4/16/2007

Will PDF-X-Robot Solve My Prepress Problems?

We are a design and printing company located in Alaska that for some time has been attempting to implement a PDF workflow. Basically, we have three designers that build primarily in Adobe InDesign CS and Quark XPress 6.5. We make all types of documents, from one-color business cards to full color booklets and everything in between (rack cards, brochures, etc.) Currently, when the designer is done with a particular job, they create a PDF using AdobePDF 7.0 virtual printer. Using Dynastrip, the production manager places the PDF's and sends them to the correct RIP for output.

Primarily, we are running into problems with the creation of the actual PDF. I would say that the problems they run into are usually the following:

1)Fonts are not embedded
2)Resolution is not high enough

While it is relatively easy to enable font embedding, and to choose a correct PDF profile it is not something that they always check before sending a job to PDF. They are not willing to wade through the options to double-check this before creating a PDF.

We have tried other solutions, such as Enfocus InstantPDF, but have found that it rarely saves any time because you have to set up options for every job (such as page width, separations on or off, etc AND it's not consistent between quark and indesign).

Yes, these solutions do not assist in automating anything or adding any value to your productivity. They are simply a fancy printer to print into, with some reactive postflight capability telling you to

(a) start over if there's a big problem
(b) fixing a minor problem.

In either case, you are executing inaccurate problem PDF files just to see if they are OK, then doubling your work if there's a problem. Furthermore it's reactive and leaves your source files un-corrected for later use, thereby not really supporting correct and whole source files for next round of work.

PDF-X-Robot is entirely different and is nothing like these reactive postflight tools. PDF-X-Robot is completely proactive, verifying all fonts and graphics creating a PDF file. Prompting all issues to be remedied IN THE SOURCE FILES. This way, you are. . .

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4/12/2007

Qaurk Xpress 6.5 update, problem or solution, OK for Robots?

Hello, I am inquiring whether I should update to the new Quark Xpress 6.5 from Quark Xpress 6.1 at this time? Is PDF-X-Robot_XT compatible and tested with Quark Xpress 6.5? I am currently running it with Quark Xpress 6.1 on Mac OS X 10.3 with no classic apps on my entire machine.

Anybody testing Quark Xpress 6.5 with PDF-X-Robot workflow yet? I thought I would ask instead of being the guinea pig. The listed feature enhancements are not really telling me anything that I really needed. But I was always told by joepostscript at software-robotics support that he tests and programs around everything as most current version. So, I figured that he is already running and...
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4/10/2007

Worlds Luckiest Fishing Village, Destin Florida USA

The Emerald blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a magnet for condos, resorts, and many hotels to choose from. Destin Florida has hundreds of great restaurants. But as a fisherman, for me it's all about the deep sea fishing of Destin, Florida style. Hell, many anglers just fish off the bridge and do well. You can go bottom fishing for amberjacks, red snappers, and groupers. Or, troll inshore using light tackle to catch dolphin fish, king mackerels, wahoos and tunas. Many visitors choose the offshore fishing to catch a blue and white marlin, or sailfish in Destin Florida. Destin has the appropriate nick name "Worlds Luckiest Fishing Village". Maybe that's because of the many worls and state record size fish caught in these gulf stream waters. A charter Boat in Destin Florida is an easy find. As a matter of fact, Destin Florida is home to one of the largest deep sea charter boat fleets in the U.S. Over 90, state of the art Destin sportfishing boats. Optionally you can fish from 2 to 150 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.

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QuarkXPress 6 Comes to OS X and runs like a top!

Many art departments who were sticking to OS 9 are finally moving to Mac OS X quickly, it wasn't because they were not impressed with Mac OS X, it was because QuarkXPress hadn't yet made the transition. This slow migration to Mac OS X is due to the fact that QuarkXPress has long been the de facto tool for designers, service bureaus, and printing companies. Even after Adobe released InDesign, a similar professional page-layout application that ran on Mac OS X, many designers chose to wait rather than invest in a new program and migrate to a new file format. Quark Xpress 6 was worth the wait, Adobe InDesign is a great application but was no "Quark Killer" for sure.
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4/06/2007

pussy cat dolls lyricsHow Upgrade Quark 5 Robot Quark 6 PDF-X-Robot Mac OS X

PDF-X-Robot is much easier to use and set-up than the Mac OS 9 version you've been using, can do it yourself. The upgrades are free. The new OS X is so much easier to use, you'll like it. What is the timeline to make change? You may want to cut over all three of your pdf robots to PDF-X-Robot at once. All three robot workstation licenses you have are upgradeable for free. Of course, your other software, Quark, InDesign, FlightCheck, OS X, all that will be an expense for you guys.

You really should get the Adobe Creative Suite Premium, because it will get ALL your apps to current and comes with Adobe Acrobat Professional and Adobe InDesign CS. PDF-X-Robot runs really well with InDesign CS as well, a big plus when someone sends you an InDesign ad for the magazine.
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4/02/2007

Quark posts QuarkXPress 6.5 release, download quark express

Quark QuarkXPress 6.5 release, download quark express

Quark announced the coming release of QuarkXPress 6.5, the newest version of the indistry leading publishing software. Version 6.5 offers new features, increased stability and reliability. In collaboration with Linotype, QuarkXPress 6.5 allows purchase of fonts that are used in a project in addition to a free font bundle valued at $1,000. Version 6.5 will also include a selection of design templates by Stock Layouts. QuarkXPress 6.5 will include QuarkVista, a new XTensions module for image manipulation that extends the capabilities of QuarkXPress to include image editing within the context of the layout as well as support for native Photoshop files, enhancments for large workgroups, guildes on pasteboards on master pages, table enhancements, bleed/OPI settings, and more. QuarkXPress 6.5 will be available in the next 30 days as a free upgrade to registered owners of QuarkXPress 6.x.

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3/31/2007

New PDF-Robot User, Help With Quark 6 Document Problem?

i am a new robot user. i have been buzzing through jobs with ease and all has been going really well. have used both the indesign plugin and the quark xpress xtension and made pdf files for days. now i have started to run a catalog job that is many quark documents and it looks like the pdf files are overwriting each other. am i having a document problem? it seems like that or an operator problem.
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3/30/2007

PDF-X-Robot will eat your Quark & InDesign books for breakfast!

I am very curious about PDF/X Robot. From what I've read on your web site it would greatly improve efficiency and productivity of our PDF workflow.

Background: We produce perfect bound Japanese graphic novels that we convert to English. The book page count ranges from 150 to 300 black and white and color pages. We use Quark XPress 4.11 but will be switching to InDesign CS in the future. Most of our computers have Mac OS X 10.2 but will eventually upgrade to 10.3.

Questions: Does PDF/X Robot work with book production? I read on your website that it is designed for magazines and catalogs?
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3/22/2007

Kodak Prinergy Evo plug-ins such as Preps and Pandora

Kodak Prinergy Evo plug-ins such as Preps and Pandora

Hi to everyone,

The company i am currently working for are looking into a program that will work in conjuction with Prinergy Evo. What we are looking at is a program that can use hi-res pdf's set out to our cutting forms (Envelope Forms) and steps them to our liking. Sorry if my description of what i want the software to do is bad but i will try and make you guys understand somehow. We have been told that Pandora can interlock work, hence why alot of packaging companies use it and preps cannot.

Also with what i can see is that we should be able to import our cutters made from quark with just outlines, re-save them in eps format and then import them straight into Pandora. Pandora will then find the outlines and convert it to use, we can then set it up to how we want it to look onto our papersize. Pandora will then match the 2 cutters, original one and used in job, to each other and the place the artwork where the original cutter was....
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3/12/2007

MS Word Graphics to halftones in PDF File, convert grayscale

MS Word Graphics to halftones in PDF File, convert grayscale
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The whole story is that the original graphics come from at least three sources: a circuit simulator, Mathcad and Excel. (Originally these were Mathcad 8 and Works 2000). My guess is that it is more ...
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3/11/2007

Quark 6.5 with Yours Truly Design 6.5 probs (OSX 10.4.8)

Quark 6.5 with Yours Truly Design 6.5 probs (OSX 10.4.8)
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MichaelT, You most likely have some Xtensions that are not needed and are causing instability. additionally if you don't have over 2GB of RAM then that too is a problem. You need lots of RAM to r ...
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Spot Colours in Quark Xpress and PDFX1a

Spot Colours in Quark Xpress and PDFX1a
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Hi there, I recently discovered the artists here have been merrily distilling (PDFX1a) from Quark 6.5 pages which contain spot colours. We have no preflight software, so I took a casual glance over A ...
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Importing PDF into Quark Xpress 5,Quark Xpress 6, Quark 7

I am using older Quark (4.5) and I am new (returning after several years) to Quark Xpress and using an older version. I am trying to import .pdf files from clients and cannot seem to find a way...???
Can anyone help?
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3/09/2007

Quark Xpress 7, Prepress, & Computer to Plate Links

Quark Xpress, Prepress, & Computer to Plate Links


Prepress Equipment, Used and Refurbished Prepress Equipment For Sale
- Prepress equipment used prepress refurbished equipment for sale, buy sell trade. This professional blog is for used prepress equipment, refurbished prepress equipment, buy, sell, trade. Features Creo Scitex, Agfa, DS Screen, Linitronic, Hell, Hedelberg, ECRM, and many other manufacturers.

Resources for Adobe InDesign CS, Tutorials, Templates, Downloads - Here you can find design resources for Adobe InDesign CS, including InDesign Tutorials, InDesign Templates, InDesign Plug-Ins, and Adobe InDesign Software Downloads. Links to InDesign Forum with Prepress users worldwide. Look here when you need answers and help.

Quark Xpress Blog, Tutorial, Download, links, tips, techniques, etc. - The Quark Xpress Blog, Professional blog to share Quark Xpress Tutorial help, Quark Software links, Quark Xpress download links. Features many Quark Xpress 6 tutorials, tips, techniques, etc. Lots of prepress tips you need for printing, layout, preflight, font management.

Computer to Plate Blog, CTP Blog, Computer to Plate systems - The Computer to Plate Blog, A professional blog for Computer to Plate (CTP), Web Offset Printing, Sheetfed and Bindery Production, Plating and Industrial Strength PrePress Topics Discussed Here! Computer to Plate Forums, CTP Forum, Agfa, Creo, Scitex, DS Screen, Printing & Graphic Arts!

Mac OS X Tiger Blog, Downloads, Updates, all things Apple OS X - The Mac OS X Tiger Blog, a Poweruser Community for Mac OS X Tiger and Mac OS X Panther. Links and info for Mac OS X Forum, Download OS X, Mac OS X Download, Mac OS X Icon, Mac OS X Panther, Software MacOS X, OS X Icon, Mac OS X 10.2, all things Apple OS X.

Quark Xpress Tutorial Blog, Learn Quark Tips, Tricks, Technique
-The Quark Xpress Tutorial Blog is for sharing all kinds of Quark Xpress Tips, tricks, Techniques etc. Lots of links to other Quark Xpress resources. Many items of particular interest to Quark users from novice to expert. Quark printing problems, Quark Font problems, Get/Give Help!

Adobe Acrobat Blog, Reader, Adobe PDF Forums, Acrobat Downloads - The Adobe Acrobat Blog is a professional webspace devoted to Adobe Acrobat Tutorials, Tips, Tricks, and user to user support help. We have important articles and links to downloads, acrobat pdf forums, and help resources. Please save a shortcut to this page for answers and help.

Resources for Quark Xpress 6.0, Tutorials, Templates, and Downloads - Links Page Features Design resources for Quark Xpress 6.0, including Quark Xpress Tutorials, Quark Xpress Templates, Quark Xpress Xtensions, and Quark Xpress Software Downloads. Links to Quark Xpress Forum with Prepress user to user help.


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3/06/2007

Converting PDF file to quarkxpress 6.1, problem

Converting pdf to quarkxpress 6.1, problem

>> Hi Designers, I am trying to open up a pdf document
>> in quarkxpress 6.1 but am unable to find a program
>> that will convert the document from pdf to quark
>> xpress. Any suggestions or advise will
>> be appreciated.

>> Hi, this is Ray joining the Forum seeking help.
>> I've got a pdf file which i want to open in quark
>> xpress 6.1 but i am having a problem in finding a
>> suitable converter. Any advise or suggestions would
>> be appreciated.


RE: Converting pdf to quarkxpress 6.1 problem

Hello,

These PDF files can be placed INTO quark, then added to or edited via layering text, boxes, images etc. over the PDF file. You could then build up a document or book and output it from Quark to another PDF or to an output device. Quark is not a PDF editor and you cannot really convert PDF to Quark AFAIK there is no method.

BTW: if working in Quark Xpress, download the Quark Xpress 6.5 update that is free. It has many many improvements related to PDF import and export with quark xpress.
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8/28/2005

Appingo Publishing Professionals does PDF-X-Robot Workflow

Appingo Publishing Professionals does PDF-X-Robot for PDF Workflow

Appingo, the well respected book and magazine publishing serving whose experience cuts a wide swath across the publishing landscape. Appingo works on college textbooks, including complex math and chemistry texts, K-12 primers and ancillary materials, custom magazines and professional journals.

Recently, Appingo started using an automated PDF workflow tool by Software-Robotics.Com. The tool is called PDF-X-Robot which comes with both an Adobe InDesign Plug-In and a Quark Xtension. PDF-X-Robot is now in use by printers and publishers worldwide. It is considered to be the fastest, most accurate method for converting Quark Xpress and or Adobe InDesign documents into plate ready PDF files. PDF-X-Robot can run dozens of documents and hundreds of pages automatically, unattended.

Steve Jewett, president of Appingo writes:

"PDF-Robot is an awesome tool! This is the way I believe these jobs should be done. Thanks for your hard work and excellent support."


Steve Jewett, president
http://www.appingo.com/

If you are interested in PDF-X-Robot for your printing and publishing workflow, you can get it from: http://Software-Robotics.Com.

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6/08/2005

Online Prepress Community Starts PrePress News Page

Software-Robotics.Com, a major online professional community published a new daily prepress news page today. "We wanted our members to have quick easy access to all the prepress news out there. It's really just to help out hundreds members get current news and discuss it on our online forum community" the webmaster said. "We are getting new members every day now and this will support current news in their profession."
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New Corvette Search Index for Corvette Owners

Corvette-Nation.Com, a bustling internet community of Corvette Owners, Mechanics, and Enthusiasts has begun a hobby search index for corvette owners. "It's really great, our members can really find information quickly in the new index" the webmaster said.
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Quark Xpress PDF Question From Customers 4 Us

Hi, We repeatedly have had customers sending ads in as PDF. We gave out a read me that showed settings to use etc. So, now we regularly get questions that we pass back & forth between desktop and customers. This one issue I have seen a few times and I have never gotten an answer to. So, Friday when I got the question again, I asked my customer to send me an email and thought I would post here, see if somebody knows this. When customers are distilling a PDF for us, they get an error about fonts:

Helvetica not found, using Courier.
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2/24/2005

How to Convert InDesign 2.0.2 doc into Quark Xpress 6 ?

>> HELP!! Can You open an InDesign 2.0.2 doc in Quark 6 ? I need to do this for work. and is not working. ....
No, but you can conver the document from Adobe InDesign to Quark Xpress 6 and work it, there a couple of other options. ... Here are your options...
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2/14/2005

Quark 4.04 and printing problem, Mac OS X in Classic mode

"cannot open the printer [64]"
Have G4 with Mac OSX 10.3 Panther printing problem. I have Quark 4.04 running in classic mode on Mac OS 9.2. Have Epson Stylus color 680. Quark Xpress 4 gives me an error message: "cannot open the printer [64]". The printer is working with other applications.
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2/13/2005

Will PDF-X-Robot work in our Agfa Apogee CTP Workflow?

I work in a pre-press studio which runs a pdf workflow. We use an Agfa CTP system (Apogee Series 3) where we postscript straight from Quark into a Apogee Normaliser which flightchecks the postscript files, adds any actions (we have programmed some master actions ie.-knockout white etc,) and creates the pdf's for us to impose etc. This system works ok but it struggles with DCS2.0 files, we are not able to send composite files down which in turn would create a composite pdf, so we have to create separated pdf's which visually only show the last plate (no good for proofing to the customer) and also it creates images on any blank colour spaces.

I have also updated to OSX Panther and running Quark 6.5 and any spot colour vignette in quark converts to CMYK through our current system. Could we create hi-res pdf's to use in our current Agfa workflow using PDF-X-Robot, and would PDF-X-Robot solve the problems I have mentioned above? Do you know of anyone who runs a similar system to us who is using PDF-X-Robot to create their pdf's?
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PDF Workflow, Prinergy, Prinect Printready vs Agfa Apoge X

I am currently operating on Prinergy, but have recently had some disturbing news! It seems Quark 6.1 will not be compatable with Prinergy, add to that no foreseeable support for PDF 1.5

So it's time to switch - The two biggest contenders seem to be Agfa's Apogee X and Heidelberg's Printec Printready. I'm just wanting to know if the above will be ok with these two workflows? Also, does anyone have any major grievances with either? I'm looking for a general consensus!
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2/12/2005

Quark Xpress 6 and corrupt font error message when printing

When I am printing from Quark Xpress 6, no matter what printer or ppd is used, Quark reports that "The font Helvetica may be corrupt and may be substituted with Courier [108]" . Quark Xpress 6 will also make the same warning for any other Helvetica font being used. After OK, PDF-X-Robot automation has been interrupted. Also, I can't batch process documents all night unattended like i had been because the damn message requires an operator OK.

I have had this Quark Xpress 6 font error with other fonts, they are never substituted, they will always print correctly if I just OK, and they all work without a hitch in InDesign, Quark Xpress 5. They also print fine without a font error message in Mac OS 9 and Quark 5 using same suitcase, documents and font library?? I am running PDF-X-Robot 081004, OSX 10.3.6, Mac 2Ghz dual G5. Using Quark 6.1, Suitcase X1 and InDesign CS 3.0.1. Will Quark Xpress 6.5 address this damn problem?

Quark Xpress 6.1 reports this font error warning for fonts sometimes even when the fonts do not exist in the document, including eps and tiff files. This Quark Xpress font error warning began happening as soon as I installed the 6.1 update to Quark and I've had problems ever since. I have to figure out how to make it stop. Can you please make this a priority request/feature for the next update of PDF-X-Robot_XT?
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Mac OS X Quark Xpress, options for text import apps, word?

If I type text with AppleWorks 6, which is the only writing app on OSX, and I save as txt, to be able to import on Quark, how do I avoid that really annoying problem: everytime I need to re-open a Applework file, after it has been saved, to edit it for example, it opens as an untitled file, which then needs to be saved again. Knowing that most text files I used will be edited at least 3 or 4 times before publishing on Quark, it makes for a lot of work.

What other format does Quark recognize? I used to use Word for Mac, an old version that did the job just fine, but I'm trying to use OSX as much as possible. By the way, I think OSX is a bit too windowy for my taste. I have a lot to learn about it yet, but I find it more complicated than OS9. At the moment, I'm struggling with the Fonts book, to use with Quark.
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Quark Xpress Tutorial Pages and PrePress Tutorial

Here's a link to a healthy collection of tutorials to speed up and improve the quality of your work in Quark Xpress. if you make a repeating type of document like a monthly catalog, magazine or newsletter, These Quark Tutorials will definitely help you or your customers to better learn and use Quark Xpress.
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2/11/2005

single page or multi-page pdf files for publication?

I did not see an answer in my other post about the single page or multi-page question. With PDF-X-Robot are pages coming out as single pages or multi-page pdf files. My printer always wants single page pdf files and I have to print each Quark Xpress page, one by one, naming and saving in correct sequence. Sometimes I spend hours when it's time to submit a job. It is so much work and I can't trust anybody else to do it right, too many clicks and too easy to mess up.
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2/10/2005

Quark 5 only outputs at 1200 dpi, Quark printing problem

I just upgraded to an accuset 1000 from a 9800, and now using the viper rip. I use quark 5 on the PC side and used to rip through an agfa star 800. I always image at 2400 dpi, but now that I switched rips, even though I set my printing preferences at 2400 it will only image at 1200. I can still image fine from pagemaker at 2400 dpi... ??
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