Warning on opening Xara Xtreme

[samrc]

Ok...this is strange.

Tonight I started having strange warning when I open the program.
I have the DEFAULT template set to an 800x600 drawing image, white nothing in it. Yet when I open the program I see it load palettes, brushes, etc then it pops up this message:

Some fonts have been substituted because they are not currently installed. The font list in the document information dialog shows which fonts are missing.

When I look at the Document information it shows:
--Fonts-- ---------------------------------
--Effects-- ---------------------------------

Last Saved (not yet saved), etc.


Last night I added a few brushes and a few plugins (8bf files) and defined them so the program could find them. They show fine and work fine. Don't know why it would be replacing fonts when no fonts are being used on the template. Even changed to a different default template, still same warning.

Note that if I close the file and ask for a new file, no warning is shown so the problem is not FILE related. It ONLY appears on OPENING of the program.

Any suggestions? Thanks for feedback.

[Egg Bramhill]

Samantha,

It's a strange one. There are two things I can think of that might cause this.

1: The default template is set to a font that you do not have.

2: One of the brushes or plug-ins you've installed has a font attached that you don't have.

I suspect it's number 2. Try unistalling the Brushes you've just loaded. If it remains the same try uninstalling the recent plug-ins.

[samrc]

1. Since I can close the default template then reopen it without warning if the program is already loaded, I seriously doubt it is related to the warning. I have also tried switching the default template and no matter which is used, the warning still appears.

2. I never considered that a brush or plug-in would require a specific font. Thanks for the suggestion. When I get home tonight, I will take out my new brushes and plugins and add them back one by one to identify which is the culprit and report back.

[Soquili]

Hi Samantha,

I've seen some brushes that used a specific font to achieve the effect the creator wanted. I believe at least one of them is in the Swap Shop - Brushes forum.

I found an old thread that mentions a brush using a specific font http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.p...ght=brush+font

[Egg Bramhill]

I must admit that I've been guilty of this in the past. I've used a font to show the great effects of a brush.

I always believe that you shouldn't load brushes by default, just have a Brushes folder instead. If you load numerous brushes they can slow down the Xtrerme loading to a crawl.

How often do you use a brush?

[samrc]

My problem WAS caused by a brush found on this forum. Have resaved it with another font and all is back to normal. THANK YOU for pointing me in the right direction on that one!

I come from PSP and have used "tubes" (premade scalable images) in some things and wanted to convert a few of my favorites to brushes in XARA if possible. I use certain ones fairly often as they are excellent for banners, holidays, etc.

I was not aware that all the brushes would load when Xara loads. You suggest I create a separate BRUSH folder somewhere in My Docs folder. When I want to use the brush, how would I call it into the document for use?

How about plugins? I have many that I used with an old version of Adobe Photoshop (blech) and PSP that I have loaded successfully into XARA. I placed most of them in a plugins folder in MyDocs (and defined that folder).

I noticed that when trying to work on a layered logo the other night that XARA would stop responding (and say so at the top of the window) then come back alive while I was working with some live effects and transparency functions. (Have a gig of ram but looks like I need more). The final result was fine but the heavy pauses were a drag.

[Soquili]

It's late evening where Egg lives, so I'll step in with what I can help with.

Xara Xtreme reads the brushes in at startup, but does not read the plug-ins (unless the last used tool when you exited the program was the Live Effects Tool).

By saving the .xar file that contains a brush in a separate folder as Egg mentioned, you can simply open that .xar file to access the brush. Load the file, use the Windows menu to switch back to the drawing you are working on and the brush will appear in the Brushes Gallery as though it was read in at start up.

The slow downs when working on layered or non-layered drawings that contain a lot of nodes (the points that define a shape) are caused by recalculations and doesn't depend on the amount of RAM as much as it does processor speed. You can help reduce the time it takes to make the recalculations by making layers you are not actively working on invisible. On the visible layer or layers, group objects that would logically be grouped as this helps reduce the calculations being performed. If you need to modify an object within a group, you can use the Ctrl+Click to select the object within the group. An alternative is to ungroup, edit, then group again.

[samrc]

Ok. Thanks for the brush info!

I try to reduce number of nodes (recently saw a tutorial about it...can't remember which one right offhand and smiled because I was already doing it!) .

On the visible layer or layers, group objects that would logically be grouped as this helps reduce the calculations being performed.

I group for my functionality and did not realize it would impact the calculations necessary! Interesting.

You can help reduce the time it takes to make the recalculations by making layers you are not actively working on invisible.

Did not know this. Excellent. I turn on and off for functionality (same image, more than one purpose ...show layer 3 or 4 depending on situation) but have never turned off just to make a picture save/update quicker.

One thread...3 resolutions! And all wihin the original scope of the question! Thanks!