Xara is strong but has huge weakness

[steve.ledger]

I don't either.
I don't have that sort of spare cash

[Soquili]

I haven't updated Adobe products since CS was released. Acrobat I stopped at version 5 and no longer use that.

[angelize]

I can't afford those programs either. The only Adobe products I have are Photoshop Elements 2 and Acrobat Reader. I only use elements if it is something I really can't manage in XXP5, which isn't very often.

[amoore]

I've never had Adobe CS or Photoshop or Illustrator. I don't even have Reader on my machines.

As for Acrobat, I stopped at v7. Would have stopped at v6 (after skipping v5), but I made the mistake of thinking the additional forms capability might be useful. (It wasn't.) Plus, I had just written an article comparing Acrobat to Jaws, and had to revise it for v7 for the publisher. v7 is now relegated to a machine our programmers use for two chores they have to perform occasionally. I don't expect to update it.

[Xcellent]

I would have thought there's more Acrobat users in here, obviously i'm totally wrong
I couldn't do my daily business without the one or other tool to get the work done but always with Xara included.

[alexbozhenov]

I'd prefer to print from Xtreme to PS-printer as prn or ps file and then use Distiller to make PDF... Yes, it's an extra step, but more predictable results. Did not check it with spot colors though.

And I agree, PDF export has many glitches for now, not even with 150-pages docs...

[jeb]

Export from Xara lets say 2 pages at a time as a PDF/X..

OK - what is PDF/X and now is it different? I do not find it in either XX4 or XX5, just .pdf in export.

Is it in the pro version and would that help solve my B&W printing problems? - jb

[steve.ledger]

PDF/x is only available in the Pro versions yes.

Here's an overview

Basically it's a pre-press format designed for preservation of best practices for the print industry.

More

[Noel Williams]

I have the latest Pro version, and I would very much like to export posters in PDF/X format. However I find that even single pages often cannot be exported in this format. They fail with an 'out of memory' message (I have 2Gb of RAM). Is this a known problem and is there any likelihood of an eventual solution?

[steve.ledger]

It is only necessary to export as PDF/X if you are sending your work to a printer (and even then it's not always necessary).

Here's an excerpt from the link in my previous post which might help with understanding the purpose and requirements of PDF/X:

PDF/X restricts the content in a PDF document, prohibiting elements that do not directly serve the purpose of high-quality print production output, such as annotations, Java Actions, and embedded multimedia. PDF/X also eliminates the most common errors in file preparation. Profiles 1a and 3 are intended to support "blind" exchange of graphics files with all elements within a single file. Profile 2 is less constrained but assumes that the two parties share information through other means.
Constraints for blind exchange include:
All fonts and images must be embedded
Boxes that specify the print and trim areas must be explicitly defined
Trapping status must be explicit. [Trapping controls overlap of elements in different layers and applied through separate printing processes; a small degree of overlap is desirable to allow for imprecise registration in the printing process. Trapping can be applied before or after exchange; but should not be applied more than once.]
Colorspaces must be specified in a device-independent manner
Encryption is disallowed in all PDF/X files compliant with 2003 versions of the standard.

At the end of the day, it's always best to ask your printer.
(yes I know, some are clueless, so find a good one