Exporting page + bleed (strictly page + bleed) possible in Xara ?

[stephane_fr]

Hello everybody, and happy new year


I want to export a document, in PNG mode (or other...), a document that have a bleed margin of course (in Pro X).

In the export options, in the "Area to Save", there are 3 possibilities :
- Page content : takes into account all the drawing of the page, even out of the page+bleed area
- Selection : what you have selected before
- Page : the page, without taking into account the bleed area

So, none of the 3 options take strictly the exclusive area "page+ bleed". However this is the more important zone, and the real one for a precise printing.


So, is there something I didn't understand, I forgot, or do I make a mistake somewhere in my diagnostic ?

Thank you very much

[Albacore]

Hi Stephane,
Press F1 to bring up the Help Files, then do a search on your topic on "Bleed". Normally in Europe we use the metric page size and if the design is in full colour then it will have bleed settings of around 4mm and the default in Pro X is 3mm and you find this in Page Options-Page Size tab. If you get a print shop to print your work they will be normally working in a larger format than A4 so therefore you will have multi copies of your design printed at one time. The printer will charge you for setting out for this format and place crop marks around your design or you can get Pro X to do this when you export your design as a PDF. You can do what I do here and do it all yourself by asking what format of page size does he use then do the layout and crop marks yourself if it is only being printed on a large format digital printer and it is usually SRA3. Always, Always use PDF for exporting your file and not any Bitmap file like .png. If you are going to print your design yourself you will need to have a design slightly smaller than your max. page size of your printer as boderless printing will quickly ruin your drum or rollers even though it will allow you to do so.
If you need anymore help all you have to do is to ask here. Please use PDF!

[stephane_fr]

Hello Albacore and thank you for your answer.

I stupidly stayed with PNG files of choice when exporting (small works) because I have a better control of the passage from RBG (Xara) to CMYK (print) colors.
(I can adjust the final result in CMYK mode into Photoshop, to get the CMYK result I prefer).

But you're right I have to export ALL my works in PDF/CMYK mode.

In that way it is a bit more fastidious, because I first look the PDF result, then do some changing of the colors in Xara himself. And I export again and again, until I think I get good colours in the CMYK mode.

It is a by "trial and error" method, but I can't find better (the "simulate Print Colors" is a bad because unrealistic tool, in my opinion).


So : I forget PNG now, and all for PDF from today ...

[Albacore]

Totally agree with your statement about "Simulate Printing Colours" it is not good but it gives you an idea what it could look like. I would like to take out the bit when you go back into PS to adjust your colours and make a few suggestions. The way I did it was to make up and colour wheel/chart with RGB values & CMYK values and got that printed so I have got a reference on what that colour looks like. Using these I made up a template with named colours a sort of restricted colour palette and just use these in all my designs but because I use named colours I could have tints of my colour palette therefore I reducing the guess work.

I don't see Xara changing its use of RGB so that you could choose whether you want a RGB/CMYK artboard as you have in PS as the whole programme is written around the RGB colour engine. Keep at it as with a bit of experience you will get it right. May be buy a laser printer for your desktop or take your PDF down to your local print shop and get 1 copy done a copy would only cost around 1€.

[stephane_fr]

Thank you for your excellent advice.