Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide [Paperback]

Gary David Bouton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071625593 | ISBN-13: 978-0071625593 | Publication Date: October 15, 2009 | Edition: 1

Master the world's fastest drawing program!

Learn the principles of vector drawing as you learn technique, composition, and other art essentials--then apply your skills to creating websites, animations, logos, photographic retouches, and more. Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide shows you how to customize 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, Xtreme Pro, and Magix Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer, you'll:

• Work with vector paths that look like paint strokes
• Tag colors 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 you'll find an inspirational Xara GrandMasters Gallery of award-winning artwork from around the world. Get started today by downloading free trial software from www.xara.com!

Download lesson files from www.mhprofessional.com/computingdownload and www.theboutons.com.

Gary David Bouton, an international award-winning illustrator, has authored 25 books on graphics software, including CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide. He practices what he teaches: his work can be seen on Graphics.com, TalkGraphics, The CG Society, and YouTube.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gary David Bouton is the author of more than 20 books on computer graphics, including CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (October 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071625593
• ISBN-13: 978-0071625593
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Since 1991, Gary David Bouton has authored 25 books covering different topics, but they all revolve around a central theme: how does today's individual express themself artistically? The author has been illustrating professionally for over 30 years, and Mr. Bouton makes a point to share with readers not simply what a graphics application's tools do, but how they can be used to produce whatever is on the reader's mind.

Gary has written the Inside Adobe Photoshop series, several CorelDraw manuals including The Official Guide, books on video editing, 3D modeling, and creating Web content. Most recently, Gary has finished co-authoring Photoshop CS4 QuickSteps, and the Xara Xtreme Official Guide, due out this fall from McGraw-Hill.

In the spare time he doesn't have, Gary enjoys composing music and is an active practitioner of what he teaches through his books. Currently, the author works with video producers creating CGI and other post effects for music videos.

The author and his wife Barbara host TheBoutons.com, home of The Pixel Dust Forum, which supports diverse and lively discussions on everything (but mainly computer graphics). The Boutons also support their books at their website.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, thorough, and easy to understand!, October 29, 2009

By 

Theresa Riley (Kansas City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book - easy to ready, humorous, very understandable and with great detail. As a novice in the field I appreciated being able to understand everything. The book is also great for advanced design professionals.

It's a great guide for a fabulous design tool.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Author's video teaser, October 27, 2009

By 

Gary David Bouton (Central NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide (Paperback)

Length:: 1:02 Mins

The best way to explain the approach I used to write this book is with a little animation. I promise that the book has the same energy, pace, and sense of wonder. It just don't move around quite as much...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book to get the most from Xara Xtreme!, December 8, 2009

By 

Martin Matthews "Marty" (Langley, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide (Paperback)

Gary Bouton has at least two great strengths, he is a graphics genius and he can explain how it is done in terms that anybody can understand (I know because I'm definitely in the bottom end of the "anybody" category when it comes to graphics ability). Gary has used these strengths, in addition to his 30 years as a very talented graphics artist, to create Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide. He has written a book that is as comprehensive in its coverage of Xara as it is well organized and easy to use; a book full of detailed explanations, step-by-step instructions, and notes, yet it is attractively laid out with a large number of gorgeous illustrations that show you how a graphics element is created. Gary not only shows you how to get the most out of Xara, he also helps you become a much better graphic artist.

To paraphrase Charles Moir, the principle designer of Xara and the company's founder and CEO, Xara Xtreme is the Swiss Army knife for graphics document creation, providing a single application that fuses the best of vector graphics, photo editing, website building, animation, and document layout. With such power and versatility in a program, you would think explaining how to use it would be complex and difficult to get across. Gary, though, has made it clear and easy to understand, as well as fast paced, not getting bogged down in the minutia while providing all the explanation you need. At the same time, the book is also interesting and even fun to read and use.

If you haven't tried Xara, I recommend that you download the free trial version, and then get Gary's book to see what great graphics and document pages you can easily create. You will be very impressed with both the product and the book, but more importantly, you will be even more impressed with what you can create with this combination.

Marty Matthews