Posts Tagged ‘xara’

This lesson in photo edits and creating custom graphics using Xara Xtreme includes a bonus item. First let me explain how the first photo below was created from two photographs. The zoom function and tracing allows graphic artists to create some pretty cool effects.

The wooden seagull in our front yard was purchased by my wife because it was on sale for $1.00, and once it was planted I took the photo shown minus the real seagull. Using the photograph closeup (below) that I took on the Maine coast several years ago, I clipped and resized just the gull.

Tutorial: I outlined the seagull with the pen tool by zooming in 5x and using a contrasting line before converting it to the dotted red line shown. Once outlined I clipped the gull from the original photo and resized it to fit the fake graphic version. The background has transparency added to better illustrate the cropped portion.

What’s the bonus? My wife wanted the top photo saying it would be a cool wallpaper for the computer desktop, so I created a high resolution version. The free wallpaper includes more of the foreground for better proportions to stretch on your desktop. You may download the free seagull wallpaper here (right click and save target) to add this to your collection. The wallpaper is in a zipped folder, 677Kb.

Experiment in Xara Xtreme with a free 30 day trial and try clipping portions of photos as shown in this lesson. The technique works great for business cards, and most other printed marketing material.

Small business owners interested in do-it-yourself graphic design would do well to consider a free trial download of Xara Xtreme v3.2. My choice for vector graphics software has evolved from Xara X to Xara X1 to Xara Xtreme, and the recent release of Xara Xtreme v3.2 is loaded with fantastic enhancements with many new features added based on user feedback.

The first time I downloaded a 30 day trial of Xara software, I made my purchase within 48 hours!

Unlike some larger or otherwise arrogant software companies, the team at Xara Group Ltd encourages and acts on feedback from designers. The latest upgrade to Xara Xtreme proves their commitment to enhancing the end user’s experience. Much of my day is spent designing custom graphic artwork and then hand coding websites in XTHML code in a word processor. You do NOT need more expensive software to create professional results.

Xara Xtreme, starting at $79USD, is what I use for all the professional design examples displayed throughout my main site. The limousine business card design and photo tutorial was done entirely in Xara Xtreme and shows the steps used to create a stunning effect.

The ability to integrate my photo editor to launch, edit, and save changes to photos from within my Xara drawings is one of the great new options, and a real time saver. If you’re like me and detest flash animations on websites because of the large file size, you should be impressed with the new flash option added by Xara.

I created a 720px by 140px banner with a beach background and a huge jet flying into the frame from the left, across the banner, and then disappearing to the right. I was completely shocked that the animation was just over 200kb when I expected the file to be 10x that size.

Pros: price, performance, ease of use, professional results, and excellent tutorials
Cons: none (the great help files and demo movies shorten the learning curve for new users)

View the full list of features for Xara Xtreme v3.2 here to help you decide. Unlike some download trial software, and because of many years using Xara products, I purchased the upgrade first before downloading and installing it. After just 2 days using the new features, I have no regrets.

Download this free Xara Xtreme template for creating a custom door tag, also called door hangers, for advertising your business on residential or commercial doorknobs. Get yours hassle-free without any requirement to register. You do not have to signup, give out your email, or name a pet after me.

Direct marketing advertisements using door tags are a cost effective way to promote your business. This Xara file type xar template includes dimensions, guidelines for outside, bleed, and borders for creating a 3 inch (7.62cm) by 8 inch (20.32cm) door hanger with knob die cut. Here’s a brief tutorial for using this free template.

The template is color coded showing the bleed area in yellow, the safe area in green, and the top space in red where the tag die cut doorknob hole and slit will go. The safe area defines the space limit for text. Any text outside the green safe area may be blurry or even rejected by the printer for redesign. Photos and background graphics may extend to the edge including the top red section. A preloaded CMYK palette is included in the template, also.

My advice is extending your background (if you use one) to the very top, and perhaps a photo, but nothing important. Obviously the die cut will remove a large round section; yet extending the background will make your door tag more attractive to the reader.

Download the free door tag template here (5Kb zip file, and in IE simply right click and “save target as”) to get yours now. Door hangers are popular for advertising real estate, mortgages, pizza delivery, cleaning services, handyman services, landscaping, and more. View a few custom door tag examples here.

In addition, you may want to read the advice in My 5 Second Rule for Small Business Owners to learn about design strategy for graphic art for websites and printed marketing materials.

On occasion some of my custom website designs include animated gifs, and Xara Xtreme is my software of choice. In general, I am opposed to website animations unless they serve a significant purpose.

Wild or flashy animated gif graphics may violate issues of website accessibility, which may sound strange at first. Actually fast moving graphics may cause seizures in persons with epilepsy, so the decision involves much more than good taste.

I recently created two examples that met my guidelines because first, they were cute, and secondly, each served a practical purpose. Rather than feature each here out of context, you may view my examples created in Xara Xtreme on the actual websites to get the full effect.

The buzzing blowfly in the upper left of the top banner at Australian social bookmarking site Flyblown.com.au was requested by Ric Raftis, the website owner, who is a good friend and fellow custom web developer. The meaning escaped my grasp until he explained that “flyblown” is an Australian term and common euphemism Down Under.

Next, for Roll Screen Solutions in Orlando, Florida, the animation is a product demo of one of their garage door screens in operation. A still photo simply couldn’t convey the ease of operation for the retractable door screen, so the animation demonstrated the product with a twist. The animal actor in the demo is the real star.

Using Xara Xtreme the first animated gif was done with 2 frames. The roll screen demo required 36 frames which means 36 separate drawings. Each was done in kind at no charge as statements of gratitude, personal and business.

This lesson for small business owners is an excerpt from a full tutorial on my main website which is linked below. I use Xara Xtreme when designing full color advertising for the web or printed material including flyers or trifold brochures. Xara software is especially useful for photo edits.

I wrote the tutorial to illustrate before and after photographs of a Jeep that was to be featured as the special of the month for a used car dealer. The second graphic shown below shows how I created this very favorable first impression.

Here are the before and after photographs showing results with Xara Xtreme for edits.

The graphic below shows the technique used to create the effect for making a favorable first impression. The used car dealer agreed the Jeep appeared much nicer on the bluff overlooking a sandy beach compared to the photo I took in their parking lot.

This blog post is an excerpt from my Photo Edit Tutorial Using Xara Xtreme which provides more details about how the photo edit was done for this used car dealer. Large companies have art departments and may not need this lesson, so although I write for small business owners, individuals may benefit from this tutorial, also.

This illustrated tutorial for a print ad layout used creative ways to redesign an advertisement from existing flat artwork. All design work was done using Xara Xtreme which is my choice for vector art and photo edits for professional printed marketing materials.

For this lesson the client, an audiologist, had a small gift certificate ad in dollar bill proportions for featuring one hearing aid product. The original blank form was long gone, and a larger version with new content was required. Here are illustrations and an explanation of how the new print ad was created to feature multiple hearing aids.

First Steps to Create a Resized Blank
The circled numbers in the next drawing relate to the steps taken to change the title from “Gift Certificate” to “Coupon Specials” and cover the existing ad content as follows:

1. The original dollar size gift certificate showing all borders
2. The small square was cut from a copy of the original flat artwork
3. The small square is stretched horizontally to make a rectangle
4. “Coupon Specials” text added to the rectangle to cover the old title
5. A blank background partially covers the old ad before stretching it 100%

Enlarging the Blank and Doing Photo Edits
Once the blank dollar size print ad was created, a segment was clipped to include the left and right border and blank area in between and stretched vertically. Photos included the hearing aid and patient, plus 2 photographs of older hearing aid options. Finally, a segment of the blank coupon was clipped for just the bottom border. The preparation of the blank and photos are illustrated as follows:

6. The blank coupon with left and right decorative borders stretched vertically
7. The hearing aid photo was traced and the background cropped as shown
8. The older hearing aid photos were cropped to identical size and shape
9. The patient photo was traced and the background cropped as shown
10. Finally, the bottom of the blank coupon was clipped

*Note: Cropping backgrounds was necessary for a cleaner design so that the hearing aid and photo of the woman would display well over the blank background.

Final Text Layout Done
The last illustration shows the text layout for all 3 hearing aid products to be featured in the printed advertisement. Note from the final version shown below that the photos were resized from the previous set of steps to fit perfectly into the final composition. To separate each product a dotted line rectangle was placed around each of the hearing aids.

Compare each step to the finished print ad shown below. Most designers prefer to create from scratch. If all you have is flat artwork, there are techniques as shown here to overcome some of the difficulties.

Illustration of Finished Printed Advertisement

Did this help you? Comments or questions are welcome.

Designers who use Xara Xtreme are welcome to download this free trifold brochure template. The set of files includes the inside and outside as two separate documents for 8-1/2 x 11 trifold brochures. The inside right panel and outside left panel are each slightly smaller so the fold tucks in nicely without creasing.

Right-click and Save Target As… to download the free trifold brochure template here (zip files). The 6 panels are identified for the inside and outside artwork. Visit my main site for a trifold brochure tutorial including sample artwork to illustrate each panel for an actual brochure.

Tip: Dimensions for the overall size and 6 panels are 3 places past the decimal point for greater accuracy. To adjust the setting from 2 to 3 places in your Xara Xtreme programs, reset your computer’s regional settings in your control panel under date, time, language and regional options. Select “customize” in XP and change the decimal placement to 3. Exit and open Xara Xtreme again, and all dimensions will be precise to 3 digits.

This free Xara post card template includes 4×6 inch and 5×7 inch sized flyer designs illustrating the safe area, bleed, and margins. Xara Xtreme (affiliate link) is my choice for creating custom graphics for print or online. Download the 7K zipped post card template here by right clicking the link and selecting “save target as” to retrieve the Xara file.

You may want to view custom full color flyer examples on my main website. Meanwhile, here’s a screenshot of the template shown smaller than actual size.

The template includes a CMYK palette in the lower right corner to help you get started, and unlike the business card template download, the 4×6 and 5×7 designs are exact overall size because they do not require trim after printing.

This before and after full color graphic illustrates a completed logo next to the separated components. The effect was created in vector graphics using Xara Xtreme. Study the sample to see how bevels, transparency, and cloned elements may be combined for a professional look.

Bonus Tip for Your Website: Artwork for print always prints darker than what you view on your pc monitor. To have matching graphics on your website when creating artwork in Xara Xtreme, change your view in the menu under “window” to “show printer colors/simulate print colors”. Graphics will appear darker now. Next, export your graphic in jpg or gif and your website color scheme will match your printed materials.

You may download a 30 day free trial of Xara Xtreme here (affiliate link). Unlike other more expensive vector graphics programs, Xara is easy for beginners to use and costs less than $100.

Please email suggestions for any Xara design tutorial you would like featured here.

This tutorial features illustrated tips and tricks for business card design using Xara Xtreme, and a link to download a predesigned template that I created to save you time and money. You may try a free 30-day trial of Xara Xtreme from their site to get started.

The first illustration (not actual size) shows the entire template with two landscape views of a standard (US) 3.5″ x 2.0″ business card for the front and back, and an alternate vertical portrait view which may be used for either the front or advertising on the card back.

The colored blocks in the upper right set a basic CMYK palette in Xara that I set up to help you get started. The 3 template views with guide lines show the “safe area” in green and the outer “bleed area” in yellow. Both areas may contain background color or photographs, but text must only be used inside the safe area otherwise it could be blurry when printed.

Next is a full size illustration of one landscape view of the business card template. The guide lines are shown in more detail. The artwork dimensions will actually be 3.625″ x 2.125″ because printers may want some extra bleed area for trimming each side of the card. The outer border is .187″ wide on all 4 sides.

The next illustration shows the sequence of menu commands in Xara Xtreme for changing views from screen colors as normally shown on your illuminated computer monitor to simulated print colors as the design will actually appear once printed on card stock. From the menu select window/show print colors/simulate print colors.

The final illustration shows the menu sequence to change to printed view, and if you compare the shade of green here to the screen view above, you can see a significant difference. Keep in mind that printed colors will almost always appear slightly duller and darker than what you see on your monitor.

Dowload the free business card template for Xara Xtreme by right clicking here. Visit my main site to view full color business cards designed with Xara Xtreme. You are welcome to comment or email me if you have any questions, also.