How would you set up your parameters for professional print work?

[jamie1422]

Re: How would you set up your parameters for professional print work?

We are a book publishing company and use Xara to draw illustrations. My comment, for what it's worth, is you have to use the program appropriate to what you are producing - horses for courses, as it were.

Reading through your posts, I think you are wasting your time trying to squeeze out of Xara something it is not very good at doing. I strongly recommend you look at Adobe Illustrator CS4 or their Creative Suite - you will have all the control you need over the output but appart from that it is an industry standard in the print industry. That means, a printer can make any small changes to your Adobe file or even change your production settings to optimise the printed result, saving you a lot of time, frustration and extra expense.

Suggest you download a 30-day trial of Adobe Illustrator, which is fully functional. If you can produce a 4-page spread on Xara, you can certainly master Illustrator.

Xara is good for some things but when it comes to producing files for high quality print work you can forget it. Just our experience and my opinion, I guess all the Xara enthusiasts will cry me down.

[minimiro]

http://talkgraphics.com/showpost.php...5&postcount=15



or just make your own search in TG forums for CMYK..... this is explained, again and again and again.....

[jamie1422]

http://talkgraphics.com/showpost.php...5&postcount=15



or just make your own search in TG forums for CMYK..... this is explained, again and again and again.....

Maybe it is but you can't escape the fact that printers have no experience of dealing with Xara and groan at alian file formats and even pdf output files when they all use Illustrator! Why try to swim against the tide? Xara clearly was never designed for the professional layout of books, brochures, magazines or other such artwork. It just does not have the facilities to compete with the industry standards. That is why they are industry standards and the industry has not adopted Xara. Xara is good as far as it goes but why beat around trying to do professional design work with it or website design when there are excellent, tested products out there that do the job better. Is it a Xara-cullt thing? Is there some buzz out of stretching a bit of graphics software to "go where no man has ever gone before?" Some people must have a lot of spare time to tinker around with things!!

[jamie1422]

Usually 300-600dpi.

Greatest respect to you for your expertise and knowledge of Xara but-


300-600dpi?? For high quality full-colour reproduction? Minimum 600dpi I think!

[steve.ledger]

Xara clearly was never designed for the professional layout of books, brochures, magazines or other such artwork. It just does not have the facilities to compete with the industry standards.

Correct - but who said Xtreme (Xara is the company name) is a DTP application?

Xara is good as far as it goes but why beat around trying to do professional design work with it or website design when there are excellent, tested products out there that do the job better.

True, but again, who said Xtreme is a professional web design application?

[steve.ledger]

For high quality full-colour reproduction? Minimum 600dpi I think!

The printer decides/sets the final print DPI output. You need to supply decent enough resolution (PPI).

[minimiro]

wrote.....

Did you read attached as link my previous post?

Who said that Xara can do print work, even excelent print work....

There just is explained how to continue using Xara, and for this, and how to finalize your work outside, and to recieve industrial standart results?

Its simple...

btw, Xara Xtreme PRO 3.2 boxes, covers of manuals, CDs and etc are created, worked and pre-pressed only with use of the same Xtreme 3.2
Also and Xtreme basic 4 the same things....

So, can you said that they didnt look really pro's?

Its just matter of good knowledge of colors, CMYK space and etc...
when I work for print, I have 2 version of file, one for design, how I imagine things have to be, and second where all colors are changed from onscreen preview to real CMYK values, abd believe me, there's no much similarity, but fact, final print is the same like file in which is my design

[Albacore]

Gosh I am with Mimimiro here there is a lot of snobbishness going on here with software. I produce work each weeks for printers in both AI CS3 and Xara and I don't mind using both for the job. Mainly my work would prefer me to work in AI as it makes it easier for filing but they are not that bothered. If you know your printer and can talk to them easily and well you will have no problems and if you are aware of the usual things like out of gamit colours you can bring in RGB photos into CMYK doc and then sort them out with Hue & Saturation with help of the colour editor with out going into PS if you want to use the filters in Live Effects.

Follow Minimiro rules and things should go well even as you said in your first post I think that you are a photographer but you still need to have some form of understanding about colour and the way it works in both AI and XPro.

[amoore]

Greatest respect to you for your expertise and knowledge of Xara but-
300-600dpi?? For high quality full-colour reproduction? Minimum 600dpi I think!

Gary's expertise isn't just in Xara. He spent many years as a print and TV art director, and his book, "Looking Good in Color", is sitting on my bookshelf in easy reach from my desk.

I agree that it's best to use the right tool for the job. However, being the so-called "industry standard" doesn't make any app the right tool. Users can make just as big a mess with InDesign as they can creating a flyer in PowerPoint.

[Metro Golden]

An interesting broth this discussion! I understand I'm dealing with many professionals and I also understand more-so the different "levels" of a professional work and attitudes towards output. I just want to get something in the average publics hands that looks good and makes them think I know what I'm doing. I have several Xara products and bought into 4 because of the amazing graphics it could achieve in the hands of the adept, and when I saw web capability, well that's when I jumped. That was my excuse. For my needs, I do believe Xara capable of fulfilling most if not all of what I require as well as enticing me with what I could achieve if given the time. It has also led me to this "motley" collection of supporters, each with their own distance walked down the path. Like you, I am here to learn, appreciate and support as best I'm able. Thank you all for your perspective.