bitmaps cut up after export to eps or pdf

[gnurf]

This is something that have been troubling me for a long time:

When your work made in Xara X contains bitmaps (ie converted soft shadows or photos), and you export to eps or pdf (ie with distiller or PDFCreator) the bitmaps will usually be cut up into lines (=bitmaps 1 pixel thick). This happens especially when you have objects ovelapping the bitmaps.

I understand this is the way postscript interpret/parse the images, but with other programs ie Coreldraw or Illustrator you can export and open eps and pdf files with the bitmaps intact. Why is this? And I have noticed that sometimes when I use clip view on bitmaps they stay intact (and another day they will still be cut up when I use the clip view technique) also when objects are overlapping.

It would be really nice if I could produce PDF:s where bitmaps would stay intact so that they could be edited later (ie opened in Photoshop from Acrobat).

[gnurf]

This is something that have been troubling me for a long time:

When your work made in Xara X contains bitmaps (ie converted soft shadows or photos), and you export to eps or pdf (ie with distiller or PDFCreator) the bitmaps will usually be cut up into lines (=bitmaps 1 pixel thick). This happens especially when you have objects ovelapping the bitmaps.

I understand this is the way postscript interpret/parse the images, but with other programs ie Coreldraw or Illustrator you can export and open eps and pdf files with the bitmaps intact. Why is this? And I have noticed that sometimes when I use clip view on bitmaps they stay intact (and another day they will still be cut up when I use the clip view technique) also when objects are overlapping.

It would be really nice if I could produce PDF:s where bitmaps would stay intact so that they could be edited later (ie opened in Photoshop from Acrobat).

[ivan louette]

Paul,

Did you export to .eps level 2 ? I think only level 1 exports as bitmaps 1 pixel thick. Perhaps could it be a bug in automatic export ???

kindly,
ivan

[jens g.r. benthien]

Paul,

did you try to **print** to a postscript printer and check the result with GhostScript?

It's flawless. Ok, a few more clicks, but hassle free and the best results you can get.

If you want clean and smooth PostScript, don't use eps export or Acrobat - the PDF creator and Distiller have a bug (at least in v 6.1).

[gnurf]

Ivan - in Xara X1 you cannot select which export level you want anymore.

Jens - Yes, I have tried about every way I can think of: Printing to ps file, printing to different pdf creators (including pdf writer and distiller) and exporting to eps, but Xara X still slices and dices, perfect for the kitchen (hmm, no more TV-shop for me) http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

And there is no problem printing the pdf and eps files made in Xara, and they look good in GhostScript and on paper. But the bitmaps are cut up, and that is my problem: I would like to have the possibility to edit the bitmaps later on (especially when I have to convert RGB -> CMYK).

[Charles Moir]

We cut up bitmaps as a consequence of the way we handle mixed transparent and non-transparent objects. We do this in order to reduce the areas of bitmaps and maximise the area of vector data sent for complex drawings. i.e. our goal is maximum quality printing and not to make the EPS and Postscript files editable. So there's nothing we're likely to be able to do to make these files editable in the short term (they are not meant to be editable formats).

[gnurf]

Wouldn't it be nice then to be able to export to EPS with CMYK bitmaps...