Quark = Pain

[Joe]

Originally Posted by cjwworld

Right-On Joe!. Any time I expect an PDF from a certain Ad Agency. I have to have the Newspaper do the content in Quark, make an PDF from that, then I will have to import the PDF into InDesign template, put the original PDF from the Ad Agency into the page. All because Quark DOESN'T handle transparency correctly

cjwworld
Quark 6.52;InDesign CS2
Duo PM G5 10.4.9

I perform that manuever many, many times a month and it sucks!

[Jezza]

Originally Posted by Joe

Quark has very limited internal transparency that it cannot even output without flattening.

Perhaps I've misunderstood, but all programs that use transparency flatten, they have to, because Postscript does not support transparency, no matter if it's from Indy, Illy, PS or Quark - Quarks handling and control of how things are flattened sucks. I did mention that.

Originally Posted by Jezza

Quarks pdf output/handling however does suck

It's a limitation of Postscript, some applications ability to deal with transparency are better than others. If I could find the thread, I would remind you that I have slagged off Quark before because of it's use of a third party pdf engine - Jaws.

[almaink]

Nothing wrong with JAWS PDF. The latest version of JAWS supports PDF version 1.5. It's Quark that has the issue. They are using and old version of JAWs. Just like Quark to remain in the past and have no clue about what's really needed.
pdf writer and converter - Jaws PDF Creator software

[Jezza]

Thanks for clearing that up. My lack of detail put an incorrect slant on my post.

[y2b]

I'm not able to place PDF7 in Quark, but if I optimize it in Acrobat 7 to PDF6, it places and outputs just fine for me.

But I don't understand the problem if customers already have the PDF's placed in Quark when it comes in. If it's a problem on the output, just optimize it and update it.

I'm in a Rampage workflow, so a lot of problems that you may be seeing, I'll probably never see in a Rampage workflow.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Jezza

Perhaps I've misunderstood, but all programs that use transparency flatten, they have to, because Postscript does not support transparency, no matter if it's from Indy, Illy, PS or Quark - Quarks handling and control of how things are flattened sucks. I did mention that.

It's a limitation of Postscript, some applications ability to deal with transparency are better than others. If I could find the thread, I would remind you that I have slagged off Quark before because of it's use of a third party pdf engine - Jaws.

Sure, if you print from the application, which I try not to do. Export as PDF from Indy, either save as .ai or export PDF from Illy or save as PSD from Photoshop. All retain transparency. With the newer workflows it's possible to retain transparency throughout the workflow. Not so if you start with Quark.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by y2b

I'm not able to place PDF7 in Quark, but if I optimize it in Acrobat 7 to PDF6, it places and outputs just fine for me.

But I don't understand the problem if customers already have the PDF's placed in Quark when it comes in. If it's a problem on the output, just optimize it and update it.

I'm in a Rampage workflow, so a lot of problems that you may be seeing, I'll probably never see in a Rampage workflow.

It really has nothing to do with the workflow you are using. It has to do with Quark.

And no, the customer does not have the PDF's placed because they cannot place them and do not have the tools to fix them. Remember they bought Quark in first place instead of Creative Suite. Most only have Acrobat Reader so they can view the PDF. We, in the prepress department, have to fix them, place them, and then output them...all of which takes time that the customer does not want to pay for. If they had InDesign it would not be an issue...plain and simple.

[colorblind]

Originally Posted by y2b

QX7 ain't all that bad...go to a seminar or something

Went to a full day Quark 7 Seminar last May. Quark's staff (well-known Shelly was there) showed the assistance all those nice new Quark features and some old ones too: Quark crashed at least twice during presentation.

[David]

Originally Posted by colorblind

Went to a full day Quark 7 Seminar last May......


Quark crashed at least twice during presentation.

hahahahahaha!

LOL
shoulda known!

[Kalessin]

Saw the QuarkXPress 7 demo presentation at IPEX. Would have been more professional if the person demonstrating acted like she'd ever used QuarkXPress before... but anyway:

In the first 5 minutes of the demo, QuarkXPress quit "unexpectedly". The demonstrator, obviously embarrassed, apologised but pointed out that it was still beta software. My colleague announced in a loud voice, "Oh, I thought it was a feature. Quark 6 does that all the time."

I have loads of problems with QuarkXPress 6.5, including the following oddities:

1. Double-clicking on a QuarkXPress file brings QuarkXPress to the foreground, but the document doesn't open. The only way to open files on any of our Macs (G5s to Quad Xeons) is by using File-> Open.
2. Preferences, including the positions of the palettes, are not saved.
3. Issues 1 and 2 above can be solved by removing the Script XTension. But we need it.
4. An AppleScript which is supposed to create a tint box on a topmost layer on each page, creates it on varying layers throughout the document, depending on the number of objects on the page.

Quark have no idea what causes any of these issues.

Any yet, I still can't switch to InDesign. I find it unhelpful, unintuitive and it seems to be lacking a few key features. Or, more likely, I just can't find them.

But the thing that really put me off InDesign was the job we received the other day. an InDesign document, placed on a page in a document which was, itself, placed in a separate document. Why?

Finally, for the record, we've found that embedding a PDF file in a Quark page is a really bad idea. Apart from anything else, Quark "loses" any embedded image profiles from images on a PDF page when PostScripting. We will generally use a blank page with the PDF filename in it for reference and merge them in Prinergy.