Xara Designer Pro 7 ($299, seven-day free trial with content limitations) is the super-charged sister to Xara Photo & Graphic Designer. This all-in-one print and Web design tool can edit photos, graphics (including 3D), animation, and page layouts without switching between programs.
Xara Designer Pro includes all of the features of Xara Web Designer 7 Premium–templates, widget support, hosting, to name a few–in addition to animated flash and .GIF export, navbar and popup creation, sitemaps, and webinar and web presentation support.
The Designer Pro version of the software also adds support for multi-core processors, giving Designer Pro 7 the potential for extremely high-performing and speedy graphics rendering. For those who live in the print world, Designer Pro 7 allows you to preview CMYK separations and spot color plates, emulsion position, and other advanced settings; plus gives you PANTONE® color, PDF/X, and XPS support.
As with other Xara trial versions, all of the features of Designer Pro are fully accessible, however the content pack that includes 421.25 MB of design template files, clip art, and royalty-free images is not available until you purchase the full version.
Xara Designer Pro is as intuitive, economical, and useful as Xara Photo & Graphic Designer and is well worth the upgrade if you know you’ll need the additional Web authoring or print production tools: After all, you’re still getting a first class product that can go head-to-head with Adobe Creative Suite Standard (a bundle that will set you back about $1,000), for a fraction of the price.