Help! pdf export & resolution issues

[PTiger]

Hi and thanks for taking some time to help out. This is a pretty great community built around a really great graphics program. I am really impressed and using the xara pro 4 trial. It allowed me to create some great stuff, but now I have a couple of export and resolution issues since large graphics printing is from AI ( in this case large hp design jet).

I am needing to print 40wx90h vinyl banners and I having issues exporting to pdf and achieving proper resolution when printing from illustrator. When exporting to pdf at pdf/x or 300dpi hi res, or 96dpi draft, I am get the "access violation exception at offset 0x0006898F". This forces me to quit and restart xara to try something different, but only produces the same export error again and again.

I have tried switching on and off many variables and several output file types and followed the help file suggestions including text to shapes, etc.

I am running winxp media ctr, amdx2-4600, 2gb system.

I loaded xara pro on my vista machine and I was able to export the problem file to pdf but only when I eliminated a specific body of arial text from the file. I cannot add the text to the pdf once created so not a solution yet and doesn't address my resolution issue.

For the two files I was able to export to pdf on my winxp machine and then to illustrator as eps files, the resolution was not good enough for the print job(would be great if I could print straight from xara pro). Alternatively, I tried to export from xara to ai eps, but lose graphics, has text issues and loses color formatting when opening them in ai and I don't have the time to learn illustrator. My goal is to have kinko's print these banners using appropriate resolution pdf files or eps which they like to open and print from in illustrator.

My other issue is output resolution(would be great if I could print straight from xara pro). I found out that the two eps files I was able to export from pdf are not high resolution enough for AI to print the banners I need at kinko's. So I have to tech out the resolution export issues. Unfortunately I am under a time crunch. Any insight would be appreciated for the resolution and pdf export issue. I have attached three .xar files in question. Thanks!

[sledger]

Hi PTiger,

Welcome to TG.

I am needing to print 40wx90h vinyl banners

What size is that? 40 what x 90 what?

I'm not 100% sure I have undertood you requirements, however I opened your Trade Banner 1 .xar (2.34 x 4.46 inches), converted all the text to shapes, brought all text to the front and exported to PDF/X 300dpi without any crash or AVE's.

Your transparent text will always be rasterised, so unless you really need the b/g to show through, I'd suggest you recolour the text to simulate the fading out.

I cannot attach my resulting .PDF due to the size limitations of the forum, so please download it from here and let me know if this works. If so, perhaps you could treat the rest of your files in a similar way?

[PTiger]

sledger, you've got great timing. I am needing to print 40inches wide by 90inches long. I understand what you are suggesting and I will try the file you posted. If the xara resolution is outstanding and scaleable, then is it accurate to expect the pdf/x 300dpi to maintain that quality for the printing size that I am needing?

Thanks!

[PTiger]

-I should have emphasized, it is the #3 file that will not export and causing the access errors. #1 and #2 exported alright.

Thanks,
Paul

[sledger]

Yes, that would have been more helpful.

I'll dl and take look at #3 later. Right now I'm a bit short on time.

[alexbozhenov]

-I should have emphasized, it is the #3 file that will not export and causing the access errors. #1 and #2 exported alright.

Thanks,
Paul

If you mean Tradeshow Banner 3.xar file, I dl it and open (have Xara 3.2).
Not quite sure why you have page and drawing size 2.34 x 4.46 inches.

I changed page size to 40 x 90 inches and then scale your drawing. It won't ever suit 40 x 90 inches without distortion -- I got proportional size like 40 x 76,282 in. But anyway, I place it in the middle of 40x90 in page and exported it successfully.

But! When scaling your drawing I noticed a small glitch, artifact -- see attached image where to found it. I deleted that before exporting. Maybe this causing your error. Give a try.

[Albacore]

I got the same access vio. as well. What I think was the problem is that it was imported as a PDF, look at the layer names and because of the difference between Xara's and Adobe's text engine this caused the problem. I agree with Alex why draw and use such a small artboard when you want it a lot larger and it is not proportional to scale and using 296 dpi quality jpeg's at this size.

[PTiger]

Thank you both for taking the time to help out. I didn't import as a pdf., but created in xara. Vector background, jpeg photo, text(no effects) created in xara. Will give this a try.

[sledger]

Hi Paul,

The layer pallet shows that there are two layers and indicates that they are both using objects which have been imported from a PDF.
This is why Peter (and I) assumed you had started with an imported PDF file.

[PTiger]

Hi Steve, thanks. I changed that layer and some other things and with this fine communities help, things are working out. Just had a sample printed and the res is good at 40x90. I did as suggested and corrected the page size, scaled the artwork, used some higher res pics and exported to ai. In ai I made any necessary export formatting touch ups and saved as pdf. Took those and got some samples printed at the banner size. I plan on getting the finals to the printer in the morning. Many thanks for all the valuable input.