XARA Designer Pro X365: Has PDF export changed in the last update?

Guest · 14 September 2017, 08:31 AM

Greetings! Since the last update to Xara Designer Pro X 12.8.1.50861 I seem to have issues with the PDF export...

Just to clarify my workflow: I mainly use Designer Pro to create graphics for import in InDesign documents. So, I export as PDF/X from Xara and then place those files into the InDesign layout. This has worked like a charm for many years now.

However, since the last update there is an issue:
Anything I export from Xara as PDF/X now has a white, page filling rectangle in the background that isn't in my design and never occurred before. In other words: My exported graphics don't have a transparent background any more and are therefore borderline unusable.

It seems Xara now exports the white "page" as a graphical element of the PDF. Why is that? And is there a new option I missed to turn this off?!

EDIT:
I just attached two files to this post, the old, correct export and a new export with the current Designer Pro of the very same .XAR file. Remarkably you don't see any difference when opening them in Designer Pro - it seems to automatically remove that white background on import. But when viewing both files in Illustrator or InDesign, you will see that the old one comes with a transparent background, while the new one has an additional white rectangular path in it.

EDIT2:
Seems I'm not the only one having issues with PDF export recently: https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...export-problem. As a workaroud I print to PDF from Designer Pro with Adobe Acrobat X Professional's PDF printer and the file is fine. Which seems to indicate that the issue is indeed a newly introduced bug in Designer Pro's PDF exporter...

**mwenz** · 14 September 2017, 11:25 AM

You're not missing anything. Seems like I reported this a while back (and there are other oddities as well, or were).

There is no means I am aware of to eliminate the issue from within XDP.

Mike

Guest · 14 September 2017, 11:44 AM

Ah , OK... Thanks.
Let's hope XARA gets its stuff together again soon: PDF export is absolutely crucial to me.

**gwpriester** · 14 September 2017, 12:51 PM

Love your design in the PDFs.

Just out of curiosity what PDF format did you export? Xara recently added support for PDF/X4. Does this white page happen with all PDF/X filters?

Guest · 14 September 2017, 01:03 PM

I usually export to PDF/X-3:2002. Just tried with PDF/X-4 and the result is the same, unfortunately.

Yeah, that PDF is part of the key visual for the project I currently work for.
It's supposed to be placed onto teal background color in InDesign - hence my frustration because it suddenly comes out of XARA with a white background...

**mwenz** · 14 September 2017, 02:08 PM

I pretty much spammed the official and private forum sections...and PM'd someone at Xara about this issue. This doesn't happen with the previous version(s).

Hopefully it'll be rectified.

Guest · 14 September 2017, 02:22 PM

Thanks for passing this on!
I just now realized that the "Dear XARA" forum section is for feature requests and bug reports...

I need to spend more time in this forum!

**mwenz** · 27 September 2017, 05:41 PM

As far as the original issue, that is fixed and will show up in a future update.

Photo clipping, what issues? If the same as in this thread, please confirm. If a different issue, please begin a new thread, describe the issue and perhaps include a sample XAR and its PDF demonstrating the issue.

Mike