Colours problems with XARA XTREME PRO 5

**cospell** · 11 July 2009, 07:50 PM

Hi!
I'm designing some business cards for my Company, but I've lots of problems exporting the file with XXP 5. As you can see (on attachment), I chose colors on CMYK palette (for printing), i saw them with "SHOW PRINTER COLOURS" command and then I exported them in Pdf 1.5 HIGH QUALITY with CMYK colour model for sending file to my typography. That's what I saw! Colours on pdf are totally different from those on the .xar file!
WHY!?
IS IT A BUG???
On Xara Xtreme Pro 3 there's no problem! (but XXP 3 was just a DEMO)

Help me! Please!
Cosimo

**gwpriester** · 11 July 2009, 10:49 PM

Cosimo

Simulate Printer Color is only an approximation of printed color output.

CMYK colors when you view them in Screen Colors mode are always going to be brighter because Screen Colors is RGB color space.

The PDF display is closest to your printed CMYK color.

Getting the exact same color you see on your screen is almost impossible. You can come close. The ultimate question is does the printed output look good?

**cospell** · 12 July 2009, 12:06 AM

Ok, but difference is too big, for being the 5th version of the program...

**steve.ledger** · 12 July 2009, 12:13 AM

Unless you have perfect monitor calibration which matches the output printer, then viewing colours on screen is never going to match the printed results.

As Gary said, on screen colour is RGB, which is the colour of 'light' - your printed results are the colour of 'ink'.

Always best to do a test print and check the colours are what you desire.

**gwpriester** · 12 July 2009, 01:42 AM

Most printers can give you a "soft proof" which will come very close to the final printed output. It costs extra but is worth the cost if you have to have exact color.

The other option is if you want to have your colors match exactly, specify Pantone spot colors. Pantone spot color are specially mixed ink colors and will match the color chip exactly.

**cospell** · 12 July 2009, 08:12 AM

I know the difference between RGB colours and CMYK colours, but why there's that difference between "print colours" visualization and PDF exported colours? There's no logic in that! In XXP3 "print colours" and PDF exported colors are very similar.

**steve.ledger** · 12 July 2009, 08:36 AM

Hmm - using the default settings in both XtremePro3 and XtremePro5 viewing in simulated print colours and exporting both to PDF/X - I see zero difference between the two Xtreme 'on-screen' versions and their PDF output.
That is to say, the differences from 'simulated print colors' to the final PDF are the same from both versions of Xtreme.

Have you perhaps changed some of the output setting in Advanced print options or PDF export options?

Can you attach a PDF export of the same image from both versions of Xtreme at the same settings to your next post please?

**Albacore** · 12 July 2009, 04:18 PM

Hi Cosimo,
You have opened the usual can of worms here. As Gary states about the RGB thing in Xara there is no way around this problem as the programme doesn't have the CMYK colour space as PS and AI have and it has been requested so many times to have this feature in XPro as it is meant to be a professional programme. It is all to do with the way the programme is written for the RGB screen colours and I think it would be almost impossible to re-write to include CMYK. What I do is to have a colour wheel with values printed then when I choose a colour in a design then I know what it is going to look like when printed. The only other solution is to but an old copy of AI, CD or Freehand and edit you colours there which adds to your costs and time. From experience now I have a good idea what a file is going to look like when printed but maroons and dark greens are still a good guess on what the final colour is going to be.

**Luciano** · 12 July 2009, 10:08 PM

Cosimo,
make sure you didn't apply any transparency effect to your transition, in this case colours turn to RGB.
If you use colors with CMYK value with just a linear fill, you will get the output PDF with the correct CMYK value.
I suggest you use real Pantone printed sheets for composite (CMYK) colors: http://pantone.com/pages/products/pr...d=283&ca=1&s=4 ; the colours will match exactly what you see on paper.

Anyway I prefer to use PDF x1a not PDF1.5 for professional printing.
I made a test file for you

Luciano