Exporting to gif

[rgremill]

Since I can't get Xara to export my .xar file to .ai correctly, and support has not responded to my question yet, I have to try another route.

How can I create a .gif image which is 300 DPI? From what I've seen I can only get up to 96 DPI, which looks terrible off the printer.

Any suggestions?

[rgremill]

Since I can't get Xara to export my .xar file to .ai correctly, and support has not responded to my question yet, I have to try another route.

How can I create a .gif image which is 300 DPI? From what I've seen I can only get up to 96 DPI, which looks terrible off the printer.

Any suggestions?

[Don Lamb]

I use tiff or png at 300dpi to export to any other program for printing. Gif I use only for web images.

[gwpriester]

rgermill (as in Roger?)

From what application are your trying to print? Don is right on the money that GIF is the wrong format. GIF files can only contain 256 colors, max. PNG is good as is TIFF. Converting your Xara images to .AI is not the best idea because many of Xara's whizzier effects will not export properly as .AI because Illustrator does not support many of these features and effects.

You might try exporting your file in Xara's EPS file format. I have had pretty good luck opening these EPS files in Photoshop 5.5. But again, you do run the risk of losing information.

My my 2 cents (US) I'd use TIFF or PNG at 300 dpi unless you are outputting to film for commercial printing, in which case you can go up to 600 dpi depending upon your print professional's printing resolution.

Sheesh, I just noticed the number of helpful responses to your Error Exporting to AI and you are complaining about not hearing from Xara's support? Sheesh. You can't get more personal service than this? And you have not even purchased Xara yet. What are you waiting for???

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester" TARGET=_blank>
beehives to me blurs </A>

[This message was edited by Gary W. Priester on August 06, 2001 at 15:58.]

[rgremill]

Gary, many people have been willing to help but none of the suggestions have solved my problem. Either Xara is writing corrupt .ai files or Adobe doesn't know how to read its own files.

We are creating a brochure using Publisher (what's so funny?) and I am trying to create a 2" logo that is 300 DPI. It can be in any format, as long as Publisher can import it.

If I export a .bmp from Xara I am limited to 96 DPI.

If I export a .jpg or .png from Xara I can get 300 DPI but the image is quadroupled in size.

I need a .ai file so I can control the size and DPI.

So I'm stuck and very frustrated.

I know of only one solution to my problem and that is to pay someone to redraw it in Illustrator and create a .ai file.

I was on the verge of buying Xara before I found this problem. I will be creating a lot of logos in the future and I need this capability. I may have to buy Illustrator or Corel Draw..

[Mick Robinson]

Some formats such as BMP and GIF don't have any concept of resolution - they always get displayed at screen resolution. As has been pointed out, GIF is limited to 256 colors and is not suitable for printed work.
Other formats such as PNG, TIFF and JPEG can have a resolution separate from their physical size. However some programs ignore the resolution and display them as 96dpi so a 300dpi bitmap gets displayed much larger. We know that browsers do this and it sounds like Publisher is doing this. This isn't something that Xara X can anything about - it produces the right results but the program displaying the bitmap gets it wrong.
As an alternative to AI (which is a rather limited format) you could try Xara EPS format. How Publisher would display this file, I can't say. (As a matter of interest, what's going wrong with the AI file in Publisher?)
Mick

[rgremill]

Mick, Publisher must be ignoring the resolution like you said. The images look and print well in Microsoft Word. I have been using the 98 version of Publisher. I guess it is time to load Publisher 2000 and see what happens.

[gwpriester]

You just got your response from a Xara Ltd. Tech Expert. :-)

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
beehives to me blurs </a>

[rgremill]

Gary,

That's rgremill, as in Robert. I never did come up with a cool handle.

Mick, when I send an email to support@xara.com, who gets it?

[IKraus]

Robert,

I've been using Publisher off and on for at least 6 years. No, it's not my preference for high-end projects. For some projects Publisher is faster to use than anything else, or I may be doing a template for a client to reuse. (Saying this so you know I'm not prejudiced against Publisher!)

Is there any reason why you have to have an AI format other than the fact that it's raster based? I've had little success in bringing ANY complicated raster file into Publisher. (Using Publisher 2000 too!) IMO, it's just one of those things the program doesn't like. It handles simple 'cartoon' like raster images fine. But, get into complicated gradients, blends, etc. and you might as well beat your head against a wall.

If I'm doing something in Publisher where I know I'm going to have a complex image like that, I export to bitmap and use that instead. (Usually a 300dpi TIF or PNG as others have said.) More than likely it will be too big when imported into Publisher. It will resize while maintaining aspect ratio by default.

One last tip... If your final output will be done on a different printer than the one you normally use, point your default printer setting to a driver you have installed on your system before working in Publisher. (Install a generic Postscript printer driver for anything you're prepping for service bureaus, etc.) Publisher relies on the info inside that driver for the WYSIWYG display. Check document settings too for highest quality that printer can do too. Saves tons of headaches, believe me!

Push yourself to notice the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Irene M. Kraus
www.design-comp.com