​Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide by artist Gary Bouton
Learn how to use the vector drawing program that is also a full featured bitmap editor and web page designer!

November 2009 – This month McGraw-Hill Professional will release the much-anticipated and definitive Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide, written by bestselling author and well-known graphic artist Gary Bouton. In the US, where the book first pubished last month, Amazon.com sold out within days of the launch.

In 368 full-colour pages, Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide teaches readers the principles of vector drawing along with technique, composition, and application for websites, animations, logos, and retouches. Readers will also learn how to customise the software, use QuickShapes, draw vector paths, use fills for photorealistic effects, and compose professional desktop publishing documents. This hands-on resource brings you from concept to completion with examples that span a range of art styles--using the vector drawing program that thinks it's a bitmap editor. With these tutorials that apply to Xara Xtreme, Xara Xtreme Pro, and Magix Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer, you'll:

• Work with vector paths that look like paint strokes
• Tag colours to dramatically change complex drawings in seconds
• Build multi-page, graphically rich websites in a few hours
• Convert bitmap web graphics to resizable vector shapes
• Design artwork in minutes that looks like it took days
• Create and export original Flash animations for the web in no time
• Create 3D text and apply special effects to imported photos and vector shapes
• Invisibly retouch photographs with feathering, fractal fills, multi-step gradients, and transparencies

Inside the book readers will also benefit from an inspirational Xara Grand-Masters Gallery showcasing and celebrating the talent of Xara artists from the UK, Mexico, Australia, Hungary, Sweden, Portugal and Russia, who were selected in a recent design competition organised by Xara.

Xara’s popularity is thanks to its lightning-quick speed, wide range of tasks and tools, and consumer-friendly price tag relative to other vector graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator CorelDRAW.

Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide retails for £28.99 but Xara have a special introductory offer of 20% off, giving a price tag of only £23.19. see www.xara.com/uk/products/xtreme/guide

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Editors' Notes

For an image of the book cover and some artwork created by Gary Bouton http://downloads.xara.com/press/XaraXtreme-TheOfficialGuide.zip

For further information please contact Nova Fisher, [email protected] Tel: +44 1392 209509

About the Author

Gary David Bouton holds four international awards for graphics and desktop publishing and is the author of more than 20 books on computer graphics and images, including CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide, Photoshop Elements for Dummies, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended and Inside Adobe Photoshop. Gary has documented a wide range of graphics applications and techniques, including video editing and special effects, photo retouching, 3D modelling, and illustration. Visit Gary’s popular site for more info: www.theboutons.com

About the Book

Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide by Gary Bouton
McGraw-Hill Professional
Pub date: 23rd November 2009 (UK/Europe)
ISBN: 9780071625593
Paperback, 368 pp

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About Xara Group Ltd Xara has been at the cutting edge of software design since 1981, specializing in creative design and publishing solutions, with award winning titles from the era of the BBC Micro right up to and including the latest cloud based, online services. Innovations have included technology firsts such as the first real time anti-aliasing & transparency controls, and spell check as you type. Xara Cloud is the latest venture, the culmination of decades in software design for the publishing industry. You can find more information about the latest updates on the website of our official worldwide reseller magix.com.

About MAGIX MAGIX has been a leading international provider of high-quality software, online services and digital content for multimedia communications since 1993. The MAGIX product range is targeted towards both laymen and professionals alike, going beyond the PC platform to include seamlessly integrated online and mobile applications. MAGIX operates internationally from branches in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands.