Xara is strong but has huge weakness

[Danas_Anis]

hello to all,

I am very new to Xara and i come from Corel Draw lands. I had some issues with Corel on my machine so I have tried Xara. I actually liked it and it did quite a lot and it is easy to use. It is quite fast as well however I faced some really weak point of Xara that I suppose should be considered to be a bug, I don't know where to post this information, so i hope this will be a place where dev team will notice this report.

To make everything short: Xara PDF export is not fully functional because it can't really export commercial print level PDF. I failed to export a fairly complicated pdf book when Corel Draw would actually export the same complexity wiht no issues except it would take some time. I tracked down where the issue core is. While exporting this fairly heavy book, Xara uses a lot of RAM and when it gets to use 16002 MB or RAM from 4 possible RAM so minus 1 gb RAM for OS it has some RAM left to use, however it reports error and wents out of memory.

oh the e-book has 125 pages by the way.

My next step was to simplify this e-book and I made pages to be pictures, simple JPG fills, it failed to export even via the presets of high resolution commercial printing.

SO my recomendation would be to check again the export features and RAM handling while exporting because XARA extreme is extremely cool tool that can handle big files, unfortunately can't export them, and because of this issue it may be lacking the deserved sympathies. As i told I found XARA to be really cool, there fore I think XARA should be capable of handling heavy exporting processes.

Best regards,

Danas

[Xcellent]

Hi Danas_Anis,

If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional there is a solution:
Export from Xara lets say 2 pages at a time as a PDF/X. If Xara still crashes, export only 1 page as a time. You can try to export as many pages as possible before it crashes Xara. Usually for really heavy graphics I can export up to 6 pages as PDF/X at a time.

In Adobe Acrobat open the first PDF file you exported. Make sure the Page Panel in Acrobat on the left hand side is opened. Now open the other PDF files in Adobe Acrobat. Simply select a page range from one document and drag it into the other until you have completed all pages of your document and rebuild the page order. Save the final file as PDF again and you're done.

I submitted various 50 page documents I created in Xara a while ago for exactly the same memory issue that you describe. The above solution is a workaround that works for me.

The big trouble are 1 page banners that Xara can't export as PDF/X for some memory issues. That's where Illustrator comes in handy.

[Albacore]

Hi Danas,
Why not take this requested and place in in the Dear Xara topic board as I think this goes there. Dear Xara is a sort of wish lists board. A question on using a vector programme to do everything. I used to work in a local print shop who used AI for everything and it cost them so much time in doing jobs. Do you not think that some sort of DTP programme is a better use of your time than trying to do everything using CD or XPro?

I use Serif Page Plus for the jobs over 10 pages and up to about 250 and then ID after that. Like yourself I found that Xara slowed down and converting to PDF, if it didn't take for ever, run out of memory. CD and Xpro are vector programmes which can be used for the work you described but if you use things like transparencies, bitmap and their effects these cause rendering problems when you export it. Far better to use a programme where in its pre-flight will show you the problem areas and where you have to flatten the artwork because of these problems and give you more time to be creative and spend less trying to correct the problems later after it has been exported.

[slavelle]

Personally, I don't have a lot of printing requirements, especially at the professional level, hoever...

I don't know that this is a feature request as much as it is a bug fix request. I've seen a lot of posts around lately about pro printing and pro PDF export and complaints to go with them. Considering that CMYK and Pantone, PDF/X, and some of the seperation features and such are MOST of what makes up the difference between standard and Pro versions, I'd expect these things to work over in the pro version.

The primary reason that I went with Pro was that I wanted the expanded object gallery (which I don't think should have been a pro-only feature), but it was an added benefit to know that I would have a better shot at being able to get what my printer wanted to get. Now I have my doubts and I don't even know enough of how to test for some of these things to know if they are working or not. I was really hoping for a "simple" export solution that I could depend on was PRO.

Just a little vent and hoping to catch the attention of someone who cares

[Ike Busser]

Hi Danas_Anis,

If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional there is a solution:
Export from Xara lets say 2 pages at a time as a PDF/X. If Xara still crashes, export only 1 page as a time. You can try to export as many pages as possible before it crashes Xara. Usually for really heavy graphics I can export up to 6 pages as PDF/X at a time......

That is a pricy solution.

Why noy use CutePDF Writer and print to it? It is free, take a look at www.cutepdf.com
If more flexibility is needed you can use the Pro-version at less than $ 50

Cheers

Ike

[Xcellent]

Most people have Adobe Acrobat or CS4, that's why I suggested the solution. It doesn't mean it's the only solution. Whatever works for you best.

Why noy use CutePDF Writer and print to it?

Because CutePDF will convert your RGB elements into CMYK instead of Xara doing it. Pantone and Spot colors would also be ignored (If i'm not mistaken). Print Marks, Bleed and Paper Margins would need to be set up in CutePDF ontop of that when 'printing' a document.

Does CutePDF have the ability to reorder pages and simply drag and drop other PDF pages from one into another?

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics Danas

Large PDF docuements is a problem.

You said that you were doing an e-book as opposed to printing a document, is this correct?

And do you create a lot of e-books or is this just a one time thing?

If you print a lot of e-books, then Acrobat for assembling pages created in Xtreme is a good solution or even Adobe InDesign which to be honest is much better suited to large publishing projects. It is often the case of choosing the right tool, or combination of tools for the job. I have a friend who created a complete set of blueprints for a house she was building in QuarkXPress. Yes, it can be done. But it was definitely the right tool.

I have created several dozen full page four color ads and 4 page brochures in Xtreme and I have been very happy with how the documents translated into the finished ad or four color printed brochure. But if I have to do a large document, I either do what several have suggested and design in Xtreme, output groups of pages and assemble them in Acrobat, or use InDesign.

[behzad]

I think since Xara introduced multi pages, they should look into this issue as well.

[amoore]

Most people have Adobe Acrobat or CS4, that's why I suggested the solution.

I would say "many", not "most".

Because CutePDF will convert your RGB elements into CMYK instead of Xara doing it. Pantone and Spot colors would also be ignored (If i'm not mistaken). Print Marks, Bleed and Paper Margins would need to be set up in CutePDF ontop of that when 'printing' a document.

I haven't tested color conversion/spot colors in CutePDF, so I can't comment on that point. However, Cute does have imposition, bleed and crop mark tools. Not bad for a $50 app.

Does CutePDF have the ability to reorder pages and simply drag and drop other PDF pages from one into another?

It can reorder pages, but that feature isn't WYSIWYG or drag&drop. There are a number of other non-Adobe pdf editors that do have drag&drop reordering, including my old Jaws editor. That's not a feature exclusive to Adobe.

[ss-kalm]

Most people have Adobe Acrobat or CS4

Apart from members on this forum, I don't know one single person who has either of those products ....