Xara to AI color differences when exporting Xar file to AI

[properez5]

Hello. My brain fried a bit too but only on the part where he spoke about the swatches. AI sometimes confuses me. Everything else is understood.


Notes:
1. CMYK Editor: When designing for print, I start off and continue my color mode on CMYK. I go to options for that. I open the color editor and edit in CMYK only. I never switch it.
2. Monitor: I bought a monitor with true color, for this reason, a year ago due to the fact that new monitors are made differently because they want to sell these new calibration devices to make a profit. So im ruling out the monitor.
3. Simulation: I don't export the XAr file to AI with simulated colors checked. Maybe I should.
4. Swatches: I will try again and report my findings.


So here's my printing process with my manufacturer.

1. I design in Xara in CMYK.
2. My Pakistan located manufacturer requires me to send him jpegs, not pdfs. So I export all garment panels in jpeg from my CMYK Xar file one by one. tedious. but works.
3. Heres where the problem lays... He takes my jpegs and places them in Corel Draw instead of the Roland printers software only to export them as jpegs again which sometimes gives a crazy overall hue to the file, especially with blue, green or camo colors.
he states that he has to do this because jpegs I send him from Xara look black and white in the Roland software. Don't ask me why. He doesnt even know why. Dude has an $11,000 Roland printer. I forget the model number.

corel Draw is the problem. So I told him to use Xara. He said we will get the same black and white problem. He tried using my jpegs directly. I dont know why this happens. who knows?

So I told him to us Adobe Illustrator. He was reluctant at first because him and his crew dont use Adobe Illustrator and dont know how. In Pakistan Graphic designers are taught Corel Draw and given the software free.

4. The manufacturer prints from the exported Corel Draw jpeg files in the Roland printer software. The panels get printed ( dye sublimation ) and they go to the cut and sew process. Viola..product. Im not saying what due to advertising and thread policies.



So I will experiment again with XAr to AI and see what happens.
And My manufacturer has agreed to use AI rather than Corel Draw.
You guys are awesome. Thanks for helping.

[properez5]

Hey guys did an experiment. Instead of choosing AI, eps when exporting to eps file, I chose Xara EPS. This seems to fix broken elements and colors. Colors are still a bit off but still not as bad as the other option.

[mwenz]

OK. Thanks for clearing up the process. I think it helps.

Xara Simulation. It doesn't change any of the colors at all. It's only for on-screen.

Many/most screen printers no matter the process use CD. There are a couple ways forward that I would try. One is to export a PDF/X-4 CMYK PDF using the same color profile that the printer uses in CD. That PDF he can simply open in CD and print. And vector remain vector for their resizing. This is the process I use, both when sending for screen printing and doing it myself.

Another method is exporting a CMYK TIFF. That holds precisely the same color values used in your Xara application. That CMYK TIFF can also simply be imported into CD and should be maintaining the CMYK color values. It does here.

Using AI is not necessary for either of these process.

[properez5]

Holy Cow. Ok Im going to try that. Also. But what is CD? is that a specific mode? what do you mean by CD? Are you abbreviating Corel Draw?

[mwenz]

Sorry. Yes I am abbreviating CorelDraw.

[See]

Why does this problem arise when exporting AI? I found a simple way out. I am reassigning the colors. I change every color in the palette quite a bit and export again. Everything is getting better.

[gwpriester]

Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Xara all define colors slightly differently. Often the exact same color will be wildly different and yet the results are almost the same.

And in the case of Pantone Solid colors (vs) CMYK, it is very subjective. About half of Pantone solid colors can be matched in CMYK exactly, about 1/4 are close, and the other 1/4 are not even in the ballpark.