Quark7 Drop Shadows!

[Kristian]

I've received a file Quark 7 (already off to a bad start). The designer has used the Quark Drop Shadow option on various text objects and pictures.

I need to export a PDF of the artwork and import into ArtPro.

Everytime I export a PDF from Quark it flattens the transparency of the drop shadow which makes the file really difficult to edit.

Is there any workaround or is this another feature in Quark that is simply created to cause pre-press operators problems!

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Joe]

Quark cannot output a PDF that is not flattened.

 

[Zinn]

As far as I know Kristian, its just how it is in Quark 7. It doesn't seem to matter if you export EPS to distill using Acrobat, it still flattens those lovely transparent objects. I have had a designer use so many on page, various photos, box effects, etc., that the page won't event write out of quark (PDF or EPS), and says out of memory. Sorry I wasn't more help, that has been my experience.

 

[buckeye]

It doesn't seem to matter if you export EPS to distill using Acrobat, it still flattens those lovely transparent objects.

Anytime a file containing transparency effects is saved for output as Postscript, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and PDF 1.3 or earlier, all objects that interact with transparency are flattened. Distilling a PostScript or EPS file into a PDF file will not recreate transparent areas.

 

[almaink]

I've taken a few of those Quark PDF's with flattened transparency, ripped them apart in Acrobat, saved each component as a separate PDF, and reconstructed them in InDesign using the transparent background option on import.
It's the only way I know of to make them editable, and it's a lot of work...

 

[Kristian]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

At least I know it is Quark being lame (as always) and not me being stupid with teh PDF Export Options. I'm still able to use the exported PDF but it just means I've now got 30 images in the file due to all the flattened transparencies.

Thanks again

 

[Tech]

I always advice our team of designers to avoid transparency effect within layouts if possible. If they must use them, I remind everyone to work in layers in Quark or InDesign. We also tend to create drop shadows in photoshop if we know we'll be working with Quark layouts.

Recently, we received Indy files from an outside designer whom basically design the entire package using various transparency and color mode as if he/she was working in Illustrator–all vector art are either paste into the layout or drawn. Not everything is clearly separated in layers and this will be a fun job for our repro house. The screen re-draw delay on these files is super slow for low-res and running on 8gb ram Mac tower.

The lesson here is I hope we don't work with this designer again, if we do, at least let me have a earlier look and kick those files back for fixes. Many designers just aren't keeping up with changes in technology nor do they care enough to construct their documents as cleanly as possible.