Posters - from Xara to print help?

[Jon G]

Hi,

I need (won a competition ) to do 18 language versions of an A3 full-colour poster. I made the initial version with Xara, but the Bulgarian printing house wants .eps, they say pdf is no good

but ok, it's a very simple poster consisting of:

- one photo, faded into background from the upper part
- assorted logos placed on the photo, different for most countries
- the main vector logo of the association
- text

Now I have Photoshop Elements, and I think I could use that for making eps files.

How would you proceed with this, I'm just a beginner and could use some pro help- thanks.

.jon

[kev1e]

Hi am new to xara as well but what version do you have?

extreme you can export the image as eps

[Jon G]

Hi,

thanks, I know but it never really works... I've tried several times and the printers always complain that can't open the file or is corrupted or something

Adobe's fault, I reckon, but that's the reality.

[minimiro]

Hi
I am from Bulgaria and I and maybe just I can accept xar files for ofset printing

[minimiro]

Hi,

thanks, I know but it never really works... I've tried several times and the printers always complain that can't open the file or is corrupted or something

Adobe's fault, I reckon, but that's the reality.

When you try to export your designs like EPS from extreme/X1 the result is bad, your bitmaps in Xar file are in RGB mode, your colors may shift, shadows bevels and etc effects are blowing up, here in BG I know may be 2-3 people hwo can open your files, and no more than 2 that can prepare it correct.... By my opinion no one in printing houses can accept your xar files (exept mine, becouse on my head I pay and get one copy of Xara), or if he can get trial version to open your files, I dont believe that someone will make all things needed to convert correct your files like correct EPS.

If you want I cant help you with converting from Xar to correct prepared EPS for offset printing
If you want send me your xar with converted to qurves texts on minimiro@dir.bg with some simple explains like correct size, final size with and without crops, preffered CMYK setup - SWOP, Euroscale coated/uncoated etc...

Regards
minimiro

[Jon G]

thanks minimiro :-)

I think I got it sorted for now... but we're not 100% happy with how things have gone with the printer so far (they changed their pricing in mid-process), so if you were serious could you pass me your contacts, I'll talk with the others and maybe we hit you with a price request?

pakana@gmail.com

.jon

[kev1e]

I have photoshop if you like i could save it to eps if elements version is unable to do this!

[Lionel]

Hi;

Why don't you convert your drawing to a Bitmap, 300 dpi and save it as JPEG or TIFF. There won't be any problem printing it. We are using XARA here at our print shop in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico and have not any problem printing from XARA. We are using a Postcript 3 RIP.

Hope this can help you.

Lionel

[Jon G]

Hi,

thanks everyone for their help. I solved it this time by redoing the whole poster in photoshop elements - it was fast and easy as this particular job was not very complicated and didn't require any of the special features that Xara as a vector program allows.

Lionel,

I've used the tiff method earlier but even though it works, I don't think the resulting print is very high quality. It is ok for photographs, but text becomes too blurred to my taste.

I really wish that pdf becomes the one and only format. There are several free print drivers that allow proper pdf output directly from Xara, never had any problems with pdfs, quite contrary. It's easy and fast.

I found out that I also got Acrobat Elements with my laptop, which adds a very good print driver to Xara. If you have a chance of getting it cheap, I recommend getting it. It does not allow editing pdfs, but the print to pdf options are very comprehensive, including CMYK conversion.

sunny days,

.jon

[AntonyF]

I don't know why a printer wouldn't accept a PDF, that seems daft.

But if you do a TIFF at say 300DPI you should really be fine in terms of clarity. For the recent Libre conference Charles designed the A0 posters (i.e. huge) and they were TIFF files, and the result was excellent.