No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
- Thread starter jtfey
- Start date
SlaveToTheMan
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
MAybe you can elaborate on how you're already creating the PS files in Quark. target devices, current workflow - anything really.
MAybe you can elaborate on how you're already creating the PS files in Quark. target devices, current workflow - anything really.
bluskool
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
Will the file not distill at all or is it just coming out wrong?
You can make a press ready PDF by:
1. Save page as EPS and distill that. Simple and mostly reliable. I recommend this because there are not very many variables that must be considered.
2. Print the file using the Adobe PDF printer as your printer. Don't forget to click on "printer" in the quark print dialog box to bring up the mac print dialog box. You must select the Adobe PDF printer as the printer there as well. When you do so, you can click on "copies and pages," select "PDF options" and choose your distiller settings. I prefer this method because you end up with one PDF file instead of an EPS and PDF or a PS and PDF. I am pretty sure you do need at least acrobat 7 to do this however. Also, your settings must be correct in the printer dialog box.
Will the file not distill at all or is it just coming out wrong?
You can make a press ready PDF by:
1. Save page as EPS and distill that. Simple and mostly reliable. I recommend this because there are not very many variables that must be considered.
2. Print the file using the Adobe PDF printer as your printer. Don't forget to click on "printer" in the quark print dialog box to bring up the mac print dialog box. You must select the Adobe PDF printer as the printer there as well. When you do so, you can click on "copies and pages," select "PDF options" and choose your distiller settings. I prefer this method because you end up with one PDF file instead of an EPS and PDF or a PS and PDF. I am pretty sure you do need at least acrobat 7 to do this however. Also, your settings must be correct in the printer dialog box.
bluskool
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
The PDF's exported from Quark 6.5 are way too large and there is noticeable degradation of the linked elements even with no down-sampling or compression. Try it both ways and compare. If you can't see a difference, let me know the secret.
The PDF's exported from Quark 6.5 are way too large and there is noticeable degradation of the linked elements even with no down-sampling or compression. Try it both ways and compare. If you can't see a difference, let me know the secret.
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
Do you by any chance have a link to some documentation that says that quark to distiller is better than exporting to pdf from quark 6.5? And explains the difference. We are mostly in quark 7 these days, but back in the 6.5 days export to pdf was our standard procedure, and we still do it if any quark 6 files come in. We never noticed any particular problems.
Do you by any chance have a link to some documentation that says that quark to distiller is better than exporting to pdf from quark 6.5? And explains the difference. We are mostly in quark 7 these days, but back in the 6.5 days export to pdf was our standard procedure, and we still do it if any quark 6 files come in. We never noticed any particular problems.
bluskool
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
No, I don't have any documentation. I just have experience and conformation from many other people in the industry. Even if I could get a quality PDF from Quark, it would not work for us because of the file size. Uploading a ton of pages to our FTP is already to slow for me.
With that said, if you don't have any problems with it and it fits in with your workflow, then go for it. The only thing that really matters is that you are getting the results that you need.
No, I don't have any documentation. I just have experience and conformation from many other people in the industry. Even if I could get a quality PDF from Quark, it would not work for us because of the file size. Uploading a ton of pages to our FTP is already to slow for me.
With that said, if you don't have any problems with it and it fits in with your workflow, then go for it. The only thing that really matters is that you are getting the results that you need.
franksting
New member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
HI,
Any chance you can explain why distiller is failing the job? I don't see that in the thread. I think that would be helpful in assisting you with debugging the issue
Gavin
HI,
Any chance you can explain why distiller is failing the job? I don't see that in the thread. I think that would be helpful in assisting you with debugging the issue
Gavin
G
Guest
Guest
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
>I produce a weekly magazine using quark 6.52 and we distill PS using acrobat 7 and have had no problems whatsoever.
Well that's what the original poster was asking: How do you do it?
I do it by printing to file using a virtual printer set up with a device independent ppd, and distilling the ps. In my case I use the ScenicSoft ssicolor.ppd. I think you would get similar good results by printing to file using Adobe PDF, another virtual printer with a device independent ppd. Device independence is the key. Post back if you need more detail.
Al
>I produce a weekly magazine using quark 6.52 and we distill PS using acrobat 7 and have had no problems whatsoever.
Well that's what the original poster was asking: How do you do it?
I do it by printing to file using a virtual printer set up with a device independent ppd, and distilling the ps. In my case I use the ScenicSoft ssicolor.ppd. I think you would get similar good results by printing to file using Adobe PDF, another virtual printer with a device independent ppd. Device independence is the key. Post back if you need more detail.
Al
G
Guest
Guest
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
My guess is that J.T Fey is using a device dependent ppd to create the ps.
Al
My guess is that J.T Fey is using a device dependent ppd to create the ps.
Al
bluskool
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
>I think you would get similar good results by printing to file using Adobe PDF
For me, the advantage with the Adobe PDF driver is that you skip the postscript file altogether. You just end up with a PDF. Also, you have more control. I can select distiller settings for different jobs right out of the print dialog box. There are many different workflow needs, but for us, the Adobe PDF driver is the fastest and most reliable. Now, if I could just get Quark to agree.
>I think you would get similar good results by printing to file using Adobe PDF
For me, the advantage with the Adobe PDF driver is that you skip the postscript file altogether. You just end up with a PDF. Also, you have more control. I can select distiller settings for different jobs right out of the print dialog box. There are many different workflow needs, but for us, the Adobe PDF driver is the fastest and most reliable. Now, if I could just get Quark to agree.
G
Guest
Guest
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
bluskool,
I understood your point all along. I was simply responding to the original request for help in creating postscript files that would be acceptable to Distiller. So with a virtual printer that uses the Adobe pdf as ppd, in this method you would print to file and distill.
Your method does have the advantages you mention.
Al
bluskool,
I understood your point all along. I was simply responding to the original request for help in creating postscript files that would be acceptable to Distiller. So with a virtual printer that uses the Adobe pdf as ppd, in this method you would print to file and distill.
Your method does have the advantages you mention.
Al
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
Thanks to everyone who posted. My apology for not getting back here sooner.
We need to create PDFs of each of our newspaper pages because we publish a PDF version of our paper. This allows a few hundred subscribers to view the paper in PDF format.
Since I do not work with Quark, Distiller and the creation of PDFs on a daily basis, I'm not exactly sure of what's been tried and what hasn't. I'm sure our graphics people initially tried to create PDFs in 6.52 the way they did in Quark 4. They printed to a file using a PPD for Agfa's 1500 plus imagesetter. Quark 6.52 would not recognize that PPD so they tried the Generic Imagesetter PPD. They've also tried the Adobe 8.0 driver.
What we've settled on is creating the PDF straight out of Quark. When we first did this the files were huge. We then used the compressed setting, which reduced the file size but caused some TIFF images to badly pixelate. So now we use a combination. On most pages we use the compressed setting. On a few pages we output non-compressed.
We have Quark 7.3 available, but one use a product from software vendor MediaSpanSoftware that is not yet compatible with Quark 7. We're told MediaSpan is close to an upgrade.
Yesterday (Feb. 21) I was playing around with the PDF settings in Quark preferences. Quark support had suggested this. Here is the error I was getting when I tried to export a PS file from Quark 6.5.2:
%%[ Error: ioerror; OffendingCommand: stringwidth ]%%
Stack:
(Project1 2/21/08 3:26 PM Page 1)
(Project1 2/21/08 3:26 PM Page 1)
9
39
true
true
9
( \()
( plate\))
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Thanks again for your comments.
Edited by: J.T. Fey on Feb 22, 2008 10:03 AM
Thanks to everyone who posted. My apology for not getting back here sooner.
We need to create PDFs of each of our newspaper pages because we publish a PDF version of our paper. This allows a few hundred subscribers to view the paper in PDF format.
Since I do not work with Quark, Distiller and the creation of PDFs on a daily basis, I'm not exactly sure of what's been tried and what hasn't. I'm sure our graphics people initially tried to create PDFs in 6.52 the way they did in Quark 4. They printed to a file using a PPD for Agfa's 1500 plus imagesetter. Quark 6.52 would not recognize that PPD so they tried the Generic Imagesetter PPD. They've also tried the Adobe 8.0 driver.
What we've settled on is creating the PDF straight out of Quark. When we first did this the files were huge. We then used the compressed setting, which reduced the file size but caused some TIFF images to badly pixelate. So now we use a combination. On most pages we use the compressed setting. On a few pages we output non-compressed.
We have Quark 7.3 available, but one use a product from software vendor MediaSpanSoftware that is not yet compatible with Quark 7. We're told MediaSpan is close to an upgrade.
Yesterday (Feb. 21) I was playing around with the PDF settings in Quark preferences. Quark support had suggested this. Here is the error I was getting when I tried to export a PS file from Quark 6.5.2:
%%[ Error: ioerror; OffendingCommand: stringwidth ]%%
Stack:
(Project1 2/21/08 3:26 PM Page 1)
(Project1 2/21/08 3:26 PM Page 1)
9
39
true
true
9
( \()
( plate\))
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Thanks again for your comments.
Edited by: J.T. Fey on Feb 22, 2008 10:03 AM
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
Here is a link to some instructions for creating a pdf straight out of a standard quark 6.52 install. If the files are too large, open the pdf in Acrobat and do a "save as". This will clean up the pdf and make it smaller without adjusting the images or anything else. (Note this link only displays properly with the screen grabs in Internet explorer on a PC, but you can read the instructions on a mac.)
http://efiles.sjpg.com/Demo/quark/quark.html
Most of our clients are in quark 7 these days, but when 6.5 was standard, we used this method literally thousands of times with no problems (big files are not a problem for us). I can't understand what you are saying about MediaSpan Software, but if this is some sort of Quark plugin then all bets are off, as this could be the source of your problems.
Here is a link to some instructions for creating a pdf straight out of a standard quark 6.52 install. If the files are too large, open the pdf in Acrobat and do a "save as". This will clean up the pdf and make it smaller without adjusting the images or anything else. (Note this link only displays properly with the screen grabs in Internet explorer on a PC, but you can read the instructions on a mac.)
http://efiles.sjpg.com/Demo/quark/quark.html
Most of our clients are in quark 7 these days, but when 6.5 was standard, we used this method literally thousands of times with no problems (big files are not a problem for us). I can't understand what you are saying about MediaSpan Software, but if this is some sort of Quark plugin then all bets are off, as this could be the source of your problems.
bluskool
Well-known member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
If you need something for the web, Quark will give you the largest file size and that is not what you want. Any method of postscript printing to a PDF would, IMHO, be better than Quark PDF. EPS and distilling, postscript and distilling through any postscript printer and even saving as PDF from the Mac print dialog box has given me smaller files than native Quark PDF from version 6. Any compression with that PDF maker is, also IMHO and observation, heavy-handed.
If you need something for the web, Quark will give you the largest file size and that is not what you want. Any method of postscript printing to a PDF would, IMHO, be better than Quark PDF. EPS and distilling, postscript and distilling through any postscript printer and even saving as PDF from the Mac print dialog box has given me smaller files than native Quark PDF from version 6. Any compression with that PDF maker is, also IMHO and observation, heavy-handed.
The Butsmeister
Member
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
If you're using any version of Quark from 6.0 upwards I would recommend always distilling a Quark generated ps file.
If you're on a Mac platform what you're trying to achieve can be automated using Applescript. All print settings can be set within the script to avoid any user intervention and assuring standardization.
If you're using any version of Quark from 6.0 upwards I would recommend always distilling a Quark generated ps file.
If you're on a Mac platform what you're trying to achieve can be automated using Applescript. All print settings can be set within the script to avoid any user intervention and assuring standardization.
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
I'm having similar issues at the mo with direct printing from Quark 6.52 through an Asura system. Haven't had this issue yet, but had plenty of others. However...
not sure of how much help this will be, but having a search fo the web borught this answer up:
*_Offending command: stringwidth_*
Stringwidth is a PostScript operator used to manipulate text. This can be both text added in the lay-out application itself or text from an imported graphic.
So some text element on your page is causing this error.
*Solutions*
Try copying the entire content of the page to a new document.
Delete blocks of text or imported graphics containing text to determine what element caused the problem. Then recreate that block or graphic.
*HTML2PS*
PostScript files created using this application can show “limitcheck” errors, offending command “stringwidth”.
This only happens if images are included in the file. Apart from creating a file without images, there is no other known work-around.
I know this is very vague, but it might be an advantage to test to figure out any font issues.
I'm having similar issues at the mo with direct printing from Quark 6.52 through an Asura system. Haven't had this issue yet, but had plenty of others. However...
not sure of how much help this will be, but having a search fo the web borught this answer up:
*_Offending command: stringwidth_*
Stringwidth is a PostScript operator used to manipulate text. This can be both text added in the lay-out application itself or text from an imported graphic.
So some text element on your page is causing this error.
*Solutions*
Try copying the entire content of the page to a new document.
Delete blocks of text or imported graphics containing text to determine what element caused the problem. Then recreate that block or graphic.
*HTML2PS*
PostScript files created using this application can show “limitcheck” errors, offending command “stringwidth”.
This only happens if images are included in the file. Apart from creating a file without images, there is no other known work-around.
I know this is very vague, but it might be an advantage to test to figure out any font issues.
Re: No luck distilling Quark 6.5 Postscript files
Have a look at the 'Pass4Press' Quark XPress 6.5 print PostScript settings in the Version 7 release.
http://www.pass4press.com/cgi-bin/wms.pl/900
Lots of useful information on how to setup files ready for printing.
Have a look at the 'Pass4Press' Quark XPress 6.5 print PostScript settings in the Version 7 release.
http://www.pass4press.com/cgi-bin/wms.pl/900
Lots of useful information on how to setup files ready for printing.
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