This section contains recommendations for specific applications, and also useful hints which will speed up the
prepara-tion of jobs for printing. This section will also help to avoid potential printing problems from certain
applications which we use.
At the very beginning we strongly advise to update your office and desktop publishing applications
with most recent updates from the vendors. We maintain the list of updates for the programs we use on
the Links page of the guide.
New versions (6.0 and upper) of Adobe Photoshop have a wonderful feature
which keeps fonts and vector paths at printing. This means that the fonts and shapes in the file may be printed at
printer resolution independently from the resolution of the image. To use this feature, you need to save the image
in PSD, PDF or TIFF format with the advanced options turned on.
Advanced TIFF options
When saving to Photoshop PDF, the Include Vector Data option needs to be turned on.
If the text does not need to be edited, then select the Use
Outline for Text option, and Embed Fonts instead.
When saving to Photoshop PDF, the Include Vector Data option needs to be turned on. If the text does not need to be edited,
then select the Use Outline for Text option, and Embed Fonts instead.
Advanced PDF options
In new versions (9.0 and upper) of Adobe
Illustrator save the illustration with the Create PDF Compatible File and
Embed All Fonts
options enabled. You may also need to supply the fonts used if the layout is not ready for
printing and we need to adjust the page setup.
Illustrator format options
Avoid using the transparency feature. This feature increases the size of the file, and may produce
incorrect results when printing.
Adobe Acrobat is an excellent software for submitting publications to print. Adobe is able
to preserve all features of a layout, created within any application. We highly recommend the
use of the Adobe Acrobat PDF format for a print job submission. Most of the Adobe applications
are able to create PDF files without Adobe Acrobat software. For all non-Adobe applications
you will need Adobe Acrobat Distiller, which is part of the full
Adobe Acrobat package. A unique feature of the PDF format is its availability to print
publications created within any application, even those which we do not have.
When saving your publication as a PDF file, a two important points must be kept in mind.
- All mistakes made in the publication (missing linked files, fonts, wrong page
setup, etc.) will be transferred to PDF together with layout.
- A bad PDF file can be created from a good layout with wrong Distiller settings.
There is information about the correct Distiller settings in the PDF Generation section of this guide.
The most frequent problems with Quark Xpress files that we receive from our customers
include missing external linked files and fonts. Missing pictures will print as low-resolution
preview images, which usually have an unacceptable quality for the customer. Missing fonts
will be substituted at printing with the default printer font (Courier), and the design of
the document will be ruined. Please make sure that all liked files and fonts are in place
before sending a publication.
All fonts and links as a Quark XPress document are listed in the Usage dialog, which
will open by choosing the Usage command from the Utilities menu.
The Fonts tab contains the list of all fonts used in the document. Check the box
More Information to find the status of the font. If you see that there isn't a file name for
a selected font, then the font is missing. Clicking the button Show First/Show Next may
enable for the tracking of all occupancies of the selected font in a document.
Fonts tab of Usage dialog
On the Pictures tab there is a list of all external files linked with current Quark XPress documents. Check the
Status column of the list in order to find the links with a Missing and Modified status. Select links with the
Modified status and click the Update button. This button will update the document with the newest versions of the
linked pictures. Select the links with the Missing status and press the Update button again. This action will open
the Find dialog box, which is similar to the Get Picture dialog box used to place images within a publication. Find
the location of the missing picture file and click the Open button. This button will update the external link with
the new location of the picture file.
Pictures tab of Usage dialog box
Find dialog box
Quark XPress is able to generate faux type styles when there isn't an actual font installed in the system.
For example, if formatting textwith Garamond Regular font and then Italic type style is selected, Quark XPress
will turn the letters into Italic even if you do not have the Garamond Italic font installed. In this particular
case the Garamond Italic font will be the faux font. We recommend that you not use faux fonts since they might
not print correctly. Always install all type styles for the fonts that are used, and submit them for printing
together with the publication.
Professional designers often use Xtensions to extend certain features of the program.
Xtensions are small programs (with XTN extension in Windows) that show up as new tools or
commands in Quark XPress. Though they are very handy, some of them may require the same
Xtension installed in order to open the document file. Others may be required to print
the document directly. If you use third party Xtensions to create the Quark XPress document,
please make sure that they will not be required during printing. To make sure, try to disable
the third party extensions in Xtension Manager dialog and open your publication. If you
have any trouble openingthe publication or it looks different than the original publication,
please supply used Xtensions with your document.
We receive many layouts created within the Microsoft Office Suite, which includes Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint pro-grams. These applications are very useful and convenient tools for business
applications like email, presentations, charts, tables, etc. Unfortunately, these programs have
huge lags in the support of quality printing. Nevertheless, you will find good results if you
follow the recommendations regarding raster and vector images and pay attention to the following
issues:
- Avoid any OLE embedded objects. Do not place Excel tables/charts in PowerPoint
presentations and Word documents. If embedding is absolutely necessary, be sure to never change
the aspect ratio of the embedded object.
- Always supply the fonts used in embedded documents even if you use the font embedding feature.
This feature does not work with OLE.
- Use PowerPoint master pages to place and define the slide layouts and font styles.
Use the master pages as well for all repeated elements like logos or headers/footers.
- Always supply all non-standard (see list of standard fonts in Fonts section of this guide)
fonts used in Microsoft Office documents. All Office programs automatically substitute missing fonts
with default fonts(Arial or Times New Roman). This may dramatically change the flow of the text and
its placement on the printed pages. Also, text in the text boxes may be partly cut off or disappear.
Office applications do not support CMYK color space and Color Management, which are necessary for
quality printing. This means that you cannot expect the colors seen on the screen, to be printed
exactly as they appear to the eye. However, this does not mean that a red color will turn to blue,
yet the tint may differ considerably. Some screen colors are impossible to print, such as light green
or rich dark blue. In case you care to know why, please check the Color section of this guide.
Strictly speaking, Microsoft Publisher is not a true desktop publishing application and it is never
used in professional publishing. Actually, it is much the same as Microsoft Word although slightly modified
to utilize the frame document structure used in many other publishing applications. This software has the
same printing issues as Microsoft Office Suite applications.
