. Printing is the obvious one, and Xara can save files in the Adobe PDF format if you want to share projects while making sure they appear correctly on other computers. Xtreme is also a capable web design program and is very good at producing websites that follow the latest standards without compromising on the look of the pages. Its ability to wrap text around complex images was particularly impressive.

Finally, Xara Xtreme includes a powerful image editor which is ideal if you want to combine photos with the vector shapes produced above in projects such as photo montages.

It does require some time to learn if you are used to other editors, but in this case it’s time well spent.

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