CONTENTS
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1. A JPEG PROBLEM
2. "MODIFIED" PICS THAT AREN'T
3. NEW NISUS WRITER
4. XML: MORE QUESTIONS
5. FAREWELL TIM
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
7. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
8. UTILITIES/UPDATES
9. HINTS
10. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
1. A JPEG PROBLEM
=================
We've had several problems recently trying to explain how the JPEG file format works. One cause was that we received some JPEG pictures for a newsletter that were nowhere near as good as previous pictures from the same source. The client had purchased a digital camera, and we were impressed enough with the quality to ask what model it was -- they were easily good enough to use close to half tabloid page size at around 85 lines per inch.
Then, a month or so later we received some that just weren't good enough, even for 6 x 4 inch reproduction on newsprint. The file sizes were also alarmingly small -- around 90 to 150kb.
Initial denials that anything was being done differently expired when we asked them to just take a picture, any picture, with the camera, download it to their PC and email it to us. It came in around 400kb.
We knew what was happening. They hadn't been tempted to use the lower resolution settings on the camera to get more pictures into storage. What had happened was that one person had opened the files in a picture editing program, and then saved them. The default compression settings applied to the file and it got smaller.
Photoshop will not automatically bring a JPEG down to a more compressed setting unless you deliberately select that, but it seems not all image editing programs are as forgiving. And even Photoshop warns in its help file: "You should always save JPEG files from the original image, not from a previously saved JPEG."
We've now suggested they print out a notice to go on the wall by the PC -- "if you open a pic to look CLOSE the file, don't SAVE it!". We've also suggested that the keep the pics as downloaded in a separate folder and make a copy for the office to look at. As long as they remember to go back to the originals to send to us, we'll have good pics again.
2. "MODIFIED" PICS THAT AREN'T
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QuarkXPress maintains a link to imported pictures, so the program can alert you if they are modified, moved, or renamed. If you store your pictures on a machine other than the one you are working on, pictures may appear as "modified" if the system clocks on the two computers are not synchronized.
If you store your pictures on a machine other than the one you are working on, this occurs most often after Daylight Saving Time changes if the clocks on some but not all networked machines are not updated. Your pictures may also show as "modified" if your network or server software alters the date and time of stored files during the course of automatic clock adjustments, as in the case of Windows NT.
Quark state that in some cases, such as with Novell server software, synchronization must be precise to the second.
For Windows NT servers, you may want to uncheck "Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes" on the time zone tab of the clock dialog and make the adjustment to the system clock manually. Unmodified graphics will then be listed with a status of OK in Usage > Pictures.
Turn Auto Picture Import on (Edit > Preferences > Document) to get the option to automatically update all missing or modified pictures when the document is first opened.
3. NEW NISUS WRITER
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Nisus Writer 6, a new version of the well known word processor for the Macintosh has just been released. It is priced at US$99.95, or $49.95 for an upgrade from any previous version. There's also a "competitive upgrade" price of US$69.95.
Full details are at: <http://www.nisus.com/products/>
New features include: Grammar checker, RTF filter, Nisus Text Analyzer, Zoom, support for IBM's ViaVoice dictation software (Mac Speech support coming soon), auto-expanding glossary, support for Navigation Services, support for Contextual Menus, importing graphics via Quick Time, and support for Mac OS 9 Language Kits including Traditional Chinese.
Among features which have attracted many to the program are its multilingual support, extensive find and replace, unlimited undos, noncontiguous selection, customizable keyboard menu equivalents, graphics creation, and an especially powerful macro language.
It requires System 7 or later (System 8.0 and above recommended) 5MB of RAM on PPC's with virtual memory turned on, 4MB of RAM on 68K Macs (A 68K version will be released soon)
4. XML: MORE QUESTIONS
======================
We've been taking a continuing interest in XML, the tagging language that is intended to enable creation of text for publication which can be tagged in a way that will enable its use in any media.
It is, we believe, the way of the future, to enable copy to be prepared and tagged once and then used for print and the web, maybe in multiple ways for each.
Leaving aside the editing question of whether copy prepared for one medium is usable in another without substantial editing, it does remain true that basic editing can be carried out leaving the major decision on relative lengths to be made according to media. Text would be truly edited once, and then made to fit many times.
However, we continue to see questions raised such as one recently on the NewsML email list (You can subscribe at <http://www.egroups.com>). The question, from a major potential user, was on what people were using as a parser to convert NewsML to a suitable tagging to use in his production program. Several days later there was no answer on the NewsML list.
While we have seen announcements that various programs will produce XML code as an export option, we have yet to see many options on importing XML.
Is anyone who receives this list using XML-tagged copy as a source for QuarkXpress, InDesign, PageMaker etc?
5. FAREWELL TIM
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Tim Gill, the originator of QuarkXPress, is leaving Quark to concentrate on applying his fortune to philanthropic uses.
On MacInTouch <http://www.macintouch.com> a reader forwarded an e-mail from Quark co-founder Tim Gill, who announced his departure in a message to the company: "All things change. For me, my passion has moved on to philanthropy. You can't take it with you. And giving it away has been consuming more and more of my time ... So this is to let you know that I recently sold my holdings in Quark. And over the next several years I'll be moving most of those assets to the Gill Foundation."
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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"Lynette" posed a question about a problem with PageMaker's build booklet plugin that we suggested could be due to one object in the file, such as an object overlapping a page boundary or even very close to the edge of a page A workaround we suggested might be to make a copy of the file, delete any objects which look as though they might be a problem. make the booklet, then copy and paste the problem pages from the original file into the new file the plugin has created. This sounds a lot of work, but the plugin will still save a lot of time over doing it all manually.
Lynette replied: Thank you SO much for answering my question. It appears you are the only one who could. Of course, yesterday was the day the thing needed to get in the mail, so I was panicking a bit. What I ended up doing was removing the article that it always stopped on. I built the booklet and it was successful. However, I needed that article in the booklet! But at least I knew where the problem was occurring. I then narrowed it down to the page. Then --get this-- it turned out to be, oddly enough, simply an empty text box that was causing the problem. I didn't even know it was there! And who knows why the build booklet decided to revolt at that one empty text box (when certainly there are more lying about in other articles)! Anyway, it's fixed now and it is going out only a day late. Yay! Again, thank you so much for your advice.
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In answer to Nick Morenos of Australia in Format43, who sought advice on printers, John Hess of Petaluma, California, wrote that while he believed his HP 2100 M (1200 dpi) emulated PS, it printed perfectly from QuarkXpress (and he would hope in InDesign as well), that he had great control of halftones ("no, they are not as good as those generated by my commercial printer's camera) but that it seemed to do well printing to a web press.
Chris Armour wrote: "I can tell you for a fact that the GCC Elite XL 616 has numerous problems with InDesign, and will not print many PDFs. The GCC Elite uses a postscript emulator. GCC tech support says it's Adobe's problem, not theirs."
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Gary Lineburg of Eugene, Oregon, wrote: Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate and benefit from your informative publication. Often we are too busy to track down solutions to nagging little problems such as you mentioned in your current issue: How the default setting for Word turns all web and email addresses into hyperlinks. Thanks to you we will be bothered no more by this, plus, you've pointed us to numerous other solutions for problems we sometimes aren't even aware we have. Thanks for providing this excellent resource! You are the best!
7. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
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Em Software is now shipping InData, a plug-in to place database material into InDesign. Details are at <http://www.emsoftware.com>
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WoodWing Software is now shipping the release version of its Smart Layout plugin which adds the article concept to InDesign. An article consists of several elements, such as the head, intro and body, which become a single page item that you can work with in the way you usually think of articles.
When creating articles with the Smart Layout Tool, new items flow around items already on the spread. Smart Resizing minimizes the number of steps necessary to resize an article and its elements via automatic sizing, positioning and resizing individual columns.
Smart Layouts can have their own grid including both the column and baseline grid. Via shortcut keys the number of columns can be changed quickly. Items can also have their own border and fill.
The standard library functionality of InDesign can be used in combination with Smart Layout to have a powerful shape library.
For more information see <http://www.WoodWing.com> where there is a downloadable demo. Smart Layout will be available for US$399 until December 31, 2000.
8. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
There is a new version of QXP, called QuarkXPress Mudra, which supports the Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, and Nepali languages. It is currently available for Windows only, but Quark India is developing a Mac OS version of QuarkXPress Mudra.
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Font management software Suitcase 9 is now available for Windows. Create sets of fonts based on clients, projects, or just favourites and turn them on and off with ease. The utility also has font previews in four ways: Waterfall, ABC 123, Paragraph, and "QuickType". Sort fonts by Foundry, Folder, Type etc. Details are at <http://www.extensis.com/>. A 30-day demo is available.
9. HINTS
========
Quark's TechNews reports problems with the new version 8.5 Keyboard control panel (used for the new Apple Pro keyboard) on a Mac operating under the Multi-User environment, which can cause crashing in any application when using F-keys if you are not using the "owner profile". The only way to avoid this crash, they state, is to have the 'owner' log on, display the alert, and click "Do not show this dialog again."
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In QXP4, to import a color TIFF as black and white, press Control-Shift (Win) or Command-Shift (Mac) while clicking 'Open' in the Get Picture dialog box. You can then use selections from the Style menu such as Color, Shade, and Contrast, to apply style changes to the picture.
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A suggestion, almost a throw-away line, from Bill Smith on the PageMakr List: "If you turn on read tags irrespective of whether the text is tagged or not, then PM does not import Word styles (a major cause of BRIs)"
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You only need to crash a few times while using an image editing program and your hard disk can appear to be getting very small. In Windows use the Find utility to look for *.tmp files anywhere on any hard drive to make sure you know where they can hide (you may well have set up a different scratch disk for Photoshop as an example). On a Mac you can use Sherlock to find any "photoshop temp" files, or just look for "p temp" to save some typing.
However, if you are finding too many too regularly, you will need to find out why, to avoid more problems later.
Incidentally, OS 9 no longer deletes "temp" files from other applications (Apple wants those apps to take care of themselves). You could write an Applescript, or download a freeware solution such as AutoPurge . There used to be a link to Stimpsoft software here but that firm has disappeared since John M. Schilling "retired", but he still has a website at http://www.jschilling.net> so if you are looking for any of his software you may still find it there.
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At the CreativePro website <http://www.creativepro.com> Bruce Fraser comments in his Out of Gamut column: "One of the biggest changes in Photoshop 6, and one that's been largely ignored in most of the coverage, is that Photoshop now supports 'per-document' color, which simply means that each document can exist in its own profiled color space. At last, you can simply open an image, and have Photoshop display it the way the image creator intended without having to make decisions about color spaces and conversions before you've even seen it."
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It seems that what should be a harmless addition to the PhotoShop clipping path format in Photoshop 6 which QuarkXPress should ignore may actually be causing QXP to choke. Photoshop 5 will open Photoshop 6 files and read the clipping paths correctly, as does InDesign. So reopening and saving the TIFFs should overcome the problem.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================