The future of Xara

[Josie]

"you can use the blend tool to distribute one copy of the card down the page by positioning the end card first, or draw out some guides and snap to them, or.."

ok, but can you distribute the cards on a page this way with exact offsets in milimeters? And using snap to guides, imagine how long would it take to make manual copies of cards when duplicating on a A0 format page (including making guides first, and perhaps also including cropmarks).

Copying/moving/rotating in distance increments is a basic feature IMHO.

[Albacore]

I have to agree with Josie here i would never think to do Biz cards with the blend tool it is too haphazard, too fiddly. With bleeds and crop marks you have to use a template layer with guides it is hard to imagine how the final cuts would look like and the complaints from the trimmers. No Paul it has to be that accurate for that job even the lowly Biz card.

[remi]

Copying/moving/rotating in distance increments is a basic feature IMHO.

No problem with Xara Xtreme:

1. Select your object with the Selector Tool (F2)
2. If you want to move the object 2 centimeters to the right, then click into the "X" field on the toolbar, set your cursor at the end of the current X-Position (see hardcopy) and append "2cm": "300pix2cm" moves the object 2 cm to the right.
3. To move the object to the left, use a minus operator: "300pix-3cm" moves the object 3 cm to the left.

Regards,
Remi

[pauland]

I have to agree with Josie here i would never think to do Biz cards with the blend tool it is too haphazard, too fiddly. With bleeds and crop marks you have to use a template layer with guides it is hard to imagine how the final cuts would look like and the complaints from the trimmers. No Paul it has to be that accurate for that job even the lowly Biz card.

I'm a bit surprised about the blend tool being haphazard. In my experience, positioning the first element and then the last is all there is to it - blends seem perfectly aligned, so it's not inaccurate.

I take your point about layers, but you can blend the crop marks separately, so I don't know why the end results with blends would be any worse than any other method, so I don't see why blends would require any imagination.

I don't see how this is more fiddly than any other method.

All that said, I'm not producing business cards professionally, so I'll bow to your experience.

Paul

[Josie]

These are good ideas, thanks. The blend workaround is elegant. At times it might not be enough.

Remi, that kind of handling objects is fine, but if I understand correctly it only moves an object and does not make a copy, and you cannot easily repeat the operation.

[pauland]

Make a copy using Ctrl_c, Ctrl-shift-v and away you go again.

[gwpriester]

You can use the X and Y Duplication offsets in the Page Options menu.

For example. Place the card in the upper left area of the page and presuming it is a 3.5 x 2" card, set the Y (up and down option) to -2 and press Apply. Then use Ctrl D to create as many copies as you need.

Change the Y option to 0 and the X (horizontal move) to 3.5 and press Apply.

Select the row of cards you just created and press Ctrl D once to make the second row.

I use the same technique to add my trim marks as well.

Gary

[pauland]

Gary, I think you read these forums with a big smile on your face. Wait a while then jump in with the easy solution.

Great solution.

Paul

[gwpriester]

[pauland]

Come to think of it, New Mexico. Atom bombs and alien activity and now a new Avatar. Extra-terrestrial insight into Xara.. ..have I seen you on the X-files at all Gary?.. ;-)

Look out Giuliani is on the case: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e5d_1192463554&p=1

LOL Paul