PDF/X export problems

[StephanP]

Hi,

I'm designing a panel/poster for a commercial exhibition, and I am experiencing some problems with the PDF-PDF/X export.
If I export to PDF/X (no fonts embedded - text converted to paths) then - after a long period of "preparing export" - I get a "Serious error from Xara Xtreme Pro: access violation ..."
If I export to a regular , high quality PDF, the processing takes very long as well, but in the end I get my 2.6MB PDF, which seems to look good.

Are there some Xara-specific techniques in this design that make it hard to convert to PDF-PDF/X?

There are some fill-gradients, a transparency-fractal-cloud, ...
All in all the design isn't that complex (34KB small)

I've filed a support ticket at Xara support, but I thought I'd also ask the community ...

Any suggestions are welcome.

Stephan

[steve.ledger]

Yes it crashes XXP at 77% no matter which options I choose when exporting to PDF/x
As everything is vector shapes, you can easily use scaling and reduce the drawing to 10%.
The commercial printer can use this to print to whatever size you need, even beyond your original drawing size of 1mx2m.

Attached is my scaled .xar and resulting PDF/x export.

[steve.ledger]

Just a quick couple of trials I found that size does mean everything when exporting to PDF/x

I used a 2m x 1m page and pasted in some original artwork. Nothing complex at all, but also included a fractal cloud trans'.
The export took quite some time and generated an error (attached). Though I did get a result.

I removed the fractal and the same file exported fine without any error.

I went back to your original file, removed the fractal shape, exported to PDF/x fine, no errors (1.25mb).

So I went back to your file, made a bitmap copy of the fractal shape, and used this to replace the original. The PDF/x then exported fine (5.mb).

Finally I went back to your original file again, made no changes, exported to PDF/x but dropped the dpi to 150 and the export continued without any error. (1.6m, attached)

[Albacore]

Sorry Stephan I got it to export no problems first time using PDF/X-3 no problems which I nearly alwats use if there is a gradient involved and the file size is 3.6Mb and it took about 30 secs to export.

[steve.ledger]

Hmmm - curious. I tried all PDF/x versions with the exact same result. Export stopped at 77% and froze XXP 3.2.4

But this time I ignored the 'Stopped Responding' (I think this is Vista making this distinction). After about, yes 20 seconds or so the export completed fine. Same file size as Albacore.

I spent more time on finding 'work-arounds' than just wating to see if the program would recover.. Oh well. What do they say about patience?

[StephanP]

Sledger/Albacore,

Thanks for looking into my little problem.
It seems that PDF/X-3 is the solution.
Probably because it's better at supporting for those gradients.
I tried the PDF/X-3 option this morning and - after some time - it provided me with the same 3.6MB file.

Thanks,

Stephan

[StephanP]

Sledger,

As everything is vector shapes, you can easily use scaling and reduce the drawing to 10%.
The commercial printer can use this to print to whatever size you need, even beyond your original drawing size of 1mx2m.

I found a slightly different tack on this.
- Export as PDF/X-3
- Option - Objects - Rasterization Resolution (DPI) : as low as 72DPI

Since all of the design is vector shapes, rasterization resolution plays no role in the quality of the resulting PDF.

The PDF export is running smoothly (little delays) and the resulting file is (just) 700KB.

Meanwhile, I also received feedback from Xara Support.
Their solution was to replace the fractal cloud with a bitmap copy and export to PDF, which resulted in a 6MB file.

Stephan

[handrawn]

Thats interesting Stephan - sounds like a good solution

[steve.ledger]

Since all of the design is vector shapes, rasterization resolution plays no role in the quality of the resulting PDF.

This is true, however the dpi setting will make a difference to how much resolution can be increased to any raster object in the PDF. I've noted that any vector shape which is filled with a Xara effect such as fractals will always export as a raster (except .xar file type of course)

Meanwhile, I also received feedback from Xara Support.
Their solution was to replace the fractal cloud with a bitmap copy and export to PDF, which resulted in a 6MB file.

Yes I'd done this as mentioned in post #3 - though my file was 5mb rather than 6mb.

[StephanP]

Since all of the design is vector shapes, rasterization resolution plays no role in the quality of the resulting PDF.

Yesterday I received another interesting bit of information from Xara Support.
The Fractal Cloud fill that was used in the design, is in fact a bitmap effect
So the design was not just vector objects, after all.
Funny I missed that. The fractal cloud fill did not look at all bad, at 72dpi.

Anyways, Fractal Cloud Fill is a bitmap effect, just that we know.

Stephan