Xara designer Pro X 8.1.3 PDF Export error on windows 8

[roguefx]

Hi,
I've just tried to export a page as a pdf for the first time since upgrading to windows 8 and I'm getting a strange problem.
In the image I have a text string which has a bevel, contour and drop shadow.
When this exports it is surrounded by a black box.
This also happens in another area with 2 circles both with shadows and again this is surrounded by the black boxes.
I had previously exported an identical poster from designer pro X on windows XP without a problem.

So far I have tried exporting it at different dpi settings and in pdf 1.4 to 1.8 but not pdf/X yet.

Anyone else come across this problem or have any ideas where to start to find a fix.

it exports fine as a jpg

Rick

[Albacore]

No matter what type of windoz you have got or even Xara programmes you will always get this. The shadow and bevel are RGB effects and when you export to PDF it changes the colour profile from RGB to CMYK. When the export filter is converting the RGB effect and vectors that surrounds them these areas this area gets rendered as a bitmap hence the black box. Mind you it should have been OK with PDF ver. 1.4 as it keeps it on RGB and doesn't change it to CMYK. Try using blends for shadows/bevels or even contours and always, always put text on a layer above or at least top of the stack.

If you want to post the area that is causing the problem we'll all have a look and try and sort the problem. Please do it as a .xar file

[roguefx]

Hi Albacore,
Thanks for the quick answer.
I hadn't come across this before when exporting to pdf so I went back and checked the earlier versions which were done with designer on windows XP.
All those pdf files were pdf/x not pdf files. oops
Exported the file as a pdf/x and everything is okay.
Just for reference I've attached a xar and pdf of the main affected area
spring beer festival test.pdf spring beer festival test.xar

[mwenz]

Hi Albacore,
Thanks for the quick answer.
I hadn't come across this before when exporting to pdf so I went back and checked the earlier versions which were done with designer on windows XP.
All those pdf files were pdf/x not pdf files. oops
Exported the file as a pdf/x and everything is okay.
Just for reference I've attached a xar and pdf of the main affected area...

There might be something mucked up with either Xara or, perhaps most likely, your Adobe Reader or Acrobat installation. That is if you are using Reader or Acrobat to view the resultant PDF.

Attached is a screen shot upon using PDFX-1a for the export. But all the PDF export types export identically. And your attached PDF appears identically.

Well, back to the cannot make an attachment thing. Screen shot at the link.

http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/temp/Capture.PNG

Mike

[mwenz]

Let's see if attachments are working for me now...

Nope.

Mike

[roguefx]

Hi Mwenz,
Thanks for the input.
Tried the pdf file on my win 7 laptop and both that and the pdfx versions opened fine but on the win 8 desktop only the pdfx version opened correctly in the built in twinui pdf reader.
Installed sumatra pdf reader and it opens both types of pdf without a problem.
Problem solved thanks