Best method to export a file for precise Adobe Illustrator compatibility?

Hello everybody,

I've been using Xara since long and now i have Xara designer pro X18.
Now i need to send my design for a company and they asked me to send it as .ai format so i tried to export my .xar file to .ai and imported back to xara to check it but all i got were few images without the text.
Can anyone tell me please what is the best format to export all objects and details so once imported to Adobe Illustrator, all aspects and precise dimensions to the mm remain the same without any distortion?

Thank you.

if you export from xara in .AI format you will lose all transparency effects and probably gradient colurs too - they will be flattened to bitmap, as you discovered; there is no way round this, the xara .AI export is compatible with solid colour vector only

youu would have better luck with .PDF export which the company may accept if you ask them, but even then, transparencies are going to be difficult

Thank you for your reply.
Is it only about transparencies when exporting to pdf ? would all other drawn objects aspects and mainly dimensions change?

unfortunately that rather depends on the program they are going to be using; if it is CC illustrator you should be ok; if it is another program then it will depend on what .PDF version/spec it is compatible with

[and so, you are not going to get a definitive answer by re-importing your export into xara]

Sadly, AI is very complicated to learn and Xara is much more user friendly.
Thank you for your input !

PDF would be my recommendation. PDF is one of two native file formats for AI and is probably more up to date than the AI or AI EPS file formats.

PDF supports editable text, bitmaps and vectors. And PDF is a universal file format.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

PDF would be my recommendation. PDF is one of two native file formats for AI and is probably more up to date than the AI or AI EPS file formats.

PDF supports editable text, bitmaps and vectors. And PDF is a universal file format.

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Thank you Gary, do you know which pdf version compatibility is best or any other settings suggestions?

following on...

when you export to PDF remember that xara will export everything that is on your page area, and nothing that is off page

I use the commercial print PDF setting - anything before PDF version 1.4 does not support transpaercy at all, I use the default

Not all fonts will save to PDF - if they do not then you can convert them to editable shapes before export, but they will then no longer be editable as text if you do

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Originally Posted by handrawn

following on...

when you export to PDF remember that xara will export everything that is on your page area, and nothing that is off page

I use the commercial print PDF setting - anything before PDF version 1.4 does not support transpaercy at all, I use the default

Not all fonts will save to PDF - if they do not then you can convert them to editable shapes before export, but they will then no longer be editable as text if you do

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That is good to know, thank you much !

[X] Commercial Printing to start. I think this exports to PDF/X 1a

There are more recent filters that follow. But for all the book covers I have done I have used PDF/X 1a and the results have been excellent. For my last cover I used a lot of transparency without even thinking about it and the cover printed fine.

If you will deliver print-ready-pdf then do it in X1. X1 doesn't allow RGB-colors.
Since quite 10 years was introduced PDF X4. This is a version that save transparencies native and is compatible to the AI-format. X4 allows RGB and CMYK colors.
But attention with fills and transparencies (shadows are transparencies too) they will be in all 4 print colors so a manual recoloring in AI is necessary if they must overprint or be only black (K).

Ernie - Is there a difference between PDF/X 1a 2001 and PDF/X 1a 2003?

Great information Gary ! Do you know if importing a PDF/X 1a to Adobe Illustrator will keep the objects dimensions precisely the same too ?

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Ernie - Is there a difference between PDF/X 1a 2001 and PDF/X 1a 2003?

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Hi Gary,
the only difference is that PDF/X1a 2001 is based on PDF version 1.3. PDF/X1a 2003 is expanded to the functionality of PDF 1.4.
For the printing process it is not relevant which version you choose. Both versions allowed only CMYK and spot colors and
flatten all transparrencies to bitmap.

@ gaftalik:
AI and PDF are calculating with 72 ppi/dpi. Xara calculate with Windowsstandard 96 ppi/dpi. So it can come to some rounding errors.

ERNIE HAS POSTED WHILST I WROTE THIS:

I think Ernie and Gary are looking at this from a printing point of view; if you need to provide a file that is editable in Illustrator it may not be quite that straightforward

precise accuracy is not actually xara's strong point unless you work in millipoints; if you work in other units you may get rounding errors; the larger the base unit [ eg cm rather than mm] the more likely these are to occur; you can mitigate these by increasing the number of decimal places xara works to but you hve to do that through windows and more than 3 places can be difficult to work with in the UI

for example I made an 8cm square in xara, which when imported via PDF to illustrator was 226.711 points square; changing the units in xara to points showed 226.8 points; you need to be aware and careful

and as said before, because xara does not handle gradient/transparency the same way as illustrator, these effects may be flattened to bitmap in illustrator depending on how they are constructed; I cannot really be more specific as, from experience, I now avoid those attributes in xara for export to illustrator or harmony

Thank you Ernie for your input !

Thank you Handrawn for clarifying that, indeed my concern is to provide a file to be editable in AI for laser cutting and since i am seeing errors in the sample's dimensions , they asked me to send the file as .ai knowing that Xara doesnt export correctly to .ai and having no knowledge about AI software, it is hard to fix those errors to match perfectly!

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Originally Posted by ernie-f

If you will deliver print-ready-pdf then do it in X1. X1 doesn't allow RGB-colors.
Since quite 10 years was introduced PDF X4. This is a version that save transparencies native and is compatible to the AI-format. X4 allows RGB and CMYK colors.
But attention with fills and transparencies (shadows are transparencies too) they will be in all 4 print colors so a manual recoloring in AI is necessary if they must overprint or be only black (K).

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Sorry I overlooked this post, i am learning a lot here thank you !

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Originally Posted by gaftalik

Thank you Ernie for your input !

Thank you Handrawn for clarifying that, indeed my concern is to provide a file to be editable in AI for laser cutting and since i am seeing errors in the sample's dimensions , they asked me to send the file as .ai knowing that Xara doesnt export correctly to .ai and having no knowledge about AI software, it is hard to fix those errors to match perfectly!

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If You need laser cutting is .ai and/or .xar not the right format. Obviously they will need .dwg or an other one-line CAD compatible format.

An other option can be .svg, but attention with the export. It must be selected as ai compatible. I use it for foil-plotting and it works great.

Friends, no matter which pdf/x you use, most digital printing will convert it to their format for output. I would suggest for big jobs/money get a proof printed.

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Originally Posted by behzad

Friends, no matter which pdf/x you use, most digital printing will convert it to their format for output. I would suggest for big jobs/money get a proof printed.

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That is not true! X1-X3 flatten all transparencies to bitmap!
PDF/X4 leave the transparecies as objects and don't flatten it to bitmap, but only if the effekt is reproducible in AI and/or fits in the PDF/X4 rules.

Ernie, when I output to print at 300 dpi size as, I do not care if it flattens or not. If the file was for digital online use then RGB pdf without the X would be the one I go for.
Also from my years of experience with print and output from xara to illustrator, the CMYK colors will not be exact to the numbers in ILL. So what I do is now
export RGB from xara as pdf, take it into illustrator and readjust everything and save as illustrator file. I only do this for logos.

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Originally Posted by behzad

Ernie, when I output to print at 300 dpi size as, I do not care if it flattens or not. If the file was for digital online use then RGB pdf without the X would be the one I go for.
Also from my years of experience with print and output from xara to illustrator, the CMYK colors will not be exact to the numbers in ILL. So what I do is now
export RGB from xara as pdf, take it into illustrator and readjust everything and save as illustrator file. I only do this for logos.

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But again, this is the wrong way. Xara writes perfekt PDF/x1-a files for printing. There is no need to do it again in AI.
If you have a client with his own color for his bussines it is wrong to do it in RGB. The gamut of rgb is much higher then CMYK. A nearly perfect color match you can achieve only with
calibrated equipment and a regional print shop to adjust with him (the printer) the colors on the printing press.

The way, Xara-RGB-PDF to AI-RGB (correction) and then output to PDF-CMYK will produce errors. All black text, fills outlines and shadows as a transperancy will be print in all 4-colors.
So you have to correct the hole RGB-PDF in AI. Better is to set the hole document in AI in the right color range.
Or output from Xara as PDF/X1-a and set all black text, objects, etc. to overprint and write it with the correct color profile.

Or you write a PDF/X4, set all text and black objects in Xara in 100% K and oveprint it when necessary, logo-customer colors define as CMYK or spotcolor.
All Images you can leave as RGB – because PDF/X4 can output both in one PDF. Don't use a color profile for the output. Then from AI you choose the color profile your print shop recommend
to write the PDF.

If the PDF may go to an other publication agency for printing issues the best way is the PDF/X1. So you have the best control over the PDF if you check it in Acrobat.
And no suprises while transparancies or shadows look strange, then the things can be:
1. PDF/X4 allows RGB and the conversation to CMYK can do strange things in the RIP-Unit.
2. Adobe wrote that the use of PDF/X4 need to do perfect conversation (of all features X4 can handle) for offset printing needs an Adobe Print Engine as Raster Image Processor. Not all print shops have it.
3. Effekts with many layers can be a problem for the RIP.
4. In X1-a you profile your PDF with the right color profile and see in the softproof of acrobat how the conversation from rgb pictures will look in the print. If you leave them in X4 as RGB they can/will be outputed native as RGB.
5. and so on …

Thanks for the info. Point taken.:)

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Originally Posted by behzad

Thanks for the info. Point taken.:)

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Yes,what behazd said.