pdf distortion again

[caryjames]

Hi everyone, I have searched these posts and not found an answer so please forgive me if this has been discussed at length.

I suspect that the problem lies in the original photos and how xara handles them but would like some clarification if possible .

I have some fairly high res pics that I am trying to lay out for my portfolio.

I have a document opened with a US letter format (8.5 x 11 inches).
I then bring in my images (usually much larger than the document).
I then use the selector tool to grab a corner of the image and then I pull it down to a suitable size.
The images then have heavy anti aliasing (hairy) edges
When I export to pdf (either high quality or for web) the pdf has distortion as well.

Is there a way to compress the images in the document so that this distortion does not occur? Or is there something else that I am missing?

Thanks folks!!
Cary

[Albacore]

Depends on what you want to do with them. If its just for your self see the screen capture below as you "page options" gives you the choice and even what you export them. Also when you are exporting to PDF you change change the compression setting for you bitmap images to what you want just choose Custom then "Advance Option" the click on the "Object" tab and you can define your setting. I take it when you choose the "Email or web distribution PDF" radio button you get the distortion? cos I never had a problem in this area.

Have a go sorting out the resolution of your imported bitmap using the "Page Options" first and if you still have a problem we might have to look at you file.

[amoore]

Hi Cary

Nice to see you around again.

Have you tried using the Width and Height fields on the Infobar to do your resizing? If the little black padlock to the right of the percent fields is depressed, the photo will maintain its aspect ratio when you resize it. That might help.

You might also want to try doing the resize with the Units set to pixels. Make sure your photo is sized in whole number pixels (no fractions), and the x,y coordinates are also whole pixels. Then create a bitmap copy at your desired resolution.

If you're still not seeing what you want to see, then a little more information would help.

Allison

[caryjames]

Hi Allison, thanks for the welcome back . Nothing worse than a person who only shows up when they have a problem eh!! . Thanks for your reply, I have tried to change both of your suggestions but am still having distortion in my xara file even before I send out to pdf. So the issue may be with some internal setting. Here are a couple of screen shots to illustrate.

If you look at my logo in the first screen shot directly from Xara you can see that it is distorted.

Image on the left is from Xara

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...enShotXara.jpg

If you look at the screen shot in Gimp (right hand photo) everything looks fine

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...enShotGimp.jpg

I have a similar issue with all of the images I am using (high res .jpg's)

Thanks for taking a look... I really appreciate the feedback!
Cary

[Albacore]

Why not when you bring it in reduce the resolution? make a bitmap copy but remember to change your setting in the Page Options before you do it. Even though it was going to print I would only use 300 dpi and I have done high res prints on coated paper and I have only used 600 once and there was hardly any difference. If you are only using a inkjet I can honestly see no reason to have a large res as that. My only other suggestion, you certainly won't like it, is that you do a re-install as I have not heard or even experience distortion like this before.
Copied and pasted your files in and it is very hard to see the distortion when one is a close up of the ring.

[steve.ledger]

Have you set your view quality to VHQ?

'Full color' will certainly show hairy edges.
Aside from checking the aspect ratio is locked, set to 'Very High Quality'

[caryjames]

Thanks guys... Sledger your tip worked! I think that I had two issues going on but they conspired to make me think I only had one issue .

Pdf export to high quality... web size is sufficient for this application and now looks fine.

Distorted images... needed to be set to VHQ... this cleared things up. I was experiencing more distortion in the logo area but also had some strong anti aliasing which disappeared.

Thanks to all who sent suggestions!!!!!!!!!!!!

Portfolio is starting to look good... well as good as I can make it anyway
Cary