Xara 365-vector brush confusion.

**iamtheblues** · 17 July 2016, 09:35 AM

As I understood it, in this thread Xara's line brushes are now vector.
Using XP&GD12, I produced this simple crude drawing that looks great when zoomed in in Xara.
However, upon exporting as .svg and also .ai the results are disappointing in Inkscape and Illustrator.
The resulting .svg looks awful in Inkscape as expected.
As you can see from the screen grab -eyes in illustrator- it does indeed import vector files with editable paths, but the eye portion has changed markedly.
I suppose the reason for this could be that I used a circle using the Ellipse Tool and didn't convert to editable shapes before exporting.
The eyebrow looks perfect when zoomed in using Illustrator, so I imagine this is the probable explanation.
Can anyone confirm that Ellipses and other shapes should be converted prior to export?
Bob

**handrawn** · 18 July 2016, 08:42 AM

firstly bob let me thank you for drawing my attention to frances' thread which I missed - if you are reading this frances, thank you, great brushes [I cannot reply in the thread as it appears to be restricted to moderator replies; [it says I do not have permission...]

ok - are you using the brush strokes as outlines on a closed shape here bob - I find it works best if you do not do that, but keep lines as lines - that said, converting said lines to shape and then ungrouping before export may be a good idea; and converting quickshapes also

**Albacore** · 18 July 2016, 11:21 AM

You just get weird results when using non standard line profiles when exporting line from Xara. Even working in Xara when you change the line to a shape you get many unexpected results. Don't know what line you used with your eyes so can't make any comparisons with .ai or .svg files on export.

Frances's lines export well into Illy but the lines need to be grouped and are hard to edit but it is all vector and you could make a Blob brushes out of the single shapes in AI. No Inkscape on my h/drive so can't tell what they look like there.

If you are using vers. 11 brushes they are fine printing directly from Xara but taken them else where you will have some problems. I think Xara missed a big trick in last version or was it the version before that when they improved the brush engine for a vector drawing programme to give a vector line bitmap properties I can't understand. Also the DPI of that line or shape is 192 why? why not at least 300 dpi.

**iamtheblues** · 18 July 2016, 12:24 PM

@ Steve-Converting line to shape and exporting to Illustrator opens the line as a raster image.
Very disappointing.

@ Peter-Using P&G Designer V.12 these days for various reasons that I won't go into here. Unamed Brush 3(A). As you said, weird results.
Bob.

**handrawn** · 18 July 2016, 05:10 PM

even if the brush is pure vector?

**handrawn** · 18 July 2016, 05:12 PM

Also the DPI of that line or shape is 192 why?

there is a registry fix that might alter this, but I have not yet tested it...

**iamtheblues** · 18 July 2016, 05:57 PM

As far as I can tell, the brush is pure vector, although I do have some doubts.
The screen seems to take a little while to redraw when zooming in during which time it does look to be raster, despite what we have been told about that patch in V.11, which I assume has been carried over into V.12.
Bob.

**angelize** · 18 July 2016, 06:06 PM

The brushes in the set linked to in the opening post should convert to a purely vector shape when you convert "line to shape" it is important to choose convert line to shape not covert to editable shapes. Edit: perhaps the convert to vector is a DP only feature? Bob when you convert line to shape do you get a vector shape in P&GD?

I've tried the registry hack and it does work well, however when drawing with a complex brush the higher you set the dpi the quicker the program needs to show only an outline, to keep up with quick strokes. But at 300 a raster brush will print out quite nicely. Increasing the size of the brush definition object can also help.

**handrawn** · 18 July 2016, 08:37 PM

the screen redrawing I think is normal bob depending on the speed of your graphics

thanks again frances for the registry info...

**digitalphaser** · 18 July 2016, 09:01 PM

Creation of art brushes in Xara:

If you created a brush from a vector shape, when converting lines to shape, you will receive a vector shape.
If you created a brush from a group of objects(many vector shapes), you will get bitmap. True if the line is curved enough. A straight line is likely to be a vector.

Strangeness...