Xara X for professionals

[da94]

I have owned Xara since the introduction of CorelXara 2, but I still cannot use this program exclusively for professional work. Not that the features and the speed are not tops... they are! But Xara's .eps, .swf not to mention .ai files don't always transfer correctly into Photoshop, Flash or Illustrator. As a result, I am periodically forced to fall back onto Illustrator.

When will Xara Ltd. realize that their program has outgrown the amateur market? If they realized this, they would certainly make sure that Xara works smoothly with other industry standard programs. If this problem is not corrected with the next version, I will abandon this program--and I'd hate to do that, but I'm sick of the compatibility problems.

Daniel

Daniel Attila
da94@yahoo.com

[da94]

I have owned Xara since the introduction of CorelXara 2, but I still cannot use this program exclusively for professional work. Not that the features and the speed are not tops... they are! But Xara's .eps, .swf not to mention .ai files don't always transfer correctly into Photoshop, Flash or Illustrator. As a result, I am periodically forced to fall back onto Illustrator.

When will Xara Ltd. realize that their program has outgrown the amateur market? If they realized this, they would certainly make sure that Xara works smoothly with other industry standard programs. If this problem is not corrected with the next version, I will abandon this program--and I'd hate to do that, but I'm sick of the compatibility problems.

Daniel

Daniel Attila
da94@yahoo.com

[paulferz]

Dude,

Do I agree! I totally HATE using anything else except Xara (Fireworks is my second choice...but hey, I'm a webby sort-of-guy..don't do much print work).

My biggest bitch has been that I need to E-X-P-O-R-T back to Illustrator. That way I can do all my work in Xara and STILL supply my clients with source in Illustrator. I have to go in and do too much tweaking after an export. Yccch! Of course, my course of action has been to avoid supplying source, but sometimes I really need to. We charge hourly for all work (the only way to make money) and I totally hate having to go back and tweak 'cause ya loose $$$ doing it. I'd much rather hand the source back to them and just give them advice over the phone (which is why we have nine 800 numbers..makes the clients happy). We also keep two versions of the source..the version I supply back to the client has certain "that-took-me-forever-to-do" stuff in bitmap format, not vector. And I tell the client that up front and it's usually cool. We need to make money off the stuff we've created. They all agree. If they need major tweaks then they come back to us and pay for it.

I would SO much like to see totally excellent AI exports. And it is certainly easier to get print work done if you have Illustrator collateral to bring the the printer.

Haven't been to this group for over a month and I think I've posted more today than I have in the past year. Usually I just lurk, when I have the time.

Later..

[gwpriester]

The problem with exporting back to Illustrator is exporting something Illustrator can support.

Same goes for Flash SWF files.

I write the Tech Review column for Communication Arts Magazine and have reviewed all the major vector application and I can tell you moving files from one application to another is not easy or surefire in any application.

A lot of the solution is knowing what is and what is not supported by the target application and designing with that end in mind.

I would never try to do a serious DTP project in Xara (Sorry Mark). Xara's text capabilities are just not good enough. But I sure would hate to have to create an illustration in Illustrator or FreeHand. The tools just are not good enough.

If I need to bring something into Illustrator, I would either dumb it down to simple things that Illustrator can handle, or bring it in as a TIFF file.

Clients should never be allowed to have the vector images anyway because they might be tempted to "improve" your work.

Xara's export filters are not perfect, I don't think anybody's are, but if you use them wisely, and know the limitations of your target application, you should do OK.

Just my dos centavos Nuevo Mexicano

Gary

Gary Priester

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[roman]

isn't there some better description of export filters of Xara? What they can export and what they can not?

Roman

[Klaus Nordby]

In fairness to XaraX, it must be said that the EPS export now is pretty solid - at least, PS 6 always rasterize them fine, and InDesign seems to place them fine.


K

[FLySOLO]

i hate using other apps than xara too b:

i´m so in love with xara that i do my commercial print jobs with it the following way:

i work with a bitmap layer and a vector layer.

the vector layer only contains type and vector elements without transparencies and stuff.

everything else is on the bitmap layer.

i export the bitmap layer as 300dpi tif and seperate in photoshop and i export the typo layer as ai and open in illustrator where i check the colors and resave as eps. (tip: use named colors in xara)

then i do a quark file with to overlying picture frames. the bottom one with the bitmap layer tif and the top one with the illustrator eps.

sounds like work?
i think it´s more work using super slow illustrator or buggy corel. so i have a little work before print production, but i can do everything in my beloved one xara.

i´ll attach a project as example why i like doing everything (even serious layout work) with xara. it´s a very large canvas with lots of pages of a sumsung catalogue on it.

i´m doing pro work with xara.

cu

FLySOLO

[Erik Heyninck]

We use as often as we can PDF.

For simple work it's great. I know this is not directly Xara, but, for example, a rasterised tiff in Photoshop reduces the quality of the vector fonts to bitmap. We make a PDF instead with fonts as curves, and print from that. Much better, and never had the typical EPS problems with it.

Besides: AI is, just like XAR and PSD for example, typical for one specific program. TIFF is more or less "free" (if you don't use the "enhanced tiff"), so in fact there should also be a non-linked vector file. This might be, or become, PDF.

Just some quick ideas.

I'm told that Acrobat5 is well worth the upgrade.

By the way: thanks, FlySOLO, I am going to try your method. Seems more than interesting.

[emel]

I'm doing pro work with Xara all the time. Apart from the limitations on shadows and tranparencies which can be overcomed with some tricks (see my EPS export saga posts) it really works fine.
But remember no other vector program offers the power of Xara. So this is not a Xara limitation but a Xara Xtra. You don't need to go to Photoshop like programs to get the same effects because you can do everything in Xara. Never export with "show printer colors options" that will make you loose your color accuracy
Presently I'm exporting my work in Xara EPS and then I open it in Corel Draw (version 9)importing it as a PS interpreted. The file reproduces all colors nicely in CMYK model without colour shifting. I do this just to be sure of what the bureau gets. But you can save it as Corel Graphic if they prefere to open directly instead of importing. AI format is more limited and produces strange artifacts when exported form other programs, Xara included. work with Xara EPS Export wich is now very reliable thanks God.Let the bureau place your photos and bitmap alike elements. Remember to use the rigth CMYK palette (also posted by me some time ago). You want have problems. EPS from Photoshop with large amount of text wont work because it looses "lining".

emel

[Luciano]

Yes Emel,
Xarax eps works and defining colours as CMYK works too.
I found we get exactly the right colour when printing to professional equipment, so I start any works which have to be printed with Emel's CMYK colour palette.
Only pay attention to bitmaps, transparencies and shadows which are always exported as RGB bitmaps.
If you want to export a part of your work as a bitmap inside of your eps file, you simply put a rectangle with 100% transparency on top of that area and keep the remaing parts as vectors.

Luciano