Printing ... 500k file = 10MB?

[wfcentral]

Ok, I got such a good answer to my last question, let's try this one.

Since Xara v1.0 I have tolerated this problem without questioning it. I have no problem with my webdesign use of Xara (90% of what I use it for). But when it comes time to print something a 500k file turns into a 10MB monster in the printer spool. Of course the file has text, shapes and layers of transparencies. I'm assuming that the process of converting from xara's pure vector format to the printer's format increases the size?? Is there some way to get around this and still have the razor sharp resolution on printout (no, I don't want to export as .bmp and print that).

Thanks in Advance,
Robert

[wfcentral]

Ok, I got such a good answer to my last question, let's try this one.

Since Xara v1.0 I have tolerated this problem without questioning it. I have no problem with my webdesign use of Xara (90% of what I use it for). But when it comes time to print something a 500k file turns into a 10MB monster in the printer spool. Of course the file has text, shapes and layers of transparencies. I'm assuming that the process of converting from xara's pure vector format to the printer's format increases the size?? Is there some way to get around this and still have the razor sharp resolution on printout (no, I don't want to export as .bmp and print that).

Thanks in Advance,
Robert

[jens g.r. benthien]

Robert,

are you talking about a 6 feet - 2 meter size poster?

ciao,
jens

[Sean Sedwards]

Robert

Large spool file sizes are unavoidable if you use bitmaps or anything that's converted to bitmaps, such as transparency etc. The spool file size is then very roughly equal to the area of the page (in sq. inches) covered by bitmaps x (Print Options > Output > Transparency resolution)² x 3 (or 6 if you're using PostScript). The XAR file size is pretty much unrelated to the spool file because a) it's compressed and b) it could contain a single transparent shape used to fill the entire page (so small XAR file, large spool file) or a giant bitmap resized to 1 x 1 pixel (large XAR file, small spool file).

Regards - Sean