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  1. #1

    Default How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    Hi again, gang. Thanks for your help the other day - much appreciated!

    So the reason I needed that help is because I use Xara Designer Pro 10 to create files for printing - and Xara, like Photoshop, uses RGB colors. Never had an issue with it when creating images and turning them into PNGs for prints, t-shirts etc. My online printing company never complained, and certainly my customers never complained. But then the other day a new brick-and-mortar printer whom we were using for a project asked that my design be re-submitted in CMYK colors, because of color shifts between that color system and RGB. So I had to do a bit of scrambling to fulfill that request.

    Now I've always been aware of the differences between CMYK and RGB colors - RGB is for web and computer programs, but CMYK is used by some printers to, well, print. Needless to say, when I processed my RGB-colored art into CMYK colors using Xara, there was a color shift all right, ugh. Mostly the colors were faded-looking. My customer wasn't too happy with them. A fellow artist converted the RGB file using the Adobe Illustrator program, and the results were MUCH better, thank goodness. But I don't have AI, nor do I want it (too expensive)!

    So, my question is: how do you created a color image in Xara using CMYK colors? I can't find any reference to that in my Xara instruction book. I can't believe that the only way is to render the colors in RGB, then push the "Printer Colors" button, see how bad the colors will look when printed, and then keep tweaking them in RGB until they look decent in CMYK or your head explodes. Does anyone here have any suggestions? Thanks so much!

  2. #2
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    Doesn't bringing up the Colour Editor and choosing CMYK do what you need? Graphics not my main thing so excuse my ignorance if I'm off target.

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  3. #3
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    You are better off converting your art to PDF/X which will convert the color to CMYK. Or you can ask the printer to convert your RGB to CMYK using their profiles. The printer should know best how to adapt your RGB art to his press. And if not then maybe you need to stick with the printer you have had success with.

    As I mentioned in a previous thread, if you work in Show Printer Colors > Simulate Print Color (Window menu) you will get a better idea how your RGB color will look in CMYK.

    When I worked in the design and advertising business back in the 70s-90s, before computers, good printers really knew their presses and were experts. Today that is very different. So, again, if you have worked with a printer and are happy with the results, then I would stick with that printer.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    I thought my answer was a little too simple

  5. #5
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    I thought my answer was a little too simple
    The Color Editor is useful if you are working with a CMYK swatchbook and need to match a specific color. And there are members who actually work in the CMYK environment.

    These were written many years ago (2005-6), but parts are still relevant. http://archive.xaraxone.com/webxealo...k49/page_1.htm http://archive.xaraxone.com/webxealo...k35/page_5.htm

    And I wrote this book in 1995 https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Good-.../dp/1566042194

  6. #6
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    but, and Gary will correct me if I am wrong, the xara 'simulate printer colours' is only an approximation [and I think the manual makes this point] - easily demonstrated by comparing with a program that has an actuial cmyk color space, such as Photoshop

    @TC - your online printer would have done the CMYK conversion, as Gary mentioned, and likely your bricks and mortar printer will too if you ask them, but they will need to be assured you realise there will be colour shift and you can accept the results without complaint in that regard

    i
    -------------------------------
    Nothing lasts forever...

  7. #7
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    Haven't we? Xara can't do color management!
    The only reliable output on Xara is the PDF X-1 output in CMYK with a color profile e. g. ECI_300. icc.

    There is no way around Adobe Acrobat Pro to control the colors.

    But there you can see the colors only approximately as they might look like when printed. This is because the PC uses the additive light mixture to display colors.
    However, the printing is done with pigments and thus the subtractive colour mixing is used.

    This difference is only simulated on the PC, so it is important to calibrate your monitor to see what nearly comes out later in printing.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    Quote Originally Posted by ernie-f View Post
    Xara can't do color management!
    true

    The only reliable output on Xara is the PDF X-1 output in CMYK with a color profile e. g. ECI_300. icc.

    There is no way around Adobe Acrobat Pro to control the colors.
    at the professional level

    it is important to calibrate your monitor to see what nearly comes out later in printing.
    which means you need a monitor capable of being accurately calibrated
    -------------------------------
    Nothing lasts forever...

  9. #9

    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    But I like simple!

    Huh...the Color Editor function in Xara, you say?...I'm still learning, alas. Mind you, I've used the Editor a lot to adjust colors, but in RGB. Anyway, after reading your suggestion, Chris, I checked my Xara user manual again...and sure enough, there is a section within the Color Handling chapter about the Color Editor (a term not listed in the Index, thanks Xara), and CMYK/RBG color etc. Jeez. I don't know how much help it would have been, but anyway, the next time some "humorless printer" (a term I read on the internet while searching for a solution the other day) asks for a file rendered in CMYK, at least I know to try the Color Editor. I agree that the printer should have been able to convert the colors himself and make them look decent (he was going to print a sample for us) but his alarmism alarmed my customer and, by extension, me, and thus began the kerfuffle. Anyway, we'll see what happens. I should have been a doctor. Thanks again, guys!

  10. #10

    Default Re: How to color art using CMYK colors in Xara

    Quote Originally Posted by handrawn View Post
    true



    at the professional level



    which means you need a monitor capable of being accurately calibrated
    Do you believe in miracles? LOL - but seriously, when I worked in printing, it was a given that our monitors NEVER gave an accurate picture of the colors that would be produced in any printer we had, no matter what age, make or how often we calibrated anything (we usually calibrated the printers daily). And it all just seems so stupid. Why isn't color printing, digital at least, standardized by now? What a pain in the tuchus!

 

 

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