Imagesetting options in Xtreme

**Daniel** · 05 October 2005, 07:00 AM

I realise it's not final release software and is just a preview, but have the Imagesetting options been removed from Xtreme?

The Print Options dialogue box is light on tabs and the online help seems to have had the references to its features removed?

**Luciano** · 05 October 2005, 11:13 AM

I tested Xtreme a few minutes this morning and I found that color separations have disappeared also in the "show printer colors" menu.

Bye

Luciano

**gwpriester** · 05 October 2005, 12:41 PM

My guess, and Charles of someone from the development team will need to give the dfinitive answer, is most people will be using the PDF opion.

I doubt if many people ever used the additional print colors feature in Show Printer Colors dialog and maybe that feature went away to save file size.

For my two cents, I would loose the Special Effects section in the Utiilities. I don't know of anyone who uses those and we now have much better controls in the Enhance menu and with the Plug-in filter support.

Gary

**Availor** · 05 October 2005, 01:08 PM

Actually, I expected some of the more "common" tools, like interactive extrude tool and 3D rotation tool for 3D images (yes there is Xara 3D but that's very in now), symbols library tool (I know you can work around and just create names to your selection), style library would be EXTREMELY useful especialy for those who want to deal with layouts and many graphics.

Imagine you are working on a brochoure or a website layout... there are around 50 shades of colors... if you want to replace red, yellow, green, orange and black with different colors (I am talking about something like microsoft publisher has).

**Charles Moir** · 05 October 2005, 01:35 PM

Pantone and colour separations have been dropped from Xara Xtreme for a number of reasons. CMYK color models (e.g. Pantone), spot colors and the way these interact with transparency, live effects, RGB colours and many Xara effects is a very complex area. Color separations and imagesetting is equally complex. It's evident from customer feedback and Forum posts that few users, even professional graphic designers, understand these issues. It's an area rife with pitfalls for the unwary. There is also a cost associated with Pantone licenses.

The key factor in our decision was simplicity. If this area confuses even experienced graphic designers, then it is not appropriate for the broader audience that Xara Xtreme is going after.

So if you really require to use colour separations, imagesetting and Pantone colours (and you understand enough about CMYK / RGB interactions) then we suggest you continue to use Xara X or X¹ for that work, but of course you'll miss the new features such as Live Effects. Xara Xtreme installs alongside Xara X and so you can continue using both if you wish. This does not rule out us bringing the feature back in future versions of Xara X.

However Xara Xtreme can still create CMYK TIFFs.

**jens g.r. benthien** · 05 October 2005, 02:38 PM

Yes, well, umh, I've used the separations settings a lot (*.eps color separations). I'll miss them, but I think I can use a workaround with my best hated Acrobat

A perfect solution would be GhostScript, but I have to check if GS does handle color seps.

Never mind, if there is a goal we'll find the path!

**Daniel** · 05 October 2005, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by jens g.r. benthien

Yes, well, umh

Go Jens, the output king!

Charles, I know you said no bug reports, but couldn't someone just put a quick keyboard shortcut on to the Colour Picker tool or make it an icon available in the Button Palette? Please? I'd buy a full copy instead of an upgrade

**jens g.r. benthien** · 05 October 2005, 02:54 PM

Daniel, let me know what look you would like to have, and I'll send you a nice button.

One button for such a hefty price tag is a real dream for every designer.

OK, just joking... http://jens.highspeedweb.net/samples/bb.gif

**accessD** · 05 October 2005, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by Daniel

Go Jens, the output king!

Charles, I know you said no bug reports, but couldn't someone just put a quick keyboard shortcut on to the Colour Picker tool...

[Ctrl+E] isn't enough?

**Daniel** · 05 October 2005, 04:25 PM

That's only the Colour Editor... I'd really like not to need it (or for it to dock? the galleries do but the colour editor doesn't) so that the colour picker button could show on a regular toolbar or even better by the colour picker icon at the bottom of the screen.