QuarkXPress or InDesign?

[fryke]

I wouldn't say XPress is the underdog already when compared to InDesign. In that specific market it's still the other way 'round. However, of course, Adobe is more than just ID (much more), whereas Quark probably lives and dies with XPress' success.

 

[CaptainQuark]

Kick a man while he's down, why don't ya…

 

[Natobasso]

I'd like to say that the current situation is what Quark needs to pull itself up by its bootstraps, but they currently have a culture of complacency. But, it's just like Apple was before Steve Jobs came back.

Quark just needs a galvanizing personality to take them back to the top of the mountain.

All they need to do is create a great pdf exporter.

 

[CaptainQuark]

…we all use Photoshop and Illy, so it's economical to buy the whole package and get into InDy, too.

Hmmm… I seem to remember Microsoft getting into hot water about bundling IE with its operating systems. Maybe someone will object and force Adobe to sell 'em one by one rather than as a bundle.

Yeah, yeah, I know – it's nothing like Microsoft and IE…

All they need to do is create a great pdf exporter.

Do you do your photo retouching in MS Word or your line art in iTunes? If you want proper PDFs, use Acrobat Distiller!

 

[Natobasso]

Do you do your photo retouching in MS Word or your line art in iTunes? If you want proper PDFs, use Acrobat Distiller!

Do you change your oil to start your car? Just export to PDF right from InDesign and skip Distiller altogether. I haven't used it in 2 years.

 

[esteban]

Well, what about this? Is there some reason to save as a Quark file and then use Distiller to create a PDF from the Postscript file? That's how I've been directed to make PDFs by the book packagers for whom I've worked, as well as their printers. Is that the Stone Age way of doing it, or are there still reasons to go thru all the steps?
__________________
"The [publishing] business is a cruel and shallow money trench. A long
plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die
like dogs. There is also a negative side."
--Hunter S Thompson

 

[Natobasso]

It's very stone age at this point. Do they have you RIP to Acrobat 4 files? PDF/X-1a files? InDesign's pdf export to pdf/x-1a should satisfy nearly every printer out there.

 

[esteban]

On the particular book I just finished laying out (and that gave me such trouble), the packager has me doing it the old way. I print Quark files to Postscript files, then open the Postscript files with Distiller 7 (using their printer's joboptions file), which distills PDF/X files.

It happens that it's not working.

I've a Compliance Report that lists a number of errors, a few of which I've gotten explanations for.There are duotones that have been a problem throughout this project. I did not create the duotones; the book's designer--don't ask--created them. They're apparently still a problem from what I was told by someone who took a look at the Compliance Report.

PDF/X would satisfy this printer. If it worked.

 

[CaptainQuark]

You can't have duotones in a PDF/X1a file, just as you can't have spot colours. You will have to open them up in Photoshop and convert them to CMYK.

 

[chevy]

I was a FrameMaker guy. But my business is special: I write 100 pages long datasheets, with lots of grawings, equations, tables, cross-references... and most documents are assembly of several chapters with different authors.

 

[esteban]

You were a FrameMaker guy? What did you use for your equations in FrameMaker?

I ask because I've done books with over 300 heavy equations in them. I used the Mathable XTension from inside Quark 4.1. I also used MathType, a standalone, to import equations into PageMaker files--back, and up until 1999 or 2000 for a science journals publisher. Most recently I used MathType and imported into Quark and InDesign, tho' I may be doing something latr this year with InDesign and InMath.

What are you using now for equations?

 

[chevy]

I was using the FrameMaker equation editor.

Now I use Microsoft equation editor or the equation editor of OpenOffice. Both are ok but not as well integrated into the system than the one of FrameMaker.

In the past I also used Latex for scientific papers. The equation editor of Latex is more difficult to learn, but it is the best for controlling the quality of the equation output.

 

[mspain77]

I think it's necessary to be proficient in both apps. Different printers utilize different apps., and sometimes (in the case of newspaper ads for clients escpecially), it's best to provide the proprietary native file so that the newsprinters can make edits for various runs and not bother you for every little thing.
I currently run Q6.5, Q7.1, and InDesign CS2.
Q7 did a lot to improve, but I would still have to say that Adobe kicks it's butt.
InDesign gets my vote!

 

[wicky]

True, we can't really get by without *all* of the current app's in real world situations, especially in the case of mag ad's & editorial.

That said, I have found that where printers were very reluctant to embrace change a few years ago, many of them are willing to be re-educated these days in terms of new software. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that until relatively recently Quark had no serious competition, so printers were at liberty to dictate the file formats that they would except.

With ID's increased popularity they probably can't afford to be so *traditional* in their approach... We have adopted a policy of dropping printers who won't work with our chosen tools. This, of course, doesn't really work with newspapers and the like.