CONTENTS
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2. WORKING WITH IMAGES INSIDE QXP
3. NEW POSTSCRIPT DRIVERS
4. DATA MERGE IN PAGEMAKER 7
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
5. UTILITIES/UPDATES
6. HINTS
7. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
8. LAST WORD
Thanks: Rhonda Chapin wrote from the US: "I subscribed to your newsletter only a few weeks ago. I must say I am so glad to have won! I rarely sign up for e-newsletters as they so often do not contain valuable information. Finally, an e-newsletter with real information!"
2. WORKING WITH IMAGES INSIDE QXP
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A Lowly Apprentice Production (ALAP) are beta testing a new XTension for QuarkXPress 4.1, called ImageAdjuster which seems to add some remarkable image manipulation functions. It will provide users with the ability to make adjustments to TIFF images inside QuarkXPress, including adjustments to levels, curves, color balance, brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, selective color, channel mixer, invert, threshold, and posterize. The XTension will also be able to save "adjustment sets" to apply to any Grayscale, RGB or CMYK TIFF image. (Mac only, we believe, at this stage).
The difference between this and the existing ImagePort XTension is that ImagePort imports Photoshop PSD files and lets you make adjustments within QXP, while ImageAdjuster allows you to add Photoshop color adjustment layers to any TIFF or Scitex CT RGB, CMYK or greyscale file.
For example, in ImageAdjuster you can alter the levels or curves of a TIFF on the spread, save that as a style, and apply that style to other images on the spread. Images get saved out to the extended TIFF file format, which means that the original image is preserved... you can open up the image again in ImageAjuster, remove all the colour adjustments, add more, tweak them, etc. ImageAdjuster can also open up extended TIFF files that were generated by Photoshop 6.
You'll find details of ImagePort at <http://www.alap.com> but nothing yet about the new XTension.
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If you just need a filter to import of native Photoshop images into QuarkXPress, without the ability for extensive adjustments, then look at the Photoshop Import XTensions (for versions 3 to 5 of Photoshop), from Techno Design: <http://www.techno-design.com>
3. NEW POSTSCRIPT DRIVERS
=========================
On June 22, Adobe posted Version 1.0.4 of the Adobe Universal Windows PostScript Driver Installer on its web site at: <http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/pdrvwin.htm>. It is available for 15 languages and is around a 5.7MB download.
Depending upon the version of Windows on which it is run upon, it installs and updates the correct PostScript driver: AdobePS 4.5.1 for Windows'95, '98, and ME; AdobePS 5.2 for Windows NT4; and PSCRIPT 5 5.2 for Windows 2000.
Under Win NT it also downloads the correct drivers for network use with Win95, 98 and ME, and similarly with the install for Win2000 which downloads those drivers and also the Win NT driver for clients of network printers.
These are the same versions of the drivers that ship with Adobe Acrobat 5 and have features required for proper coordination of the PostScript driver with Acrobat Distiller 5.
The PSCRIPT 5 5.2 driver in this installer is newer than the driver in the Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2, but running either of those service packs will not overwrite this newer version of PSCRIPT 5.
The new drivers for NT4 and Win2000 also provide some features under "Device Settings" that were previously only available for users of AdobePS 4.4 and later under Windows 9x/Me:
"True gray" options for vector graphics and text (Default = "no"). When set to "yes" this assumes that color values in which the R, G and B values match are really an expression of grayscale and can improve output quality for black and grayscale text and vector graphics for some PostScript color printers. The "yes" value also assists in creating prepress-friendly PostScript and PDF from applications that do not generate their own PostScript (including FrameMaker, MS Office, and other popular office suite programs).
"Add Euro Currency Symbol to PostScript Fonts" (Default = "yes"). This tries to augment older text Type 1 "device fonts" with a definition for the Euro character when necessary.
Adobe is still working on one remaining fix for Windows 2000 users: Some applications that do not generate their own PostScript or manage their own fonts (including FrameMaker and Microsoft Word) display text formatted in ITC Zapf Dingbats and possibly Carta and other symbol fonts as "Wingdings" on the screen although the characters have the "widths" of the correct font. These characters do print correctly on paper or in PDF created via distillation, but a workaround of deleting references to such fonts from the PPDs of PostScript printers is only partially effective.
4. DATA MERGE IN PAGEMAKER 7
============================
One of the new features in PageMaker 7 (apart from the fixes to work with latest versions of the Windows and Mac operating systems), is the DataMerge plugin. Merging data can achieve much more than just an individualised form letter, and we have created an example of this in a suggestion for a very simple ad booking system, working with Excel, that might suit a small magazine or newsletter.
It will form part of a chapter in our forthcoming book "Newspaper and newsletter production using PageMaker 7" which we hope to have ready by early next year. But, before that, we will make several PDFs available to anyone who has bought the 6.5 edition of the book, and, for a short time, to all who receive the Format newsletter. The 151kb PDF can be downloaded from: <http://www.worsleypress.com/download/DMadbookings.pdf>
As mentioned last issue, our books are now being distributed in the USA by FAP Books Inc of Florida, who have a tollfree number 888-511-5125 -- call 352 332 5104 outside the USA -- or they can be faxed on 352-331-6603. The US price on "Newspaper Production using PageMaker 6.5" is US$29.95 plus $3.75 postage, and that includes access to a private web site with scripts and templates.
Any subscriber to "Format" can get a 10% discount by mentioning "Format".
Incidentally, there are no restrictions on where you buy our books, so if, for example, you are in Europe you can compare the US$29.95 price (plus airmail of US$9.55, surface US$5.80, to Western Europe) to the price from Australia of A$55 plus A$13 airmail, and buy the current best deal. (Memo to Australian buyers: it is slightly cheaper to buy the book in Australia, despite the tax on books bought here -- you save on postage).
Full details are available at <http://www.worsleypress.com>
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
"Marcye" wrote: "I was just on your PageMaker help site and it was very well done. I do have one nagging problem that I don't seem to be able to find an answer for and I know others who are also frustrated with this. In 6.5, when you try to lasso with the mouse, you fly off the page. This was never a problem in previous versions. Very frustrating when doing page layouts and grouping with graphics. No settings for the mouse seem to help. I'd love to see this addressed somewhere."
We replied: We've heard of this as a problem, but not as a major complaint, so it may be a particular combination of newer operating systems, faster processors and video drivers. It may be among the items addressed in PageMaker 7, which basically seems intended to make the program work better with the newer OS on both Windows and Mac, but I don't think Adobe have issued a list of specific fixes.
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We had a question from Spain in Format 51, and, within an hour or so of the issue being mailed, we had an answer from New Zealand. We forwarded the answer to Jeff Greensmith who replied: "Yes, it works like a charm. Many thanks to Owen and yourselves. One aspect of the web which never fails to amaze me is the way so many people are prepared to lend a hand. I've solved any number of tech/software/translation problems in this way and hopefully have helped others solve a few too. Let's hope it always stays that way!"
The question was about finding words in caps within classified ad text within Word to format them in bold. Owen Watson, in New Zealand, wrote:
Just did it within Word 98, using their Wildcards option (MS term for grep/regular expressions)
Search for: ([A-Z]{2,30})
replace with: \1
with the replace text in bold.
NB: there is a space after the A-Z
The translation of the above:
[A-Z]: any uppercase character
{2,30}: between 2 and 30 occurrences of the preceding pattern
\1: whatever was between the () in the Search pattern
A couple of hours more and we had a reply from John Nurick who not only provided a similar answer, but included a VBA script to do it better, which we also forwarded.
6. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
Callas Software has released an update of the MadeToPrint XT. it now gives precise PDF page sizes and TrimBox/BleedBox information when converting QuarkXPress files to PDF. Distiller Job Options are also available directly. For details see <http://www.callas.de/>. It is a free update for existing users.
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Modulo Systems, the developer and distributor of QPS (the editorial workflow system based around QuarkXPress) has introduced "gadgets" a suite of products to automate many advertising publishing processes including: Order entry for classified and display advertising, Display Ad Layout, Classified Pagination, Ad Tracking, Ad Makeup, Ad Reporting Archive, and Ad Scanning Compression. Details: <http://www.modulosystems.com/>
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Virginia Systems recently released a footnote plug-in for InDesign. They have demo versions (about 800kb) for both Mac and Win available for download: <http://www.virginiasystems.com>
7. HINTS
========
If you are on a Mac, many printing problems with AdobePS or with creating a PDF can be solved by allocating a little memory to PrintMonitor and to your desktop printers. One suggestion we've seen is to give each at least 1400kb -- more is you have large documents.
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A PageMaker hint for using pull quotes: The key seems to be to use a large size quote mark, or one from a font such as Zapf Dingbats, use the same leading as the text and use baseline adjustment in Control palette to get it into the right position. Set up and apply styles for the beginning and ending quotes, and a separate one for the text with the quote marks in separate paragraphs to the quote itself. Then select the whole pull quote, select "No style" and then remove the carriage returns between quote mark and quote at the beginning and end.
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To help remove banding. try adding a small amount of noise -- 1 per cent should be enough -- in Photoshop or other image editing program.
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One of the reasons that older page layout programs have trouble with Win2000 is that they need to write to preference files which are beneath the Program Files folder, and to achieve this the user has to have either Power User or Administrator status. Quark's Tech News suggests that a workaround for QuarkXPress is to install QXP at the root level of the C: drive, as all users have read/write privileges to the root level. It might be worth trying for PageMaker 6.5 too, though PM7 is said to have solved its Win2000 problems.
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On the Mac, go to the File menu in QuarkXPress 4 and, when the menu pops down, run the mouse over it, but do not select any item. Now move the mouse back to the menu bar. Let go anywhere in the menu bar. Quark thinks you want a new document which may cause some confusion for those who do not want anything.
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
If you can't identify a font, try <http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/>. You can upload a TIF, GIF, JPG, or BMP image file with a line of the type (from a scan of a sample), ideally about 100 pixels high) and it will try to match the font for you. A couple of reports we've seen say it works about half the time -- which, considering those users had already tried more obvious ways, seems good to us.
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There's an Illustrator mailing list, with details at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illstrtr>. If you are not already a member of a group operating through Yahoo, you will have to sign up first before joining the individual list. This is the latest home for the long established Illustrator list hosted by Sterling Ledet & Associates, Inc.
9. LAST WORD
============
Often new versions of software include many new features, so perhaps it shouldn't be surprising when an often-used one disappears. In MS-Office XP/Word 2002 we're told that the partial name find feature has disappeared. Now you must look through your entire list of files unless you can remember the exact file name. Microsoft techs are said to be mystified as to why this feature disappeared. Our thanks for this info to Dan Poynter who issues a newsletter called Publishing Poynters. You can sign up at <http://ParaPublishing.com>
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================