Printing Seperations in Xtreme?

[wW]

As mentioned before, but just because we removed CMYK print separations from Xara Xtreme does not mean it's missing forever for all versions..

Understood. Anxiously awaiting the Xtreme Pro Release. Timeline? A year(more, less?)

(We removed it partly because it's not an appropriate feature for a more mass-market, easier-to-use, lower cost product that Xara Xtreme is. Few professionals understand the complexities of colour separations, let alone the mass majority of normal users. It was one of our most costly features in terms of customer support, because of the complexity of concepts.).

Is CMYK going to be upgraded & revitalized or put back in as it was? We can start a CMYK "print option upgrade request" thread if needed. Hopefully it won't be needed as most ideas will have been logged. Yes?

In the meantime Xara X1 can accept most Xara X files and will separate them. Also Xara Xtreme can create separated CMYK files (practically the same thing as producing separated print files) by exporting as TIFF with the CMYK option selected.

I could seperate Vectors in Xtreme as well. But I'd have to use the layer technique, 1 for each color. Which works but isn't be needed with every sep. I don't recall Xtreme giving any dot size print control (default of 120 line perhaps - not sure the default angle). So each layer would have be cut & paste back into X1 for printing. It's easier to stay in X1 if ya have to go thru that. Plus the lack of Dot size, Dot choice & or angle. The Xtreme print dialog is good for basic printing only.
Yes Bitmaps can be exported as CMYK. In X1 I've used this in conjunction with RGB for help with pulling channels in PhotoShop.

Thanks for popping in Charles. It's re-assuring knowing that your here.

[Matthias]

I spent the past days working with Xara Xtreme on a quite complex drawing which is to be used in a printed flyer, just to find out now that Xara Xtreme seems to be missing the level of CMYK support I need to complete my task.

Being a long time user of Xara products (in fact, I already used Artworks, which isn't strictly a Xara product) I am somewhat used to this, but nontheless it is very frustrating, especially with all the noise Xara is making about "enhanced PDF export", which then turns out to only produce RGB colours (at least I wasn't able to produce anything else).

By searching for a solution to my problem I stumbled over this thread. Now I do know that I wasn't just unable to find the right options, but that they are simply missing in Xtreme. Which is a real shame. As others already mentioned I too would be willing to pay considerably more for a Xara X version which would better address the needs of professional users. Full CMYK and spot colours support simply is a must there. I realy don't like the idea to be forced to use Freehand or Illustrator instead of Xara X...

The hint to use CMYK TIFF export to solve the problems is a joke to me - to say it kindly. If I use a vector graphics tool to generate graphics, this happens most of the time because I want to make use of the superior quality this gives over pixel graphics. Thus this definitely isn't a solution for me.

But I don't want to end this post this negative, so I'll add two additional points to it:

1. I also use Xara Xtreme to create graphics I use on web sites and thus I do love the new features of Xtreme.
2. I have found a solution for my particular problem: I just print the whole thing to a file using a (colour) PostScript printer driver (a generic one from Adobe in my case) and import the result with either Acrobat (not the Reader) or Illustrator (for further "optimisations"). As long as I make sure that all colours used are defined in CMYK mode this works quite well. The only point still missing in this process is the support for overprinted colours (i.e. those are defined in Xara Xtreme but aren't cared of in the printout - to me this is "just" a bug of Xara Xtreme).

[graphicsfactory]

This is very close to the point I was trying to make earlier. It seems to me that with the removal of such features as CMYK and Spot Color support and printing, that Xara Xtreme is now only suited for "web graphics". But that is not the way it is marketed. The claim is that it is a "replacement" for Illustrator, Freehand etc., but it is NOT. If you work in the print world, in some way or another you still these programs. If so, than what is the point in using Xtreme? Is that not a little self defeating? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Xtreme...but I need the WHOLE package. Not just a little "web graphics" utility. Is'nt that what Webster is for?