Xara Xtreme Pro - PDF/x or PDF High Quality export?

I've spent the last few days tearing out what little of my hair remains trying to understand:

xar file >> export to PDF >> send to printer >> printed output

I play in a music duo and we're about to release our first CD. We've designed the artwork in Xara Xtreme Pro 5 and want to send it off to the company for CD pressing/replication, booklet printing, CD label printing and assembly.

A major part of our image is the colour purple - look at our website (www.jiva.co.uk) and you'll see what I mean! The logo is made up of the duo name (jiva) in Colonna MT. The purple color is RGB #9900FF. This colour features in the album artwork (logo, titles, etc).

When I export the xar file to PDF there are two available options for 300 dpi, which is what the company wants from me. If I choose the PDF/x (commercial printing, 300 dpi) option the purple looks very subdued... a sort of pale mulberry? However, if I use the PDF High Quality (300 dpi)option the purple is very much in line with what I see on screen in Xara Xtreme Pro.

I appreciate that screen colours are brighter than the printed output, and expect some difference in the colour, but which PDF file should I send? The PDF/x or the PDF High Quality?

I've tried setting the simulate printer colours option and the purple shows as very red...

Can you please help? I don't want to end up with a room full of CDs with the wrong colour logo.

Thanks in advance.

Xara likes people to use the second method that you used, "High Quality" option but it does depend on what bitmap effects that you have used. To be honest the colour that you have chosen is the hardest to match the screen colours as it will look both washed out and slightly darker. If you have little in the way of transparencies why not use the High Quality Option and then ask for a wet copy to proof your CD as it is the way that I would do it. If you have a lot of bitmap effects then use PDF/ X-1a:2003 under the Advance option. Also have a look at this page: http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=39241&page=2 Look at Jon's input I think it starts at post 17 and see if you can match your colour that you want. I use the same method as Jon but with a restrict colour sample and it works but please come back if you need more help or give me a PM as I can take your file into AI and match colours but there would be still a slight guess using AI.

Xara RGB screen colors such as purple, bright green, some shades of blue and cyan, print very differently in CMYK as you have noticed.

Using the Simulate Print Colors setting (Windows > Show Printer Colors > Simulate Print Colors presents a more realistic preview of how your colors will look when printed.

There are a few things you can do. Remix your purple in Simulate Print Colors mode to as close as you can to your actual purple.

The other thing you can do, if your printer has a five color press and you don't plan to use varnish as the fifth color, is use a Pantone Spot Color to get the exact purple you want. You will need a Pantone swatch book to select the color you want and then you will need to specify the same color from the Pantone palette in the Color Gallery. Ask your printer if this is possible, and if so what are the extra costs and does he or she printing on coated or uncoated stock.

Many thanks for the replies. I appreciate you taking the time to help and to explain and suggest things.

My artwork is simple - mostly text with some photos and a little bit of feathering, with a live effect (Alien Skin Xenofex 2 Demo > crumple) used in the booklet to give a sort of marbled effect to the page background.

Unfortunately the company does not provide a printed proof. So I'm having to tackle this with fingers crossed.

I've done the following:

1. Loaded my original CD label xar file (CD Label v1.xar) which was created by importing the company's template into a new blank xar file, then creating my artwork on a separate layer.

2. Exported to PDF using the 'High Quality setting (CD Label v1 HQ.pdf).

3. Selected Window > Show Printer Colours > Simulate Print Colours.

4. Used the Colour Editor tool to change 3 pieces of text (logo, web address and rights text) to be the best purple I can approximate, ensuring that I make it a little lighter to allow for a darker printout).

5. Saved the file as CD Label v2.xar.

6. Exported to PDF using the 'High Quality setting (CD Label v2 HQ.pdf).

The very scarey thing is that the purple logo etc in CD Label v2 HQ.pdf is very blue on screen. But I assume that is pretty much what to expect, and that the actual print will turn out more like the purple I created on-screen at step 4 above?

I've also got a 12 page CD booklet file and the rear tray liner that uses the purple colour for headings and logo etc, and will do the same with them if what I'm doing is the right thing.

I tried to attach the 4 files mentioned above, but the High Quality pdf files are over the allowed size limit. So I uploaded the 2 xar files and 2 email/web quality pdfs so you can see where I'm at so far.

Am I going in the right direction?

Please use your first version it is as close as you will get. I have converted all the colours to the correct value and if you give me a PM with your email address I will mail you the file.

Hi Albacore - many many thanks.

PM sent with my email address.

Many thanks for your help on this!

They've changed tack and want TIFF files using CMYK profile rather than a PDF... so we're now waiting for their response to the exported TIFFs.