I hate Quark. I beta tested Quark 7, let them know the issues, and they have gone through 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 without fixing these issues.
For instance, one issue I find egregious is the fact Quark is lying to their customers with their previews.
If I place an untagged RGB in Quark 7 (or have one in an older legacy document I open), the default Proof Output is None.
In Quark 7's Color Manager settings, whether it is set to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy, QuarkXPress 7.0 Default, or a custom setup, when using Proof Output None, Quark doesn't really show what I'll get from my output. If I choose Proof Output of CMYK or CMYK and Spot, THEN AND ONLY THEN do I get what color I'm really going to get.
Quark by default is showing customers what their untagged RGB should probably likely look like (by displaying the untagged RGB with the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile when using the Proof Output: None, although no where in their settings do they have the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, so we know it's not going to actually be used for output), but Quark is not showing the customer what it's really going to look like until ANOTHER Proof Output is chosen.
Let's prove it shall we?:
Open an sRGB IEC61966-2.1 image in Photoshop and save a copy, with the name ending in TEST, on your desktop, and don't include the profile when saving.
Now make a new Quark 7 document, make a picture box, get picture, and link to the TEST image on your desktop. Now if you have Quark and Photoshop open side-by-side, one can see clearly that they both look the same (showing that Quark, like Photoshop, is using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile to preview the untagged RGB). Why? Because None is chosen in Proof Output in QX7.
Now with Proof Output staying at None, I want you to change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress 7.0 Default and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to a new custom setup and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Now we know the untagged RGB should be assuming the default RGB profile being used, and with each setup the default RGB profile is being changed. Then why isn't the Quark preview changing? It should be. But it isn't. It's lying and saying that Quark is using the sRGB profile when it is not really going to use it for any output.
Now we're going to show that by changing Proof Output to CMYK and Spot, we do get what Quark is really going to output, and it's not what it should look like (it really should be assigning the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile but Quark doesn't do this for untagged RGB).
Now we're going to change the Proof Output to CMYK and Spot, and going to show that unlike before, when we change the Source Setup, the RGB image changes appearance.
Now with Proof Output staying at CMYK and Spot, I want you to change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress 7.0 Default and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to a new custom setup and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes.
Now again, we know the untagged RGB should be assuming the default RGB profile being used, and with each setup the default RGB profile is being changed. Now (and only now) do we see that the preview is really correct and accurate and not lying to us.
So what I do until Quark actually starts listening and fixing this crap, I open the Quark 7 document I receive (I still do legacy jobs in Quark 6.5) and go to Color Manager. If the Proof Output is set to None, I know my customer was viewing their untagged RGB as using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, and so that is what I use (either via setting it in Profile Information window in Quark 7, or doing the conversion in Photoshop).
When is Quark going to fix this crap? I let them know when Quark 7 was still in beta about this problem, and they didn't fix it before they released it, they didn't fix it in 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3. I'm almost to the point of asking my boss to charge double for taking in Quark jobs. It's bad enough they are many years behind InDesign (they haven't even gotten to the point InDesign was at 2.0 - four full versions ago).
This crap makes me mad! Makes me want to physically slap some Quark folk around (and it's really bad when you want to beat somebody).
Am I the only one that sees and has said anything to Quark repeatedly about this?
Don
For instance, one issue I find egregious is the fact Quark is lying to their customers with their previews.
If I place an untagged RGB in Quark 7 (or have one in an older legacy document I open), the default Proof Output is None.
In Quark 7's Color Manager settings, whether it is set to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy, QuarkXPress 7.0 Default, or a custom setup, when using Proof Output None, Quark doesn't really show what I'll get from my output. If I choose Proof Output of CMYK or CMYK and Spot, THEN AND ONLY THEN do I get what color I'm really going to get.
Quark by default is showing customers what their untagged RGB should probably likely look like (by displaying the untagged RGB with the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile when using the Proof Output: None, although no where in their settings do they have the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, so we know it's not going to actually be used for output), but Quark is not showing the customer what it's really going to look like until ANOTHER Proof Output is chosen.
Let's prove it shall we?:
Open an sRGB IEC61966-2.1 image in Photoshop and save a copy, with the name ending in TEST, on your desktop, and don't include the profile when saving.
Now make a new Quark 7 document, make a picture box, get picture, and link to the TEST image on your desktop. Now if you have Quark and Photoshop open side-by-side, one can see clearly that they both look the same (showing that Quark, like Photoshop, is using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile to preview the untagged RGB). Why? Because None is chosen in Proof Output in QX7.
Now with Proof Output staying at None, I want you to change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress 7.0 Default and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to a new custom setup and click OK. Did the picture change? No. Now we know the untagged RGB should be assuming the default RGB profile being used, and with each setup the default RGB profile is being changed. Then why isn't the Quark preview changing? It should be. But it isn't. It's lying and saying that Quark is using the sRGB profile when it is not really going to use it for any output.
Now we're going to show that by changing Proof Output to CMYK and Spot, we do get what Quark is really going to output, and it's not what it should look like (it really should be assigning the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile but Quark doesn't do this for untagged RGB).
Now we're going to change the Proof Output to CMYK and Spot, and going to show that unlike before, when we change the Source Setup, the RGB image changes appearance.
Now with Proof Output staying at CMYK and Spot, I want you to change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress Emulate Legacy and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to QuarkXPress 7.0 Default and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes. Go back and change the Color Manager Source Setup to a new custom setup and click OK. Did the picture change? Yes.
Now again, we know the untagged RGB should be assuming the default RGB profile being used, and with each setup the default RGB profile is being changed. Now (and only now) do we see that the preview is really correct and accurate and not lying to us.
So what I do until Quark actually starts listening and fixing this crap, I open the Quark 7 document I receive (I still do legacy jobs in Quark 6.5) and go to Color Manager. If the Proof Output is set to None, I know my customer was viewing their untagged RGB as using the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, and so that is what I use (either via setting it in Profile Information window in Quark 7, or doing the conversion in Photoshop).
When is Quark going to fix this crap? I let them know when Quark 7 was still in beta about this problem, and they didn't fix it before they released it, they didn't fix it in 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3. I'm almost to the point of asking my boss to charge double for taking in Quark jobs. It's bad enough they are many years behind InDesign (they haven't even gotten to the point InDesign was at 2.0 - four full versions ago).
This crap makes me mad! Makes me want to physically slap some Quark folk around (and it's really bad when you want to beat somebody).
Am I the only one that sees and has said anything to Quark repeatedly about this?
Don