Converting text to curves

[Zakiyya]

Hi There

Please see the attached advert.
1. The printers have said the text needs to be converted to curves. How do I go about doing this?
2. The black used on the advert has to be CMYK. When I change the black to CMYK, the images which have a black background stand out out on the background instead of fitting in seamlessly, once converted to a PDF. How do I overcome this.

I am using Xara Page and Layout Designer 9

[Gamerprinter]

Arrange/Convert to Editable Shape - that's how you convert text to curves. I'm not sure what's causing your second problem.

[Zakiyya]

Thank you. Second problem only visible once document is exported as pdf.

[mwenz]

Like one of your images, clip the backgrounds out on the several black-background images and use a colored rectangle behind them for the black.

Unfortunately, even if you remove the backgrounds from those images, if they sit on a 100%k rectangle, they will "merge" with the rectangle and the result will be some areas remaining the rich black (K plus the CMY color components).

An alternative to clipping out the backgrounds is to change all but the text to a rich black.

Another alternative is to remove the black in an image editor and use another application to layout the ad. PagePlus works for this using these images with a transparent background on a 100%k rectangle.

[Zakiyya]

Thank you for all the suggestions and advice. I really appreciate it.

[Albacore]

Can I get this straight the bottom taps and shower fittings + kitchen sink unit are meant to be transparent like the other electrical ones. When you export your file to PDF it comes out like the .xar file you posted instead of the black they should be white. If your making flyers and getting the printed in colour and not in grayscale with a digital or litho printer you have not many problems just using Xara and no need to go the Serif route just using the PDF export but I would use the Advance Options and in the Objects tab you have a check box to turns text into shapes. The Rich Black that Mike talks about is no problem unless this ad is going to newspapers as it will stop the washed outlook of black and give it a bit of depth. Now I went online and did a search for ISCA taps and did a very quick look for a similar tap with a white or even a transparent background. I picked one with a white background and copied it, which is illegal to do without permission, & pasted it into your doc and it exports fine. If the ad. is going to a newspaper to be printed then the PDF needs to be change but it still can be done in Xara it's just a fiddle and you would need to use a bitmap editor to correct a few things.