Opened a PNG and there is no image border, no transparent background.

I'm not saying it's a bad program, just that it doesn't suit us and our work.

We believed the advertising and assumed that Magix would be decent and moral if it didn't do what we needed.

We based that on them giving us a previous refund for an upgrade to Vegas.

This time they'd rather keep the £39 and tell us where to go.

@johnebaker

Hi John,

I believe that Andrew means Xara Photo & Graphic Designer, not Photo Manager.

@Andrew-Constant

Normally, there is a 14 day return period, I believe. However, the problem with Xara may be that, as soon as you register, you get access to the on-line content. You could download it all, cancel the program and keep the content. That is one reason why they have a trial version and encourage you to try before you buy. With the trial version, you don't get access to the on-line content.

John CB

@browj2 I suppose you're right, but we wouldn't do that. No-one from Magix has mentioned that, and they would have a log if we had downloaded it.

Also, we had installed it a few months earlier, so trial had expired. Still once bitten, all I can do now is let people know about their lack of customer service and morality.

@browj2

Hi John

Thanks for the correction.

@Andrew-Constant

Apologies for the wrong program.

. . . . I suppose you're right, but we wouldn't do that . . . .

You may not, however there are some who would unfortunately.

The EULA for Xara Photo and Graphics Designer is here - you may want to try contacting them.

HTH

John EB

You may not, however there are some who would unfortunately

That doesn't mean the assumption should be made about us. The immorality still stands, We have a program we can't use and Magix have the money. We would have no hesitation in refunding a customer of ours in the same situation.

Thanks for the EULA link, I will do that.

@Andrew-Constant

I don't think that they have a log of what gets downloaded from the on-line catalogue or by whom. You either have access or you don't. You have 1 year from purchase or last update renewal to download what you want (or all) and you get updates/upgrades during that period. I have not renewed so I downloaded everything before my 1 year was up.

What is it that you were intending to do with P&G Designer?

John CB

Need to edit and save transparent PNGs for video production, e.g. 1280 x 720 specific size images, with being able to see the image border and transparent background. I didn't imagine that it wouldn't have those.

I've bought Affinity designer now, which works as expected, a much better program for our use.

Thanks for the comments, and your time.

@Andrew-Constant

That is one of the things that I do with Xara.

When you export to png, put in the filename and click on settings. Make sure to use True color + Alpha under Palette Options/Color Depth and check the Transparency box under Options.

What did you try to do?

John CB

But there's no image border or normal transparency background in the editor.

Every time you open a PNG, the default is autosize, if you change to custom size image, you get a white background, not transparent.

Anyway, happy with Affinity now. And as I say, this isn't about Xara, it's about Magix, point blank refusal to refund. Which stinks.

@Andrew-Constant

You lost me there. I don't get autosize when I import a png back into Xara. I don't get a white background when I import a png saved with transparency back into Xara.

Do you mean autosize when you import into the video editor? I don't get that either if I do it correctly. See below.

If you want a border that is the size of your 1280 x 720 rectangle, you have to make one. For example, I use 1920x1080. I use the blank photo screen for a new project, create (actually keep a template of this) a rectangle 1920x1080 and make it transparent except for the border, which is just a line. You can adjust the thickness of the line and even make it 0. Draw inside of the rectangle, make the border line 0 width if you don't want to see it in the video editor. With nothing selected, export to png, transparency. When you import into the video editor, you will have transparency and the rectangle will fit the screen and anything that you drew will be in the correct place. If you import that png back into Xara, it will have exactly the size and shape that you exported it at, in my case 1920x1080 even though the rectangle is not visible. Of course, it's now a bitmap file, so you can't adjust any vectors; you would have to save the Xara file as a XAR to do that.

As for normal transparency background, what do you mean? Xara has extensive types of transparency using the transparency tool and feather-edging.

I didn't mention that you can also do animations using the animation part of Xara, with transparency, and export with transparency for use in a video program. Or, you can do it directly from Movie Edit Pro Plus/Premium and Video Pro X and it comes back onto the timeline. Even transparency can be animated. And much more. You can't do these things with Affinity.

John CB

Thanks, I do appreciate your input on this, but I have uninstalled now and will start legal action against Magix to recover our money.

BTW, this is what I mean by transparent background. In other image editors you see the pasteboard and the image with a checkered background.

Again, thanks for your help, but I won't be using this product, because it doesn't suit our workflow.

That really should be enough for any company to say, 'OK, we'll refund you'. Unfortunately Magix prefers profit over common decency.

@Andrew-Constant

Xara does not use a checkerboard by default like other programs. You can add Pasteboard and Page backgrounds with colours and checkerboard fill if you wish. I have never needed to do that.

You can see the imported png is transparent and has the same shape and size as the export. I made the pasteboard background blue, the page background checkerboard; neither of which show up in the transparent png.

I use PaintShop Pro and one of the things that I dislike is the checkerboard background. Another is restrictions on layers - bitmap layers, vector layers, etc. No such problems with Xara.

Good luck with your quest. However, I feel that you have given short shrift to an excellent program that is much more powerful than you realize.

John CB

Thanks very much for your help, it is appreciated ;-)

I did find those settings, but you have to set them every time you open a new transparent image. They aren't defaults. I'm sure it does lots of wonderful things, I don't doubt that, but it just doesn't do it the way that Affinity does, which (rightly or wrongly ;-) is what we want.

Thanks again.

@Andrew-Constant

You set it up how you want, then Save it as a template, check the USE AS DEFAULT TEMPLATE option when saving the template. Then opening a new file will open your template.

Magix seem determined to keep my £39, they are now rejecting emails I send to them.

They really are an immoral company. A real shame because I probably now have to look for an alternative to Vegas, as I'm not keen for them to get another penny of mine.

check the USE AS DEFAULT TEMPLATE

Thanks

@browj2

Hi John

Photo and Graphic Designer appears to be capable of displaying transparency in png files, however:-

Added I have just seen your post about saving as Template, however if it can display the transparency as seen above why cannot it do this without the solution you gave?

John EB

That highlights our problem, this is not how other image editors behave. It may suit some but not me.

Magix should understand that money isn't everything, but I'm not the only one with an issue.

Many bad reviews on Trust Pilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.magix.com

@Andrew-Constant

Hi

I have just seen your comment in another section of the forum and @emmrecs response.

Despite my findings above, with how the display works and @browj2 previous comments, the fact that you had already tested the program using the trial version put the onus was on you to determine whether it meets you requirements or not.

As the decision was made to purchase, the program must have met your requirements.

John EB

Forum Moderator

@johnebaker

I'm using Xara Designer Pro X 16. Graphics part should be the same as P&G.

In the first case, how did you create the new document?

I used New Photo. When I drag and drop or import a transparent png, I get no white part, so I'm missing something somehow.

Open the layers in the Page and Layer Gallery. What do you see? Just 1 layer and 1 object, the imported png file?

Second case:

When you right-click on the background and select edit pasteboard colour, you automatically get 2 new layers: Page background and Pasteboard background. Don't give the pasteboard any colour, just cancel it and it will remain black, but the Page background becomes white by default. It will also be the size of your png rectangle. Now drag the image to the side. Is its background still white? No.

I'll do up a quick video.

John CB