Using Xara Photo & Graphic Designer for Book Illustrations

[mreid777]

Hello,

I am writing my first children's book. I did some research and bumped into Xara. I have 2 questions:

1.) Can I legally use this product to create the pictures for my book? My intention is to publish the book and sell for profit.

2.) Is this a good tool for creating pictures in my book.

[hseiken]

Hello,

I am writing my first children's book. I did some research and bumped into Xara. I have 2 questions:

1.) Can I legally use this product to create the pictures for my book? My intention is to publish the book and sell for profit.

2.) Is this a good tool for creating pictures in my book.

1.) Yes. It's intended for private and commercial purposes.
2.) It depends on what you consider good and what you're looking for. It's fully functional for 30 days with no restrictions. That's pretty good time to run through the video tutorials and see if it's capable of suiting your needs.

Good luck.

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics mreid777

Are you asking can you use the clip art or do you want to create the images yourself? Either way you are OK.

There are also stock children's book illustrations that you can license for use in your book if you are not artistically inclined. They are reasonably priced and quite varied. The only drawback, same as Xara's clip art, is they are not exclusive.

[mreid777]

Hello,

I am writing my first children's book. I did some research and bumped into Xara. I have 2 questions:

1.) Can I legally use this product to create the pictures for my book? My intention is to publish the book and sell for profit.

2.) Is this a good tool for creating pictures in my book.

Thanks for responding. I'm a horrible artist but am a Software Developer so I'm hoping I can master this tool to create the picture I will need for my new book. It looks like this is the top rated Graphic Design Tool so I thought I'd give this one a try.

[Gamerprinter]

I use Xara to create artistic maps for game publishers. I am currently in the middle of a project writing 4 tutorials guides and not only are the illustrations being created in Xara, but the page layout for all the books are done in Xara as well, then released as a Printable PDF and able to be sent to a professional printing house to be sold on Amazon and other online sales platforms. Any art, created in any graphics application can be used as "legal" illustrations - I cannot imagine why someone would think you cannot do so legally???

[gwpriester]

Or maybe you can find an artist to work with?

Self publishing is also an option for children's. www.CreateSpace.com and https://www1.ingramspark.com/ both can print full color children's books on demand and the cost per book is very reasonable.

[Gamerprinter]

Or maybe you can find an artist to work with?

I agree with this. However, consider this, for most of my work on my tutorials series I am writing - I am the author, the tutorial writer, the illustrator of the tutorials, the page layout guy, and the publisher, so to the best of my ability, I try to "wear all the hats" in order to keep my costs low. That said, when I need an illustration that is outside my capability, I have no problems with hiring an illustrator to do the work. There are previous, published works of mine, that consist on my development, as well as map illustrations and page layout, however the art was done by several artists over a dozen publications. I have absolutely no problem with hiring out artists to meet my needs, and something you (as a programmer, not an illustrator) should seriously consider.

[mwenz]

...Self publishing is also an option for children's. www.CreateSpace.com and https://www1.ingramspark.com/ both can print full color children's books on demand and the cost per book is very reasonable.

If I recall, Ingram wants a profiled CMYK PDF. Can P&GD output CMYK? I forget what is possible in the various versions--and will forget once I read the answer...

CreateSpace accepts both RGB and CMYK PDFs. In fact, with CS (and that would hold true with Ingram), you'll get more vivid color with RGB on their digital presses.

I think both require a TAC of 240% or less. Neither want / will accept inside bleed...in fact, IIRC, they both want 0.125" of non-ink in the gutter of what is the inside page for perfect bound books. This last requirement is a stupid thing as they could automate the appropriate shift and/or removal of the gutter in their automated imposition software. But hey, they don't ask me my opinion!