Printable View
01 Visible overprint in view port
02 Separation preview
03 Master pages - and guides from Master page are visible on all other pages but not editable
04 Page navigator
05 First page - always stay on the right :)
06 Click drag for selection - very useful - like in CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator
07 Correct Color Management :)
http://zing-studio.com/xara.jpg
Hi ElCabron
Think your looking at Page Plus rather than a vector drawing programme with some of your requests. However I think it was a mistake to introduce multi-pages without being able to use a Master Page design. You could use a Library (Gallery) like FreeHand does and have the ability to drag & drop or insert (import or open) and control various M/Pages. I think a page navigator is in the realms of DTP and should be left there but again I agree with the overprint do you mean like you get in InDesign which I think you have illustrated here? Don't know what you mean by colour management as PDF works well but if you mean sorting out what is CMYK and RGB in one doc yes that would be very handy. Even if we had a method to see problem areas so that you could flatten them using tiff bitmap that would help for at the moment you have to plan out your drawing to get correct CMYK.
Personally I'm not keen on likening XXP to or wishing it was more like other graphic apps, especially those that I find less friendly or intuitive to use. XXPS strengths are it's ease of use, fluidity, speed, shallow learning curve and uncluttered UI, there are many other strengths that, for me, out weigh any weaknesses.
Sure, some things might be improved or added, but turn it into something like CorelDraw or Illustrator then there'd be no point in having XaraXtreme.
What do you mean? I can already 'Click' then 'Drag' to select in XXP??Quote:
06 Click drag for selection
Click and drag is method for selection in Corel Draw or illustrator, with which you dont need to select all area to select one object
You just have to select some of parts of object i.e. some of its lines
In corel you can do that with alt pressed, in illustrator it is default way of selecting objects
Btw, I think that bigest part of us here, talking about pro features of Xtreme from amateur or free time for pleasure point....
Difference here is that some of us make our money exclusively with graphic design and prepress.... so we look at program from a litle bit different point of view
Yes separated print preview with % measure of every color is not so important for free time user, who just want to make something on some monitor and print it on some printer... for that yes you are right
but when we talking about PRO level, with correct CMYK preview for offset pres, things are a litle bit different...
and etc etc etc
Well not all pros need the same things, I for instance have never needed separations, even for print. Always supplying my images in Tiff, Gif or Jpeg. Then again I'm not a designer, I know little about technicalities and like to keep it that way LOL!
Xtreme is quite generalised in its outlook, perhaps more designers use it than illustrators, I don't know.
I would weigh things more heavily toward illustration, improved brushes, better custom colour palette, nested layers and better tracing, amongst other things. Though I have no problem with better tools for designers, they are not my priority.
I work at a pro level when designing/drawing/assembling signage.. But NEVER need to worry about CMYK.Quote:
Originally Posted by minimiro
Output is to PANTONE colour graded Vinyl - so it matters nothing what colours are chosen on-screen. It ony matter which coloured vinyl is loaded into the plotter.
As for the thermal printer (GERBER EDGE) - it works with CMYK or PANTONE foils, again these are chosen in the software before you print. The imported artwork need only resemble the required output, it doesn't have to be exact.
Of course, this will all change once the MIMAKI WFP arrives.. :eek:
You are right but only for your point of view....
Tif is not so pro output but work not bad for you.... problem come when you need to create something bigger than A5, A4 or A3 size..... you can try it
then we talk about files with really giant sizes.... 100-150-200Mb each... OK
if only your cover is for print then no problem in print house... but believe me, Im senior designer/prepress master in such print house, and when I have to work on some magazine for example your cover with her 150Mb will be the last thing that I want to see.... then maybe you dont have idea wats going on, but I will say you.... then going some optimization... i.e downsampling of monster files...
So now you can understand and choose what is better for your part of magazine... vector file some EPS or PDF whatever with size of 2-5-10-20Mb with maximum avialable quality or some downsampled tiff on 250dpi but still on 50-100Mb ... Its simple
So now you can continue to think alone... is it simple and better for you to work direct your illustrations in Xara, and lets say you work on good monitor with good calibration, and you know that what you see is aprox. what will going on on print and after finish just export to PDF and send it to your print house via e-mail, or work in Xara, see something, after that you export it to Tiff, then rework this monster file in Photoshop to make colors that you want to be, then save again and going to think how to send this big monster file to your printer ....
:)
I think that idea of ElCabron is to not deny some good ideas of other pro level softwares, this are the tools and techniques that are tested and checked in time, and they work well
Everyone that work with Xara, knows that like illustration tool xara is times better and powerfull from every one other, now is time the same powerfull illustrative tool to be bringed to new level
Every one knows that graphics design work is times more than just illustration work, I mean that illustrations are just part of some design work, and will be better for us and for Xara all this proceses to be started and completed in Xara... is it so hard for understanding
Several issues with CMYK print in Xpro. I use it for textile printing & embroidery designs, among other things....
1. The biggest problem, RGB effects which show up on all plates. Blends, tapered lines, transp, bevels, & bitmaps etc..
2. If you have overlapping colors that do not need to blend. Say a solid box over a gradient of another color(s). The gradient tends to show up over top rather than behind on the printed layers. I've created separations using only CMYK color & unless I add, join or subtract the gradient shapes they tend to show up, even though they are behind solids. Most gradients have to be converted to solid color blends to print properly.
3. Tapered lines - RGB. I always group them & use ctrl+r+L to convert to solid shapes (no outlines). Still I get outline residue on other plates.
4. Regarding print dialog for CMYK. If you manually change the angles of each plate then switch to another tab at the top or dialog & come back. The angles & frequency have to be re-entered as they always change back to the Xara default, VERY Very annoying! There should be another master box for angles & some way to lock these in. For me it's necessary to use these angles for blended colors; C=82.5, m=52.5, y=7.5, k=112.5 . For non blend printing I use 61 angle, dot size varies.
5. A way to change print default for a Xara template would be nice. The only dot I've ever needed is the elliptical spot. An option to make this the default it would be most helpful.
I cannot reproduce this annoyance.Quote:
Originally Posted by wW
When I change the angles to your exact figures, click away to another tab, or even change another setting then come back to the separations, the angles I entered have not changed.
The only time Xara resets the angles is when there is a Lines Per Inch change (lpi) - which is what I would expect.
Can anyone else try this?
What a load of *****! There are plenty of professionals outside the print industry. In fact I find most printers to be completely unprofessional in their inability to work outside of incredibly narrow parameters. I am a full-time, professional artist and I have never seen a four-colour separation in my life.Quote:
Originally Posted by minimiro
TIFF is one of the most useful file formats for print professionals, as Targa is for broadcast/video. It is incredibly flexible - greyscale, RGB, CMYK in anything up to 32bits - all with highly optimised, lossless compression.Quote:
Originally Posted by minimiro
It some print-shops that make everything such an ordeal - leave the slightest room for any error and a printer will stuff it up. Give them a giant TIFF of the finished artwork and they virtually can't get it wrong. For my money that is the very essence of a professional file format.
Try working with 4k film frames at 24 frames-per-second. That's 4096x3112x24 per second. Even at 2k, half-float [16bit], we require a sustained data transfer rate of 850Mb/sec so you'll excuse me if the occasional 400Mb still file is hardly impressive in this day and age, where my new laptop came with 4Gb of RAM as standard.Quote:
problem come when you need to create something bigger than A5, A4 or A3 size..... you can try it
then we talk about files with really giant sizes.... 100-150-200Mb each... OK
if only your cover is for print then no problem in print house... but believe me, Im senior designer/prepress master in such print house, and when I have to work on some magazine for example your cover with her 150Mb will be the last thing that I want to see.... then maybe you dont have idea wats going on, but I will say you.... then going some optimization... i.e downsampling of monster files...
Sure, but its not all about print, either. If Xara has to grow and stretch itself, I'd prefer to see some proper timeline-based animation added. It could be a wonderful paint/roto tool for the visual effects industry and an incredible motion graphics tool for the interweb and broadcast markets. Turning it into a boring old print tool would be such a waste in my view. It also seems to me that it doesn't do print stuff all that well so concentrating on RGBA work seems a natural choice.Quote:
Every one knows that graphics design work is times more than just illustration work, I mean that illustrations are just part of some design work, and will be better for us and for Xara all this proceses to be started and completed in Xara... is it so hard for understanding
As for me, I'd like to see additional options in the Export Bitmap dialog window -- see attached image.
1. Field for manual typing of Quality %s
(takes ages when working with large files and trying to move slider to set up desired value)
2. Option to Turn OFF auto-refreshing preview window.
(the same -- takes ages when changing settings on different Tabs to re-draw the preview)
I'd better set all settings manually, then, if I need, press Preview button to see changes...
P.S. I put 1. and 2. there on picture just for example...
What kind of sizes are we talking Alex?
Of course I appreciate that there is computer hardware to take into account, but I've exported pretty large JPG's, can't say I've noticed any annoying sluggishness at all?
Though I do think a 'Field for manual typing of Quality %' is a good idea
My main rig (for comparison):
AMD A64 3400+
2GB DDR400
GF6600 128mb
Dell 2405FPW (19200x1200)
I have P4 2.8E, 2GB DDR400Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
GF 6600GT, 320GB SATA-2
Samsung SM 959NF
I'm talking about large size complex drawings with a lot of transparencies with text over etc. and exporting at high resolution. Also, the similar issue at Create Bitmap dialog window just annoying, try to change dpi, then switch to Palette tab and change settings there too...
P.S. Maybe "ages" is too strong word there, actually it takes a few seconds, but "annoying" must be more correct word ))) These two windows (Create Bitmap and Bitmap Export) just don't look very optimized to provide more convenient handling... Especially forced re-freshing when swithing tabs... )
Hmm... did I upset you in some way minimiro?
If I did, then I apologise, that wasn't my intention. If I didn't then ignore this, I'm just imagining things.
Wonderful that Xara have fixed .swf export into Flash in the latest xtreme so now I can retire old xara X, and at last I can set photoshop as my bitmap editor.
But what I still really really want are two simple things:
#1 is a proper pressure pen - not a 'brush objects' thing just a simple vector pressure pen. Even Freehand's one away back in version 5 from last century would do. Silky smooth in drawing like a virtual sable brush, and in line view it consists of a minimal array of points, only double the number of points in the non-pressure line. That smoooth pressure pen for me was one of the most joyous things I ever saw in a computer drawing app (along with xara's interactive transparency), so much so that it restrained me from jumping up and down on freehand whilst declaiming in tongues more than once and that was an achievement but I digress.
#2 is a simple close-shapes button. It's a pain searching for the unclosed point in a complex shape so I can colour it. Illustrator has it, so does freehand (or did) so why not xara?? *wails*
Q
And what I really, really want is something I've been asking for for years <sigh> — the ability to align to a selected object rather than to the most extreme.
Q
Select the line then using the shape editor tool drag-select all the nodes and hit Enter.Quote:
#2 is a simple close-shapes button. It's a pain searching for the unclosed point in a complex shape so I can colour it.
Aaah...! Thank you for stressing this quality facility! The vital quality to be able to lock an object position and quickly align other objects to the locked object's left, right, top, bottom or center position (available and indispensable in Freehand, to mention a reference).Quote:
Originally Posted by amoore
Anders
No, no :) Dont worryQuote:
Originally Posted by MarkMyWords
here just become a place where every one of PROs can give self preferences...
I am in offset print production, you are illustrator, Sledger is in digitall press and cut ploters, etc etc....
Someone in other side of world preffer to print from TIF or JPG files, but here for example we work with PDFs etc etc
This was and my idea... xara have to work and suggest one product but with different usages... and in same time all we have to be pleased
It is hard problem for solving, but this is the winning formula to sell well...
Idea of ElCabron was that is good to didnt find again the wheel or hot water like we here said....
Some usefull options especially in print production line, have to be implemented, this will help not only in us print designers.... especialy correct CMYK print preview will give some "realistic" preview to all us print designers, prepress users, illustrators etc... becouse nevermind what you think and done when finall result are with different and wrong colors outside of your idea, everything is without meaning
that is it
nice day to all
O.K. my mistake.
I have a habit of putting my foot in it every time I open my mouth LOL!