'Gentle' solutions for software problems in publishing industry
– Kevin Slimp
There seems to be a recurring theme in my e-mail lately.
Problems related to outdated and just released applications
seem to abound. Fortunately, my e-mail includes enough
variety to keep things interesting. Below are a few of the calls
for help I’ve received over the past few weeks:
From Tami, in North Dakota
In InDesign, I’ve designed a two
colour envelope with a graduated
screen in the background with small
type over it. When I print it, there
is a knockout behind all the text
(causing registration problems).
I would like to set it, so it wouldn’t
knock out the screen behind the
10-point type. Where do I find that
setting?
Kevin: That’s an easy one, Tami.
Go to your InDesign Preferences
and look for Appearance of Black
in the sidebar. There is an option
to Always Overprint Black. Select
that option and all should be well.
(Note: Tami wrote back to report
this fixed her overprinting problem.)
From Scott, in Tennessee
Our staff has finally migrated
completely to OS X Macs and
applications. Our ad builders are
creating ads in InDesign and
exporting them out as PDFs. The
pagination department has no
trouble importing these ads, using
InDesign CS2 and CS3. However,
our sister paper is still using
QuarkXPress 4.11 in a classic Mac
environment. The spot colour ads,
once placed on the Quark pages,
are separating on all four plates.
The latest QuarkXPress PDF import
filter I can find is version 1.6. What
setting within InDesign CS3 can
our ad builders use to create spot
colour ads exported as PDFs that
will separate correctly for our
pagination staff using InDesign
CS2 as well as our sister paper,
using QuarkXPress 4.1 Any help
you can provide regarding these
settings would be greatly
appreciated.
Kevin: Well, Scott, the problem isn’t
in InDesign or QuarkXPress. It’s in
the way you’re creating the PDF
files. Files exported from InDesign,
as well as other applications, simply
cause lots of problems when
printed. Your staff should be
creating PostScRIPt files of the ads,
then converting them to PDF using
Acrobat Distiller. That should take
care of the problems you’ve been
having. (Scott sent a note a few
days later to let me know they fixed
the problem. Both QuarkXPress and
InDesign are happy with the PDF
files these days.)
From Shirley, in Minnesota
Is there a difference if you print to
PostScRIPt, then distill, versus
exporting to EPS and distilling?
Kevin: Yes, Shirley, there’s a big
difference. Although
saving a file as EPS, then
distilling, works fine in
most cases, saving a
document as a PostScRIPt
file first is more
dependable. Fortunately,
the recent versions
of InDesign and
QuarkXPress make
writing a PostScRIPt file
as easy as clicking a
couple of buttons.
From Doug, in Rhode Island
I received a PDF, used
Pitstop 4.6 to preflight it
and the report did not
indicate any errors. When
I converted the PDF to an
EPS, imported it into a
Quark document (version
4.1) and sent it to our
Harlequin RIP, the photos
dropped out. According
to the report (attached) the
PDF was created in
Illustrator. Did the photos
drop out because they
weren’t attached correctly
to begin with?
Kevin: Doug has run into a problem
that’s becoming more prevalent.
Older applications, including
QuarkXPress 4.1, just can’t handle
some of the new technology being
used today. PDFs now contain
features, such as transparencies,
that weren’t available back in the
90s, when QuarkXPress 4 was
released. It’s time to admit that
newspapers can’t continue to use
old software without paying a price.
I’ve received frantic calls from
newspapers who couldn’t get their
pages to print or faced other
deadline emergencies due to old
software. Several newspaper groups
pay a hefty fee for my advice. Let
me give you some free advice.
Update your technology before
it’s too late.
From Nancy, in Saskatchewan
PageMaker is driving me
crazy. Whenever I create PDFs
(I use InDesign & Acrobat Distiller)
and send them to Mac PageMaker
users, especially if they contain spot
colours, they can’t seem to print
them correctly. Tell me there’s a
secret you can share to correct the
PageMaker problem.
Kevin: This isn’t a problem you
created, Nancy. It’s hard to believe
PageMaker is as old as it is. I started
using the application in the mid 80s,
when it was first released. It won’t
even run on newer Macs. I find it
hard to believe newspapers can stay
in business but can’t afford to
upgrade from PageMaker to
InDesign. If that’s the case,
I suspect they won’t be in business
much longer. I tried to put that as
gently as I could, Nancy.
From Jamie, in Minnesota
I saw you at the Minnesota
Newspaper Association
Convention and, as usual, enjoyed
it immensely. We are in the process
of trying to upgrade to either Quark
or InDesign. Because we were
already using Quark, we bought
copies of QuarkXPress 6.5 and a 7.0
to try out - and are having plenty
of trouble with them! Can you tell
me that this transition would be
easier with InDesign? I have one
brand new computer running 10.5
Leopard and Quark 7.0 and it just
won’t work!
Kevin: Nice touch with the
opening compliment, Jamie. Here’s
the answer: Maybe. Maybe not. I
have been to newspapers where
moving to InDesign solved most
or all of their printing problems.
However, I suspect your problems
might be related more to Leopard
than to QuarkXPress. Users have
been bombarding blogs, forums and
my e-mail with tales of printing and
other problems after upgrading to
Leopard (OS 10.5). Some folks don’t
have any problems after upgrading.
Others have tremendous
difficulties. Let me suggest two
possibilities. The least expensive
option might be to do a clean install
of OS 10.4 on your machine, then
install QuarkXPress. If the problems
go away, then you know where they
were coming from. Another option
would be to install InDesign on
your machine (keeping OS 10.5) and
see if it has similar problems. If
not, you may have answered your
own question. Either way, I’d be
interested in hearing how this
turns out.
(Kevin Slimp is director of the
Institute of Newspaper Technology
and technology guru. Read past
columns at
www.kevinslimp.com.
Newspapers can sign up to spend
an hour with Kevin during live
webinars at
www.braincast.biz)
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