Hey everyone,

Ever since one of our PCs upgraded itself to Windows 10 overnight ( ) a couple months ago, our UPS computer (which runs on Windows XP) cannot print to an HP LaserJet laser printer that's connected to the now-Windows 10 computer.

Before, when the Windows 10 computer was running Windows 7, the Windows XP UPS computer could communicate to that laser printer just fine...

What I'm wondering (in my long-winded way) is -- can Windows XP communicate with Windows 10 at all, or is Windows 10 "too advanced" to communicate with the no-longer-supported-by-Microsoft Windows XP??

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

When it came to converting Quark Xpress 5 files to InDesign, I had a copy of QX5 on my PC server which I would use to backsave files back to Quark Xpress 4 so that I could convert them from QX4 to InDesign.

Sadly, that PC server went to Silicon Heaven about a month ago, so I no longer have a viable copy of QX5.

Does anybody on here have the ability to save back to Quark Xpress 4, or have an easier way to convert old Quark files to InDesign?

It doesn't happen here very often -- just enough to be annoying.

Any help / feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hi everybody,

Can someone convert a Pages file to a PDF for me?

When the customer does it herself, she gets these weird intermittent "stripes" along the edges of the boxes containing "LEAVE A LEGACY" and I'd like to see if this happens to anybody else or not. (A sample PDF is in the ZIP archive along with the Pages file.)

The finished PDF needs to be sent to prepress@opsprinting.com as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

I've always been told that printing a letterhead on a color laser copier (like our Xerox 700), and then running that letterhead through a laser printer is a Big No-No, because the toner on the letterhead would be melted by the high temperatures of the laser printer's fuser unit.

Is this still the case, does anyone know?

I'm asking because some of our customers' letterhead runs are getting shorter and shorter, and the pressman kvetches (quelle surprise!) about setting up for such short runs, especially when plates are involved.

Looking forward to any feedback!

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

As those who've been following my saga might know, Da Boss sold off our platemaking system without having a backup fully in place.  Now he's found a print shop about an hour's drive from us that has the same platemaker/processor that we did, so he figured everything was hunky-dory.

Well, naturally, it ain't.

We run two size plates here -- a 10" x 15.25" one for our Hamada 2-15, and a 13" x 19.1875" one for our Hamada RS-234.

This other shop only runs one small plate -- 13.625" x 19.375" -- for their Ryobi press, and their prepress person doesn't know how to add a new plate setup into the system.  (Their setup had already been programmed by the time she came onboard, and it sounds like she only knows how to press buttons, as she talked about needing to have a tech come in to program the new plate size into the software.)

My question is -- is it really that difficult to create a new plate setup in DynaStrip, or can anyone do it once they've been given sufficient instructions?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if any of you have the following Elks lodge logo available in vector format?

If so, would you be willing to share it with me?

The slogan at the bottom isn't important, but I do need the "two-flag" version of their logo, which isn't as common as the usual seal.

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Does anyone have the ability to convert Pages files into Word files?

Customer just sent me two Pages files and my old InDesign (CS4)   can't do squat with them.


If you can, please let me know ASAP.


Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Me again, with an ongoing issue from our Xerox 700i...  


When I output PDF files through Command Workstation on any size sheet larger than 11" x 17", the artwork along the longer side of the sheet comes out about 1/16" narrower than it's supposed to.

For example -- I printed something today that measures 10.5" vertically by 15.5" horizontally.  The vertical crop marks measure perfectly -- 10.5" from top to bottom -- but the horizontal crop marks measure 15.4375" from left to right.

WTF is going on here???

I've got Xerox on the case -- sent them some PDFs of recent jobs including this one that have exhibited this problem -- but thought I'd see if anyone else here has run into this problem?

We've had so many registration issues with this machine since day one that I wonder if some technician down the line somewhere didn't alter the machine's settings to produce an ever-so-slightly "squished" horizontal image?

One of my co-workers wonders if it's something I'm doing wrong on my end, and much as I'm inclined to immediately dismiss this notion, I have to look at this problem from all angles.

I create my PDF files from InDesign CS4, and generate the crop marks automatically from InDesign during the PDF creation process, and import the PDFs into CommandWorkstation 5.3.1.32 on our PC server running on Windows XP.

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Got a slight problem with an older OSX operating system -- 10.5.8., to be precise.

Whenever I try to install any software downloaded from online and saved / expanded as a .dmg file, the installation crashes and I get the "This program has crashed unexpectedly" error message.  Whenever I try to relaunch the application, the same thing happens.  Even when the computer asks me if I want to reset the application's parameters (I'm paraphrasing here), the same crash occurs.

This keeps happening on the G5 that's going to be my new workstation, and now I'm leery about using it for this purpose.

Has anyone else here had this problem too, and if so, what did you do to fix it?

I'm wondering if an OS upgrade would make the problem go away?  Trouble is, I think the only update currently available is Yosemite, and I don't know if that would be a good idea for a computer this old...

As always, any and all advice is greatly appreciated! 

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

For the most part, I haven't had too many problems with CMYK output on our Xerox 700i digital color "press", but a new job has me stumped and I'd appreciate some feedback.

This customer's job has what appears to be -- on screen, at any rate -- a teal blue background with some dark teal (pretty much a green) lettering.  On screen, it looks fine.

But when I print it out on the 700, the teal background is a lot darker and you can barely see the lettering.

Since the files were creaetd in Photoshop and given to me as PDFs, I thought maybe the problem was RGB to CMYK conversion.  The designer sent me the PSD files and informed me that the teal background is a "HEX value of #19B2BC".

Now I'm wondering if that isn't the problem right there -- HEX vs. CMYK?

Our shop deals strictly in either Pantone spot colors or four-color process, nothing more advanced than that, so I asked the designer if he was trying to match any Pantone colors out there, but no response yet...

This is the CMYK breakdown of the teal background:  C=74 M=7 Y=27 K=0

These are the CMYK breakdowns of the green lettering:  C=93 M=51 Y=56 K=33

If anyone wants to see/play with the actual PSD files, I can send them your way.

Any and all help is appreciated! 

Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Does anybody have a reliable source for replacement Itek camera/platemaker parts?

Our Itek 430 has been giving up the ghost for years now, but keeps getting resurrected and pathced up like some unholy Frankenstein's monster.

Now it looks like the PAL attachment is the latest portion to go, and I've been asked to look this up on the Internet (never mind that I'm already doing the jobs of three people here...).  After banging my head against the monitor yesterday afternoon, it occurred to me that I should ask you fine folks... :cheesy: 


Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.


Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Customer just sent me a Pages file, and I don't have Pages...

Customer is not especially tech-savvy, and I was hoping someone here could recommend an easy way to extract the info from the Pages file?

Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hey everybody --

Need some advice on our latest nightmare job...  


A longstanding customer is going to be changing the colors and layout of their business cards (as well as other things going down the road), and for the blue they want us to match, they emailed me a JPEG downloaded from some site that they generated a quickie business card sample from.

In Photoshop, I get the following values:
(RGB) R = 31, G = 105, B = 178
(CMYK) C = 88, M = 59, Y = 1, K = 0
Pantone Solid Uncoated = PMS 2935U
Pantone+ Solid Unocated = PMS 300U
Pantone Solid Coated = PMS 660C
Pantone+ Solid Coated = PMS 660C

But when I printed a color sample out on my Xerox 700 DCP and compared it against these spot colors, they don't look anything like the printed sample!  


From our Pantone Coated book, the closest visual match appears to be PMS 7462C.

From our Pantone Uncoated book, the closest visualmatch appears to be PMS 301U.

And to top it all off, the blue is going to be printed on 100 lb. Neenah Classic Crest Antique Gray Cover stock, which will further alter the blue's appearance... 

What's my best course of action?  Explain to the customer that not all screen colors are achievable as a Pantone match?  (Not to mention that due to monitor calibration differences, the blue he's seeing may not look like the same blue I'm seeing...)  Pick one of the above colors and hope for the best?

What would you folks do in my shoes??

Cheers, John the Fontaholic  


P.S.:  I can upload the JPEG sample he provided if anyone's interested...

Hey everyone,

Bit of a long-shot here, but I figured if anyone would know, they'd be on here...

I'm looking for a viable copy of Quark Xpress 6 for the Macintosh for a friend of mine.  Her copy recently bought the farm and she's not crazy about spending the $$$ to upgrade to Quark 10, especially since she's leery of having to learn a bunch of new commands, etc.  (I know...)

Anybody have good leads for this?  Or do I just go looking on eBay, Amazon, craigslist, etc.?  And what would be considered a fair price these days?

Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone --

The Boss has two digital photos which he needs the date and time added to both of them.

Although the date and time are both present when you select "Properties" / "Get Info", he wants this information displayed on the photos themselves -- Date of November 7, 2014, Time of 6:04 PM.

Is there an easy way to do this in Photoshop??

I need to know this ASAP, so any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hi there!

My boss is looking to acquire a four-color 40" 102-V Heidelberg press (1992), and he heard through the grapevine that someone in the Norfolk, Virginia area had one for sale.

Does anyone on here live in that area and knows about this, perhaps??

Any and all help appreciated!  

Cheers, John the Fontaholic 

Hi everyone...

Da Boss (whose computer is running on Windows 7) began having a problem in Outlook Express last Friday, when I was out of the office.

Out of nowhere, Outlook keeps asking him to "Enter Network Password", and no matter how many times we type in the correct information, Outlook doesn't recognize this as the correct password and asks again. And again. And again...

We know the problem's in Outlook because we can access the emails normally through the ISP's website, but Da Boss likes his Outlook and wants the problem solved.


I'm a Mac person, so I need ll the help I can get when dealing with Windows... :undecided: 


Cheers, John the Fontaholic

Hey everyone,

Are there any Photoshop whizzes out there who can lend some advice?

I have a customer who's given me a digital photo of his son and daughter-in-law for use in a project.

The photo was taken outside and the sunlight/glare has almost totally "blown out" the son's forehead, leaving a largely white-ish glare that the customer feels is too distracting (and so do I).

Trouble is, I don't know what I can do to retrieve / recapture any detail from the forehead.  So far, everything I've tried to do, makes my efforts look really noticeable and/or fake.

I can upload the photo if that will help.

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic 

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd pick people's brains to see if they've had any luck with a CMYK formula for Reflex Blue that doesn't end up looking as "purple-y" as the Pantone Color Bridge swatch (100 C, 82 M, 0 Y, 2 K) looks?

We have a customer who normally uses Reflex Blue but will now be doing a four-color process newsletter twice a year rather than a two-spot-color (black and Reflex Blue) three times a year.  The job will run on gloss text stock so the photos will "pop".

Since I know Reflex Blue is one of those problematic colors, I figured I'd check here first for any good suggestions? 

Cheers, John the Fontaholic 

 :spy2:Hey everyone,

Our Itek 430 Camera Processor is succumbing to age-related issues and I was wondering if anybody out there knows of a reputable place that does Itek repair / service in the Boston, Massachusetts area??

From what little I understand of the problem, the Itek film keeps getting jammed in the various roller units with no consistency to what gets stuck where...

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated! 

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic