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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    60

    Default Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    When I export my drawings to a PDF file (Adobe Reader 9) the lines appear a lot thicker than the original when viewing the PDF at the default 100% zoom. If I increase the zoom to a higher percentage the lines begin to become more in proportion with the original. I’ve tried different resolution settings on the Advanced export page, but still the lines appear ridiculously thick.

    I want to send some drawings to a prospective client and first impression will look awful if I can’t sort this issue out. Any suggestions?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Birmingham, England / Javea, Espana
    Posts
    2,343

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    Dilaco
    Its a problem we all have, particulary noticable in lower case L's in a body text etc. If the PDF were printed by your client the line would print normally, for viewing on screen the best thing for you to do is export you drawing as a bitmap and save that as a PDF. This will stop the line thickening you get when exporting vector.
    Derek

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Reading. UK
    Posts
    6,970

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    It might be worth using 'convert to editable shapes' on everything on the page before exporting to pdf.
    I think I've done that in the past and had good results. Then you can simply 'undo' and get things back to normal again.
    Hope that made sense.

    Featured Artist on Xara Xone . May 2011
    . A Shield . My First Tutorial
    . Bottle Cap . My Second Tutorial on Xara Xone

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Dunoon, Scotland
    Posts
    4,778

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    That happens a lot and it is a bug in Acro reader! Try a print and I bet you it will print correctly.
    Design is thinking made visual.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    60

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    Thank you all for your responses.
    I went to try Rik’s convert to editable shapes workaround but I have a new issue (hopefully just a temporary one). When I go to export to PDF I get a PDF Filter window come up with the following error message: “The PDF Filter encountered a general problem. PDF export is aborted. (0004)”

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    North Tawton, UK
    Posts
    1,152

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    Hi Dilaco,

    Rik's suggestion won't solve the problem. As Albacore said, it's a bug/feature in Acrobat reader. It doesn't anti-alias thin lines like Xara does so below a certain line width Acrobat reader will never give an accurate representation of the PDF file. Note that the PDF file itself is not the problem.

    You can either:
    1. Convert all or part of the drawing to bitmap to capture the thin lines correctly within Xara.
    2. Alter your drawing so that instead of using thin lines you use grey tints of black (or tints of whatever your line colour is).
    3. Ask your client to install the free trial of XDP because Acrobat reader can't display the fine details of your artwork correctly and send him the xar file.

    Phil

  7. #7

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    How thin is thin? And how is your customer going to have this printed or is it to be a web or email only PDF?

    Acrobat or Reader only display 1pt or thicker lines in relatively good scale. If this is going to be commercially printed, do consider that below 1 pt, hairline thicknesses are a lot thinner than what prints to a consumer print device.

    Take care, Mike

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    14

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    If you are on Windows then you can try the free Sumatra PDF-Reader which is available as a portable 2,3mb zip.
    http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/...df-reader.html
    Having had the same issues with thin lines I found out that it depends on the PDF Viewer. (I'm happy with PDFXchange Viewer)
    I made a little linetest PDF

    Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	88405
    Attached Files Attached Files

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Posts
    60

    Default Re: Lines go thick when exporting as PDF

    Thanks again for all advice.
    My situation is that I have an illustrated (in xara) literary work that I will be submitting samples of to publishers. I realize that the print comes out okay with the converted PDF files, but it’s a case of first impressions when they open up the file and see a finely detailed drawing with big fat lines all over it. For now I think I’ll just go with the bitmap option.

    Thanks for attaching the line test file, Musikai, but it is a case of which PDF reader the publisher uses, rather than the one I use. From my end I neither want nor need to convert xara files, as I view them in their original state. It still amazes me how Xara manages to keep its file size so small.

 

 

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