Need advice re:4-color process printing preparation

[hgregory]

Hello everyone. I'd like some advice, in addition to the Xara help files I've studied, on preparing for 4-color-process printing . Here's the situation:

I'm working on a children's picture book; full color on every page plus some black text, to be printed and bound by a book manufacturer (it's how I self-publish; this will be my first electronic-submission).

I decided to create all the illustrations in Xara X-1 (vs. my usual pen & ink with watercolor). I'm doing that with "simulate print colors" turned on. My two big concerns at this point are correct PDF output and color separations.

As I assume my hp-inkjet is NOT a postscript printer, I followed the instructions to check a page via a PDF output. I use PDF995. The PDF version looks good colorwise on-screen, except for the black lines around the elements, which look jagged and too heavy on the PDF (see image). So . . . I printed the PDF file (auto-fit) out on my hp-inkjet, and it came out looking just fine, both color AND lines. (This, on 11x8.5 paper from orig Xara page of 10x10).

?-1. ...should I be concerned or is it common for PDFs to look differently on-screen than when printed?

?-2. ...can I make my own color separations via Xara X-1 to send to the printer?

Thank you for any advice you can give!

[AntonyF]

If you have any sort of transparency on or over objects it'll force them to be bitmaps. Then in turn if you don't have a high enough DPI you'll see a degradation in quality. That could be the problem, but if you could attach the PDF I could give you a more accurate assessment.

You can create separations for your printer, just go into Print Options then Imagesetting and then Seperations and select to output separated. That is the best option if you can do it, as Xtreme has control over the separation process, but most printers I've dealt with have to have a composite PDF.

Not to sound too salesy, but Xtreme and now Xtreme Pro will offer you substantially better PDF results. Check out this page furtherdown, the red circles.

[Charles Moir]

The PDF version looks good colorwise on-screen, except for the black lines around the elements, which look jagged and too heavy on the PDF (see image).

This is almost certainly a known bug with Adobe PDF Reader - it shows thin lines with no anti-aliasing (as you can see all over that example). But it's a display problem only. If you print it should come out fine - as you say it does. Also if you zoom in on Pdf Reader you should see it fixes itself as well.

[hgregory]

thank you both for the tips.
Yes, I suppose my PDF could be considered low resolution...300dpi. I suspect the book printer will require a much high resolution! I'm learning... and appreciate your input.