Scroll through this document to see a description of all the great new features & content released in March 2021 (v18.0). If you have an active Update Service then these updates are free, otherwise you can upgrade / renew your Update Service on magix.com.NOTE: If your Update Service has expired and you would like to give the new features a try, then you can download and install the trial of Web Designer and install it alongside your current version.You can find Release Notes for the earlier v17 here.
•Designer Pro X now makes best use of the screen resolution whatever the Windows scale factor is set to.•On high-resolution screens, like 4K Monitors and devices like Surface Pro tablets, document display is sharper.•Even on lower resolution screens, you can now use the Windows display settings to make the controls bigger, while the document display still uses the screen’s full resolution.
Selection UI
Shape Tool
The Shape Tool now has improved selection handles, similar to those recently added to the Selectorand QuickShape tools. New Shape Tool handles
QuickShape Tool
Also the QuickShape Tool now shows a reduced number of handles, but retains all the same capabilities. Previously some handles were duplicated around each vertex of a shape, each performing the same function. Reduced number of handles in the QuickShape Tool
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Selector Tool
The Selector Tool InfoBar used to have a button for toggling between SmartShape and transform modes, which only really affected SmartShapes. Now these two modes have been combined, so the toggle button has been removed.
Improved CMYK color display
Designer Pro X now has improved display of CMYK colors on screen, and also in all export formats that require conversion of CMYK colors to RGB. These color conversions now use a standard Color Profile. In this release there are not yet any user controls for changing the Color Profile used, or for using a custom profile, but these further improvements will be coming in another releases.
Desktop Publishing
Header Designs (Premium only)
Like the Footer components in the last release, the new Header designs are components which automatically size and position themselves at the top of the page on insertion. They are also made repeating on insertion, so that they appear on every page of your design.Example Header designTo view the available designs and insert them, use Insert > Header ….which opens the Online Content Catalog at the selection of footer components. If you insert a new header when there is already a header in the design, the new header replaces the old one and where possible the content of the old header is maintained in the new header.
Google Fonts Update
44 new fonts have been added to Designer Pro X:Akaya Kanadaka, Akaya Telivigala, Andik, New Basic, Ballet Benne, Big Shoulders Inline Display, Big Shoulders Inline Text, Big Shoulders Stencil Display, Big Shoulders Stencil Text, Bodoni Moda, Brygada 1918, Castoro, Commissioner, DotGothic16, Fraunces, Goldman, Grandstander, Hachi Maru Pop, Imbue, JetBrains Mono, Kufam, Kumbh Sans, Langar, Libre Barcode EAN13 Text, Nerko One, Newsreader, Oi, Piazzolla, Potta One, Reggae One, RocknRoll One, Sansita Swashed, Shippori Mincho, Shippori Mincho B1, Space Grotesk, Stick, Syne, Syne Mono, Syne Tactile, Texturina, Trispace, Truculenta, Xanh Mono, Yusei Magic.
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Web Design
New Publishing Workflow
New Web Export Tab
The old Web Export Options dialog has now been replaced by a new Export tab in the Utilities > Web Properties dialog. This brings these options, which control how your document or website appears when published to the web, together with other web settings all in the same dialog. New Export tab of Web Properties (Web Designer Premium)[Web Designer Premium only] The Transition Effect and Direction have been separated into two controls, instead of a single combined control. Also you now have more control over what features are enabled in your web document or website, in the Viewer Options section at the bottom of the dialog, as follows:Page previewsThis option allows you to choose whether or not you want the page navigation panel along the bottom of
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the browser window. The panel allows a viewer to navigate directly to any page by clicking on a page preview. PDF downloadIf this option is checked a Download button is added to the top right of the browser window, that allows the viewer to download your document as a PDF file, for printing or offline viewing. When this option is on, the PDF file is generated and published for you automatically along with the web view, each time you publish. Xara logoThis option determines whether or not the Xara logo is shown in the top left corner of the browser window. Note that whenever the PDF download option or the Xara logo option are on, a bar is added across the top of the browser window that also includes a Full Screen button. But if neither of these options are on, the bar is not present and so neither is the Full Screen button. Presentation document with all 3 options enabled
Web Preview Operations
Furthermore, the Web Preview operations now open your document/website directly in your default web browser, instead of in an internal preview window.
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Photo & Graphic Design
Smart Duplication
The new feature Smart Duplication allows you to quickly duplicate an object multiple times horizontally or vertically, with the copies equally spaced. With all the objects selected you can then also adjust the spacing.Turn on Smart Duplication by pressing the new button on the Selector Tool InfoBar. With this option on you’ll see that most objects will havehandles around them. Selected object with Smart Duplicate handles onDrag the right handle rightwards to duplicate objects to the right, drag the lower handle down to duplicate downwards, etc.Object duplicated 3 times, equally spacedYou can then adjust the spacing by dragging the spacing handle shown near the top right corner of the
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selection. If you want to keep the selected objects centered, hold the Shift key down while dragging. You can also use this feature to quickly adjust the spacing of any set of selected objects, horizontally or vertically. Just select them all and drag on the spacing handle, to equally space the objects.
Content Update
As usual we have some great new additions to the Online Content Catalog (provided as part of the Update Service).•10 new Header designs in Components > Print & Web Components (*New category) (Premium only)•10 new presentation templates in Presentations > Presentation Themes (Premium only)•3 new Photo Panels in Components > Image Resources•4 new Text panels in Components > Print & Web Components•5 new tables in Components > Print & Web Components (Premium only)•6 new diagrams in Components > Print & Web Components (Premium only)•30 new Facebook templates in the Social Media category (Premium only)•30 new Instagram templates in the Social Media category (Premium only)
Final Notes
As with every release we’ve also implemented a large number of minor enhancements including improvements and fixes to import and export formats like SVG, PDF, Word, PowerPoint and InDesign.