Line width problem with PDF export

I would be grateful if other users could confirm the problem I have experienced when exporting Xreme files to PDF and offer a solution if possible.

Vertical an horizontal lines that have a line width of less than 1pt do not reproduce in the PDF. They are infact visible when the PDF is viewed on screen, but they have zero width and do not print or scale up in width when the image is zoomed. Line widths of less than 1pt (0.5pt for example) reproduce in the PDF as you would expect, if they are the outline to a rectangle, ellipse or if the line is not at 90° or 0°.

Thanks for any help

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference

I have not had this problem. And I use a lot of .5pt lines.

Acrobat 7 does have a tool in the Tools > Print Production menu item that corrects lines that are too thin to print but a line that is .5pt should not be a problem. Registrations tick marks are usually about .25pt.

How are you printing the file? To a desktop printer or to a commercial printing company? If you are printing to a desktop printer the problem may be your printer's ability to print fine lines. Though again, I print Xara files and PDF files to my HP DeskJet with no problems whatsoever. But I usually print at the highest output quality setting.

Gary

Thanks for your response Gary, but I think the only way I can demonstrate the problem is by example.

I have attached a small Xtreme file with duplicate images created with 0.5pt and 1pt line widths. I have then exported to a PDF within Xtreme, using the default settings. You will see when viewing the PDF that the 0.5pt horizontal and vertical lines look different when compared with the same width lines of the rectangle and if you zoom, within Acrobate the lines disappear at some enlargements.

I would be interested to hear if the same is true if others export to a PDF from my Xtreme file.

Thanks for your help.

I suspect that if these were output to a high resolution output device there would be a big difference.

A desktop printer has to fake it a bit when printing fine lines. The .5pt diagonals look a bit heavier but again on a high resolution image setter, I think they would be more accurate.

I have noticed that PDF files viewed in Acrobat Reader do look very different in different resolutions. I think this may have more to do with how Acrobat displays images.

Is there anybody out there with a high resolution output device who could print the PDF file and see if the visible line differences exist when printed out?

Gary

You may have a point with respect to high resolution output devices (I have output to 1200 dpi device), but the anomaly still exists in the PDF with respect horizontal and vertical lines that are part of a rectangle and single lines, as you can see from my PDF example. This is also apparent when printing; 0.5pt lines as an outline to a rectangle print but single horizontal and vertical lines do not.

I have managed to work round the problem by creating the Xtreme document double-size (with 1pt line width), exporting to a double-size PDF and printing half-size. The 1pt lines in a both rectangles and single lines reproduce the same width (equivalent to 0.5pt), which was not possible previously when they had a line width of 0.5pt.

Thanks for your comments.

I tried printing your pdf on a Xerox Phaser 8400 printer and it came out fine.

I had assumed that this (like the anti-aliasing that seems to stop working in Adobe reader at certain sizes) were just Adobe problems, but this may not be the case.

We'll look into this.

I used your file and printed out the original XAR and PDF with no problems.

However, I noticed a visual anomaly when I saved your XAR to a PDF. I wondered if it was a PDF viewing problem.

So I printed all copies all, Your XAR, your PDF and my PDF and they all came out fine. Printer: HP 990CS Professional Inkjet.

Here's a snagit screen shot of what I saw in the PDF. The XAR looks like yours, so didn't include it.

Kelvin, using your .xar file, I exported a new pdf file out of Xtreme and had the same .5 pt. display problems as you did in Acrobat, Illustrator, and Ghostscript. However, when I opened my pdf file in CorelDRAW12, the pdf displayed perfectly. In fact, I've had pdf export problems with circle shaped lines being displayed as a circle with flat sides after pdf export from Xtreme...unless I view the pdf in CorelDRAW12, which displays it as a perfect circle. Can anybody figure that one out?

- Steve

Happy to have found this thread. I have line-pdf problems with a brochure that an outside print company will do. I tried changing the lines to 1pt, which did make them clearer, darker, but still show (in the pdf version) some kind of an underscore mark along the lines. ??

thanks for any advice. Images below are prior to trying the 1pt lines; with which the "dotted line" showed up better!

Hi Helen,

I'm not 100% sure what your problem is here. Are you creating a solid line in Xara or a dotted line?

Perhaps you could post the xar (or part of the xar) here so we can see if we can reproduce it.

Hi Egg. Both a 'dotted' line and solid lines. It's the end 1/3 of a page to be used as a membership-enrollment form. Dotted line indicates where to cut it off, lower 3 lines for new member to complete with ...
Name: _________________________
Address: __________ phone _______
City, State: ________e-mail _______

The 1pt lines did look better; however, I can't figure out why that little "underscore" mark shows up on the solid lines in the pdf. ?? Thanks.

That's understood Helen, thanks. However if you could post the xar file I'm sure we could solve, or create a workaround for your problem.

The xar file is too big for me to post (anywhere -- slow dial up). With lines (including the dotted one) changed to 1pt (vs. .5pt), they look OK on the PDF. Except for those funny little 'underscore' marks...which don't show up until the PDF is enlarged to 125 percent. When the PDF is printed on my hp6540 deskjet, the lines appear to be the same thickness each, and no extra little marks appear. I'll question the printer again tomorrow.
Thanks again. ;)

PS...just reading thru the TG posts I found via 'search' was helpful!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steveward

I... had the same .5 pt. display problems as you did in Acrobat, Illustrator, and Ghostscript.

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It also happens in the Jaws Editor. I've always assumed that it was a display thing since it doesn't just happen in pdfs or Xara files. The files have always printed correctly, regardless of whether they were native or pdf.