Question for those few that have upgraded to Quark 7. I just got a PDF created from 7 that has shadows. It seems that when this file is exported to PDF Quark creates a white box that gets sandwiched between the tif image and the shadow. Unfortunately that white box is not in the same position as the tif image and creates a white line on edges of the tif. I was able to remove that box using pitstop but just wondered if anyone else is seeing this. It's a shame Quark still can't export live transparency as I also had to rebuild the front cover of this brochure by breaking up said cover into separate PDF's and rebuilding them in Indy using PDF import with transparent backgrounds and layering them back together. Of course the customer tells me, I've sent this same file to another printer and they didn't have any issues with it". I hate that...
I'd post the PDF but at 60 megs it's to big so instead here is a couple of jpegs showing what I'm talking about.

No help but I guess I've been lucky that our Quark 7 customers haven't used the shadow feature. Probably just haven't found it yet. Most of them are lucky to be able to turn their computer on so it might be a while longer before I see any of this. :laugh:

I am interested though if others have seen this.

I have posted this before. I was having a lot of problems with Quark 7.1 and below for years. We have about 10 customers that still use it, and I have had to adapt. I have not had any problem with Quark at all with drop shadows and for that matter, transparencies or PDFs since I discovered this:

Manager, (name withheld),

I have reviewed the PDF in question and have come up with a solution and a possible explanation as to why this PDF went bad.

First I reviewed the ripped PDF, the fonts that were subset somehow changed in kerning and spacing. I reviewed the original placed PDF, and It was okay. I then tried to determine if the problem originated from Apogee X Normalizer or Acrobat Distiller. In every instance of testing the result was the same, bad. I then placed the original PDF in Quark Versions 4-7. Breakdown as followed:

Version 4 - Bad
Version 5 - Let me know screen fonts were missing when I placed it. But still bad.
Version 6 - Bad
Version 7 - Bad

For fun, I placed the original PDF in InDesign, Illustrator and Freehand MX, Interesting results.

InDesign CS3 - Okay
InDesign CS2 - Okay
InDesign CS1 - Okay
InDesign V2 - Bad
Illustrator CS3 - Okay
Illustrator CS2 - Okay
Illustrator V10 - Okay
Freehand MX - Asked for fonts, results unknown since I do not have the fonts that were used in the original PDF
PageMaker V7 - Bad

It appears that any Adobe product past system 9-based applications have absolutely no problem printing this file as it was originally intended, go figure. Any application other than Adobe manufactured cannot print it.

So... the solution. There are two. The first is to rasterize the PDFs in Photoshop, taking care to watch out for defaulting fonts. Not the best way to do it, but it will work. The second solution is: I dug around the internet looking for explanations as to why this was happening, and I found that Quark has a problem with PDFs. It always has. If the fonts are not 100% embedded than Quark "substitutes" for the closest resemblance. People are outraged, so Quark came out with Version 7.3. I downloaded it, installed it, and it works.

In conclusion, as long as this job, and every other Quark job with placed PDFs is output from version 7.3, we are gold. Any other version before 7.3, we are taking a risk, which the customer needs to be informed about.

Jason

This is not your problem, but I thought the people would be interested. This version did clean up most of the issues you are having, at least it has for me. Try it and let me know. I have an interest in this.

Sorry, no help here either. I have trouble just printing lasers from Q7, much less making a PDF file.
Lucky for us most of the Q7 files we get don't have any shadows, maybe they're afraid.

LOL I already knew Quack 7 was garbage and thats why our shop doesn't support it, but this is the first time I've seen this issue. Bad news is I have another file on the way from this same designer and she said she used tons on transparent effects in that file and wasn't even sure they would work! I beginning to wonder if it's time to throw in the towel, and go sell cars or something...

Quark 7.3 is a free download to existing customers. DOWNLOAD IT BEFORE YOU DO THE JOB. It may not fix your problems, I don't see why it wouldn't, but it is worth the time dowloading it, if you HAVE to use Quark.

http://files.quark.com/download/73/QuarkXPress73updater_Mac.dmg

got the 7.3 updater a while back...
just put it on one Mac to see...

didn't fix squat...

just my opinion, your milage may vary.

Have you tried printing to ps and distill instead of export? That's what I do to all my Quark files because of issues with exporting to pdf.

I think almaink only has the PDF.

Quote from: david on February 21, 2008, 10:57:00 AMgot the 7.3 updater a while back...
just put it on one Mac to see...

didn't fix squat...

just my opinion, your milage may vary.

But did you get the 7.31 updater. That is the one that holds the secrets of the universe:

QuoteQuarkXPress 7.31 offers the following enhancements:

Certification on Windows Vista® and support for Mac OS® Leopard
Enhancements to spell checking that allow you to:
Find and correct duplicate words
(For example: The reports reports are out.)
Find and correct spacing errors after punctuation
(For example: See, spot can run.Can you?)
Ignore Internet & file addresses when spelling is checked
(For example: http://rootcellr/mac/ctm.htm, https://, ftp://, file://, and tcbr@fastcow.org)
Ignore words with numbers
(For example: model numbers fx25b4, fx30b4)
The QuarkXPress Passport 7.31 updater also includes:
Spell checking and hyphenation support for Norwegian (Bokmål) and Norwegian (Nynorsk) languages.
Spell checking in German, Reformed German, and Swiss German that finds and corrects capitalization errors at the beginning and within a sentence.
QuarkXPress 7.31 resolves various customer-reported issues, including:

Text reflow issues:
Customers may have experienced text reflow when opening projects created in earlier versions of QuarkXPress 7 that contained justified text with tracking applied or text set with right index tabs and negative tracking applied. These issues have been resolved.

Import and output of projects containing Creative Suite 3 (CS 3) PDFs:
Customers may have experienced issues with placing PDF files created in Creative Suite® 3 or lost alpha and spot channel information when importing PSD files created in Creative Suite 3. These issues have been resolved. 

Output of hairline rules on non-PostScript devices:
Customers may have experienced incorrect output of hairline or fractional point rules on non-PostScript devices. This issue has been resolved.

Recurring error message with older versions of fonts:
Customers on Windows may have experienced a recurring error dialog when opening legacy projects that used older versions of some fonts. This issue has been resolved.

Bounding Box To Use settings for PDF import
Customers may have noticed that selections made in the Bounding Box To Use drop-down menu in the Import Picture dialog box (File > Import Picture > PDF Import) were not retained. This issue has been resolved.

Updating single occurrences of modified images
Earlier versions of QuarkXPress had no option to update a single occurrence of a modified image in a layout through the Usage dialog box. Users can now use the Shift key to update a single occurrence of a modified image in a layout.

QuarkXPress 7.31 known issues

QuarkXPress 7.31 issues resolved

No Joe, I haven't, thanks for the info.

NEVER export to PDF from Quark. It has bitten me so many times it is ridiculous. I print ps and distill. Maybe that is your problem. I don't generally export as PDF from any app, superstition, been bit too many times, whatever, I just do not trust it. Quark has a hard enough time just printing using it's own devices, let alone using someone else's incorporation.

My problem with Quark was the PDF issue and fonts, which 7.3 fixed. I ran many tests in a lot of programs old and new. I have had very good luck with Quark and I believe it is my experience with it. Maybe it is settings, or maybe that white line is a screen anomoly, maybe the picture is not all the way to the border... It could be a variety of things. Can you take some screen shots of your settings for print to ps in Quark? I need more details.

It's not me that's having the issue. It's almaink. And he has the PDF his customer created so he has no control over how the PDF is created. I would say though if he can delete the white line with Pitstop that it is really there though.

Yeah, I know it isn't you Joe. The first comment was for you, and thanks again.

Okay, if it is a supplied PDF from Quark, it is on their end. The reason it ain't workin' is they are using a lower version of Quark than 7.31. Can you get them to resend after they have upgraded? Or, get you a native file?

Quote from: DigitalCrapShoveler on February 21, 2008, 11:55:44 AMYeah, I know it isn't you Joe. The first comment was for you, and thanks again.

Okay, if it is a supplied PDF from Quark, it is on their end. The reason it ain't workin' is they are using a lower version of Quark than 7.31. Can you get them to resend after they have upgraded? Or, get you a native file?

They're in India.     I couldn't help myself..........

It was a supplied PDF. I always export to PDF from Quack 6.5 and have never had any issues doing so. In fact I haven't even launched distiller in over a year now. IF the presets are set correctly you get the same results or at least I do YMMV tho. I think it's more a problem with the way Quark flattens it's transparency than anything else. You'd think by now they would have export to PDF version 1.5 at least, to support unflattened PDF's.