A half-masked Ninja throw weapon. :)
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A half-masked Ninja throw weapon. :)
1. I wouldn't worry about the $20. You gotta start somewhere. It's good for the portfolio. Worth way more.
2. I agree with the woman pooping out in front of the line graphics.
3. Did the client ask for the Brown/Marooon color? To me it makes it seem a bit 1990's. Lighter colors appeal to the modern audience. Just my take on it though.
For Additional professional Tips:
1. About Formatting and file types. Be careful with Xara to Adobe PS, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, EPS.
Xaras transparency, shadow and Gradients don't translate well in those other programs. I usually use those programs for that, or export a png file to keep my Xara transparency or gradient.
2. PDF: With PDF, be careful on fonts you use. Share the font file with the clients' printers so they may install it if you used something off the wall many people don't have. Another reason why many people don't use PDF is when they use Adobe Illustrator. It's a pain in the butt trying to edit pages. Have to convert each to an art board. I don't bother.
I go with EPS files. Because they are editable on the other end.
3. Always best to place all your objects on their own layers when sharing EPS files and PDF files with everyone else. Because the majority do no use Xara professionally. It's mainly Adobe products. IF we don't do this, all our objects wind up on the layer you left them in. People can't edit them individually that way.
Why not PDF/X? Xara's focus on export has been PDF and these files can be edited and are also Adobe Illustrator's default file format (along with .ai).Quote:
I go with EPS files. Because they are editable on the other end.
mwenz will have a better answer here but long ago when I used EPS files they were used to "place" in a Quark or InDesign document. For editing in Illustrator at least, .ai was better. But I might just be succumbing to weak memory and advanced age.
Just curious.
Opening a PDF in Illustrator is a big can of worms. Illy is the absolute worst application to open a PDF for editing. As well, opening a PDF even made from Illustrator without including the AI embedded file (which is the default) can/does destroy all AI constructs (as these cannot be retained in PDF format). PDF format was never intended to be a generally editable format. That 3rd-party libraries, such as those used for Xara products, can most often reconstruct a PDF is moot. Adobe doesn't use them in their products.
Xara products will properly embed fonts into a PDF (most applications properly do this these days). There is absolutely no need to send font files to any other person in the production chain and this violates most font licenses. (SIL and other Open Source fonts and their license not withstanding).
If a font has sufficient permissions, it will be embedded properly. If it uses the one single font permission that does not allow embedding, it also most likely is against its license to share. Pick another font.
Xara's AI/EPS export is really a very old AI file format. I use it for certain work. The other couple EPS types are pretty much application specific and generally don't play well with other applications.
Xara's PSD export is pretty good (but so is PS' ability to open PDFs) and I would use the PSD export when intending to use PS.
Xara's 16-bit CMX export is seemingly broken in the newest update as I get an access violation. A file is created, but CD cannot open them any longer. The CMX I have exported in the past work good. I'll investigate using a previous Xara product.
OK. All that said, if one needs to use AI, PS or whatever, use that application. I still design most things in Xara products, but at sme point it will be ported to those applications and either simply exported to AI/PSD and resaved or once I need effects for the finished off file, then I'll do the flat work in Xara applications and finish off in the Adobe applications. There really is no other good way to collaborate or hand off proper files.
But unless native files are part of an agreement, I do not bother with the above. It's Xara all the way. I haven't sent native files to a print establishment ever. It's either PostScript files that got directly RIPped or PDFs since PDF became a thing.
Mike - To your point about embedded fonts and font embedding permission. I recently used a free font, SF Movie Poster for a book project. When I checked the properties for my exported PDF/X file in Acrobat it warned the font could not be embedded. So I contacted the foundry, purchased the font license and everything was cool.
Hello,
Very good points guys.Mwenz, thanks for the clear up on that.
Just some more replies
1. To MWenz about AI and PDFs. Yes. Its the worst. I learned that the hard way. LOL. Xara is sooooo much better at it.
2. Professional Collaboration work: Yes sometimes I have to collaborate with others for projects and find myself doing fast flat work in Xara and finishing off in AI.
2. Xara mustve made some updates because my Xara pro can now export Shadow, Transparency, linear transparency, gradient, and even feathering to a new copy of CS6 I just installed. Did this today. Which blew my mind. LOL
But it still has problems doing it all bundled together.
3. Fun Fact: XARA over AI. Xara kicks AI's butt in so many things. I wish more people knew about it here in the States. They all look at me crazy. But I wind up doing the same type of work 3 times faster than they do.
4. But I have a real important question im about to post in a new thread. I do custom sublimation apparel. And sometimes the test prints dont come out right. So I go to check in AI and wind up having color issues there even worse. What I mean is the colors wind up looking way different sometimes. It urks me. anyway. Im about to post it so all can see.
I tried to answer #4 in your follow up post.