QuarkXPress 7.0


With the release of version 7.0, it's likely that many QuarkXPress users who have been comfortably entrenched in older versions will be inspired to upgrade. QuarkXPress 7.0 provides major enhancements to many features, and adds new capabilities that have the potential to change the way designers work.

New Features

Many of the cautions in the preceding sections still apply, although QuarkXPress 7.0 does collect pasted image content, which is a great improvement. Pasted images are described as PICT files in the Picture Usage dialog, but a Collect for Output will do the right thing by collecting the actual image content, and will provide an external image file.

The changes most likely to affect you are some radically new additions to the QuarkXPress arsenal of features:

  • Single Layout Mode allows you to create projects that more closely resemble documents created in QuarkXPress 4.0 and 5.0, since they lack the tabbed interface used by the multilayout projects that debuted in QuarkXPress 6.0. For users who are leapfrogging from version 4.0 or 5.0, this may ease the transition.

  • Shared Layouts allow a layout to belong to multiple projects. For example, a business card layout could belong to multiple projects for business collateral. Change the content of that business card layout, and all the instances of that layout within other projects will change, in much the same way that a color-corrected image could be updated in multiple pages. This has potential to streamline workflowbut also to cause problems if you fail to note that alterations within a layout will have repercussions in a totally separate project. Oops.

  • Composition Zones enable multiple users to share an area within a layout. For example, multiple designers can be simultaneously creating ads for an advertising section of a magazine. The originator of the document can earmark areas of the document as shared Composition Zones. Each collaborator works on a designated Composition Zone, and the content of that zone is updated in the finished document when they're finished, without old-fashioned cut and paste. Since the relationship between a project and externally-stored Composition Zones is much like the relationship with imported images, you must remember to update edited Composition Zone content. However, QuarkXPress 7.0 does not warn you that externally-stored Composition Zone content has been modified when you open a project, nor does it squawk when you export or print the project. You must remember to check the status of Composition Zone content by choosing Utilities > Usage, and then selecting the Composition Zone option. You can then update content by selecting a modified Composition Zone in the list and clicking the Update button. Since there is no automatic warning about Composition Zone content, you should make it a habit to check the Usage listing before exporting or printing a project containing Composition Zones, unless you have set the collaboration preferences for the project to automatically update content.

  • Quark Job Jackets can ensure that a group is basing its work on the same set of colors, style sheets, fontseven color profiles. The information governing a job jacket is stored in a job ticket based on Job Definition Format (JDF) standards, an open and increasingly supported standard to facilitate job requirement tracking. In addition to providing information about job requirements to guide content creators, job tickets can be used to validate that a layout or project is playing by the rules. This is especially helpful in template-driven workflows.

  • PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 support is built in, allowing you to create PDF files that are in compliance with those industry standards. QuarkXPress 7.0 adds the option to export Acrobat 5.0-compatible PDF files but does not allow live transparency in exported PDFs even though Acrobat 5.0 supports unflattened transparency.

  • OpenType support allows you to enjoy the full wonderland of typographic features offered by OpenType fonts, including cross-platform compatibility, discretionary ligatures, swashes, and contextual alternate characters. See Chapter 6, "Fonts," for more information on OpenType features.

  • Transparency can now be applied to any element in a QuarkXPress 7.0 layout. QuarkXPress 7.0 allows you to apply separate transparency settings to a box, the text inside the box, and a border on the box. You can even apply different transparency settings to individual letters in a text box. Drop shadows can be applied as live effects to any object. While transparency effects greatly expand your creative possibilities, they can be challenging to image, especially if spot colors are involved. Be prepared for a bit of a learning curve and some friendly conversations with your print service provider. Transparency options in QuarkXPress 7.0 are confined to opacity settings. There are no Photoshop-like blending mode attributes, with the exception of drop shadows, which can be set to multiply with underlying objects for realistic darkening. When you export PDF files from QuarkXPress 7.0, note that the Transparency Flattener Resolution value governs the resolution of drop shadows you've created in your layout. The default setting of 300 works for most situations, so you should be fine leaving it as it is.

  • Drop Shadows can be attached to any object. Since drop shadows are live effects, the position, color and softness of a shadow can be edited at any time. The resolution of drop shadows is governed by the Transparency option setting which is invoked during print or export. The default setting is 300 ppi, which is appropriate for most circumstances.

Improved Support for Photoshop Native Images

QuarkXPress 7.0 offers enhanced support for native, layered Adobe Photoshop files (PSD). Opacity settings in a PSD are honored by QuarkXPress 7.0, allowing you to place layered images with soft-edged layer masks and achieve interesting effects in your page layout. However, Photoshop blending modes such as Multiply are not honored by QuarkXPress. Consequently, any drop shadow effects created in Photoshop will not image correctly from QuarkXPress. Photoshop shadows will knock out underlying objects in your page layout, rather than darkening those objects. For correct shadows, you should create the shadow with the Drop Shadow feature in QuarkXPress 7.0 (Item > Drop Shadow).

While Photoshop will allow vector and text content, such content will be rasterized (rendered as pixels rather than vectors) when imported into a QuarkXPress page, softening the crisp edges. But you still have the advantages offered by maintaining a layered image file. There's no need to flatten a PSD before placing it in a page layout, which means that you no longer have to maintain separate flattened and layered files. But perhaps the most important aspect of layered Photoshop files is the ability to silhouette images with soft, realistic edges rather than the hard, artificial knockout effect of a clipping path.

Exporting PDF Files from QuarkXPress 7.0

The PDF export features of QuarkXPress 7.0 improve on the capabilities of previous versions. The Jaws PDF creation engine is still used, but adds the ability to modify and save custom presets rather than requiring you to set options each time you export to PDF. Most importantly, there are now preset PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 options. If a print service provider requests PDF files, but doesn't give you any specifications for creating PDF files, use the PDF/X-1a preset. Choose File > Export Layout as PDF to select one of the PDF/X presets, or to create your own PDF style for future use (Figure 13.18).

Figure 13.18. The PDF Export options in QuarkXPress 7.0 include presets for PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3. You can also create and save your own PDF styles.


The default setting for exported PDF files is Acrobat 5.0 compatibility, and there are no visible options for controlling the compatibility setting. If you choose one of the PDF/X presets, compatibility is appropriately set to Acrobat 4.0 in keeping with the PDF/X specification. The choices in the Color options are fairly obvious, although it's worth explaining the difference between As Is and Composite CMYK and Spot. As Is keeps any RGB content as RGB, whereas Composite CMYK and Spot converts RGB content to CMYK while maintaining any spot color content (Figure 13.19).

Figure 13.19. Your Color Setup choice depends on the type of content in your QuarkXPress document. The As Is option prevents the conversion of RGB content to CMYK.





Real World(c) Print Production
Real World Print Production
ISBN: 0321410181
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 132
Authors: Claudia McCue

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