anyone getting Quark 7 files?

[doubting_thomas]

We have 2 clients currently using Q7. As far as I can tell, the only reason is that they've
been using Quark since v4 or earlier. It makes sense that they use it for their archived
work, but it also makes sense for me to request PDF files from them. If there was more
of a demand for Q7 I'd have to upgrade, but at this point I won't. There are too many
cons, especially with the CMS that can't be turned off. 

[Joe]

I have a customer that has been using Quark 4 for years. They called and asked my opinion and for any tips on Quark 7. I had previosuly told this customer that in my opinion InDesign was the way to go. When they asked about it again they told me they were aware of how great InDesign is but they were 99% sure they were going to stick with Quark and were just looking for Quark 7 info and any quirks with it etc...and they would like to talk to any Quark 7 users we knew of. So I sent them to http://www.quark.com/service/forums/. Two days later they made the decision to go with InDesign. You are welcome Quark.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

we have one client running Quark 4 on a mac mini booting in OS9 then bringing his mess here. I jockey between 6 and 7 depending on the moon phase (just a guess) till I get the damned file under control. It's always giving font warnings, sayin the document needs to be repaired, etc. etc. He sets up the job on a 9.25 x 12.25 board which should be 9x12 so the whole thing has made into a 9.25x12.25 pdf once the job is approved then each page brought into a 9x12 quark 6.5 document (can't use 7, have issues with preps with quark 7 pdfs) then a final 9x12 pdf is made and brought into preps. I tried to instruct him how to make his page sizes smaller but he copies and pastes new copy from old issues and I really thought he was going to have a heart attack when he tried.

Some may call this ridiculous. I call it job security. Thanks Quark.

[Joe]

we have one client running Quark 4 on a mac mini booting in OS9 then bringing his mess here. I jockey between 6 and 7 depending on the moon phase (just a guess) till I get the damned file under control. It's always giving font warnings, sayin the document needs to be repaired, etc. etc. He sets up the job on a 9.25 x 12.25 board which should be 9x12 so the whole thing has made into a 9.25x12.25 pdf once the job is approved then each page brought into a 9x12 quark 6.5 document (can't use 7, have issues with preps with quark 7 pdfs) then a final 9x12 pdf is made and brought into preps. I tried to instruct him how to make his page sizes smaller but he copies and pastes new copy from old issues and I really thought he was going to have a heart attack when he tried.

Some may call this ridiculous. I call it job security. Thanks Quark.

Yep...although I whine about it all sometimes I'm always smiling on the way to the bank on Friday.

[hotmetal]

One - but just one, so far - of our clients bought into the Quark 7 scam a couple weeks ago. We just finished a whole pile of pressforms for them. They went for the Q7 drop shadow "feature" like a moth to a flame.

These were big layouts, 60 some inches wide, built half-size in Q7, lots of dropshadow'd type over big images. Saving to postscript continuously gave an out-of-memory message. It bounced around from operator to operator for a couple days until finally it landed on my desk. I gave up trying to find the magic bullet (saving to Q7 "pdf" certainly wasn't the answer; maybe more RAM? Geeze, no time for that.) Instead I turned off all the Quark drop shadows, output postscript, opened the postscript in Illy CS3, then re-made the dropshadows. It ran, the client bought it. They were also told how much trouble it had been. We'd begged them not to go to Quark 7 in advance to no avail.

Ok, now they've got their act together. The artistically inclined person responsible for this ongoing mess will from now on make all his or her dropshadow'd type in layered Photoshop files, save to .psd, and bring it into Quark 7. That should cure all the problems, right? Oh, yeah, just to make that minor little transparency thingee easier for us, they have a couple of standard spot colors they always use in these layouts.

[born2print]

The artistically inclined person responsible for this ongoing mess will from now on make all his or her dropshadow'd type in layered Photoshop files, save to .psd, and bring it into Quark 7.

That's the funniest thing I've seen all week... next to my sweet new avatar anyway!
(Don't get me wrong, I'd love clients to do this, but I have to think "why did they buy Q7 then?")

[beermonster]

see - ya post saying ya had no problems - then.....

desighners sent in aweful file - it just would not rip at all - did a ps out (874 meg), distill and into indy - ripped first time.....luckily there wasnt transparency and stuff in the job....

i really dislike this POS with a passion

[Tynan]

we had problems with drop shadows over big pics early on, all ram related, upgrade to 2Gb and a more or less same time upgrade to 7.2 fixed them all

in the mean time it was usually a question of down sampling the picture to the correct res

over more than one item was a bad thing though

past bug now

and in response to the earlier poster's 'pdf import is pathetic' we import and run pdf as our preferred graphic format, finished articles, logos, full page tabloid ads

sweet as a nut, far better and robust than eps, our previous format

I wouldn't dream of sending a Quark file to our prepress mob, pdf is so much more reliable and idiot proof, no arguments about whi cocked up what either

[almaink]

You don't run a true PDF workflow with quark it's impossible. Since Quark only supports PDF version 1.3 ( yes Acrobat 4) and below that is, and has no live transparency export to PDF. Please explain how you work with customer supplied PDF's of higher origin in Quark.
Yes I know the workarounds (backsave and resave as eps) but WTF waste time when Indy imports them as is? And IMO does a better job at everything anyway, including live transparency export to PDF.

[born2print]

sweet as a nut, far better and robust than eps, our previous format

Welcome Tynan, "eps as previous format"... do you mean export page as eps from quark? (just curious, I realize it's dead and gone)

[Joe]

we had problems with drop shadows over big pics early on, all ram related, upgrade to 2Gb and a more or less same time upgrade to 7.2 fixed them all

in the mean time it was usually a question of down sampling the picture to the correct res

over more than one item was a bad thing though

past bug now

and in response to the earlier poster's 'pdf import is pathetic' we import and run pdf as our preferred graphic format, finished articles, logos, full page tabloid ads

sweet as a nut, far better and robust than eps, our previous format

I wouldn't dream of sending a Quark file to our prepress mob, pdf is so much more reliable and idiot proof, no arguments about whi cocked up what either

I also asked this in the other thread but just want to be sure:

Okay, so you can take a PDF from Illustrator or InDesign with live transparency, and place it in Quark and have it output correctly?

[frailer]

A related hypothetical. If you got Q7, so you could open a [big] customer's docs...because they had upgraded to Q7; then they tell you that they are having trouble with QLA, are currently "un"registered, and will be supplying Q6.52 for the "time being"...LOL...would you open in Q7 cos you have it, or just open in 6.52?

Just a quick poll. Would very much like to know peoples' thoughts on this.   :cheesy:

[Joe]

I would open in 6.52 if I have it available.

[jezza]

Ditto

[born2print]

I would open in 6.52 if I have it available.

Same here, advancing to Q7 can work, but it can also create problems and it's just not worth it.