PDF Exporting

[yourgotoguy]

Hey Guys, I'm currently using xara designer pro 6, thinking of upgrading to the latest version for my newer business. One of the issues I have, and I could of have sworn it wasn't as much of a problem as before is PDF Exporting.

There are some strange things that happen from time to time, such as major color change, content shifting out of position, fonts not being replicated properly.

Perhaps I am going about PDF export the wrong way, is there a trick to getting better results? Or would I see a lot of these problems resolved by upgraded to version 9?

Thank you so much for your feedback!

[Gamerprinter]

Not that I can help you much, but I have XDP9 now, but just upgraded from XXP4, and in both versions I export PDF a lot, and never had those problems. Sometimes complex transparency effects cannot be displayed properly in PDF, because PDF can only read certain kinds of transparency, linear is about it. Sometimes I will convert a Xara graphic into a JPG image file, before I export to PDF to avoid that kind of problem. I know that I often use exotic fonts, and have never had a problem with any fonts I've used in a given Xara design. So I don't really know what you're doing different from my Xara work, as I've never really had any PDF problems exporting from Xara. I have many published game supplements created in Xara and sold as PDF files - nobody has come back to me regarding display issues from those documents.

[yourgotoguy]

Not that I can help you much, but I have XDP9 now, but just upgraded from XXP4, and in both versions I export PDF a lot, and never had those problems. Sometimes complex transparency effects cannot be displayed properly in PDF, because PDF can only read certain kinds of transparency, linear is about it. Sometimes I will convert a Xara graphic into a JPG image file, before I export to PDF to avoid that kind of problem. I know that I often use exotic fonts, and have never had a problem with any fonts I've used in a given Xara design. So I don't really know what you're doing different from my Xara work, as I've never really had any PDF problems exporting from Xara. I have many published game supplements created in Xara and sold as PDF files - nobody has come back to me regarding display issues from those documents.

Thanks for the reply, To be truthful this sometimes happens on a simple form that I make. Let me see if I can find an example. I don't ever really use any life effect plugins or anything like that.

[Gamerprinter]

I don't ever really use any life effect plugins or anything like that.

I don't either. I've only ever used one or two plug-in effects that I can live without. Since I have a 64 bit machine, and XDP9 64 bit, the plug-ins don't work in 64 bit, so I don't use them anymore and don't miss them. Yeah, post an example of one of your PDF forms so we can see the possible issue, and perhaps print it out to see what the print results look like. You could also post the Xara file, so we could get an idea on what might be going wrong...

[yourgotoguy]

here is a sample.

[mwenz]

It's a lot easier with a sample file that mucks up.

Mike

[gwpriester]

The only way to judge a PDF file when you are dealing with print, is to print out a sample.

PDF has one of the crappiest displays I have come across. At 1:1 things look vastly different than they do at 200% or 300%.

Print your card design out on a desktop printer and you will get a better idea how your type will look and how your colors are going to work.

Color may look slightly different to very different because the PDF export is to CMYK color which has a much more limited gamut that RGB color which is Xara's native color space.

Bottom line is does it look convincing? Would somebody who has never seen your file think everything looks OK or would they have things to complain about?

[yourgotoguy]

Thanks for the comments, lately I've been using JPG or PNG to show my work, however they can't see that it is a VECTOR graphic with these formats. I agree with Gary that the PDF generally look better at 200-300% and up. Is there another way then PDF that anyone can open and see that it is a vector graphic?

[yourgotoguy]

Gary those are good points, looking at it under the customers pov. I guess I don't like sending out things that I see flaws in lol. I will try printing it and see. I just see some really nice PDF documents out there. I also just curious if there was a real advantage to upgrading in terms of PDF export. I do see a series of tools that would be very helpful such as the eraser tool. I have a feeling that I will end up upgrading. Any word on version 10's release date? Should I wait?

[mwenz]

For letters that appear thicker than they ought to be, a couple things.

One, never convert text to curves unless the font does not allow embedding.
Two, in Adobe Reader and/or Acrobat, try turning off "Enhance thin lines" in Reader/Acrobat Preferences (CTRL+K), the Page Display section.

As for how to tell bitmap from vector in a PDF. Easy. Click on something.

Part of a page:



Vector will not "select" when clicking on them:



Bitmaps (aside from looking like bitmaps) will select the bounding box when clicked on:




I don't have things move, color is as it ought to be unless I am using RGB and it is out of gamut, whether I am using version 6 or 9. PDF export has had no significant changes.