I won a new job today, but i have no idea how to use
quarkxpress!!! At least not yet…:sigh:
It’s for a contract to make cd layout, but the duplicators strongly
recommend that I not use photoshop because of the way it
handles text at high resolutions, in terms of printing.
Here’s a quote from their web site:
We accept Photoshop files for your images. Please do not
prepare your entire layout in Photoshop, as the resolution that is
ideal for photographs will cause your type to appear somewhat
jagged. Further, it limits our ability to make corrections or edit
your document if an error is discovered.
I’m nervous because I know this guy and I want to do a good job
for him. Anyone have any quark experience to pass along?
I use to work at a print company and work with Quark daily. Quark is great for making layouts and I prefer it over Pagemaker.
The first thing you’ll notice when working in Quark is that whatever image you bring in will look crppy, no matter what since Quark is not a “WYSIWYG” type of program. Despite the crappy appearance you’ll get, Quark will print out excellent looking layouts as long as you use images with 300 dpi and above depending on what you’re working on. Most of the time I work with 600 dpi and above for best results.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll be working with CMYK instead of RGB like web, so make sure all your images are converted to CMYK before you bring them into Quark.
If you get a chance, play with the program so you can get a feel for it because it will take some practice to get use to.
thx for replying electrongeek. I was getting nervous after 30+
views and no posts.
I did notice that right away about the images. I thought to
myself, “oh no!” cuz his pics I’m using are digital and not able to
be duplicated. (they were taken in the snow) relieving to hear
that, actually.
Teh dpi of the images I have are 500+. good enough? or should I
spend some time scanning at a higher res?
I’m gonna spend some time in it tomorrow, and see what I can
do. From what I saw, I didn’t think it to be too difficult.
Make sure when you save the cover/layout to disk you also save the images you have used. There is a “Prepare for export” option (think I got the name right) that allows you to package everything together.
If you dont do this, when they open the layout on another computer it will show the images but they truely will be crap. They are i dont know… rendered? … images? Not the real ones. It will tell you that it cant find the real images and ask you to look for them or ignore. Its a WIERD system but I can see EXACTLY why they do this.
Its so that if you work for a magazine and have a whole library of images that you use over and over again, you dont have to have a copy of the images in each file you have created, it simply references the images from their stored location every time you need to print it etc. That is why they also give you the option of packaging for export. So that if you need to print elsewhere you will be able to take all the images with you.
I have a job of redesigning a small business site… just landed the job today. That joins the list of clients to about 5 current jobs… and they are all on hold until my mid-terms are over!
Goodness Jubba, 5 jobs? I’m juggling 1 major site and 2 smaller projects and I’m about to start on another major site tomorrow. That’s a total of 4 jobs and it’s stressing me out. One thing I’m glad is that they’re not due at the same time so I can set my priorities a bit easier. =)
well, I’m glad I don’t have school to worry about!
I have 6 clients, and now 10 total projects. 3 are due this week,
so EG i know the stress you feel. Wed, I should be getting a new
contract for a database. Time to search out some help, huh?
haha wow I’m doing a client database setup too, it’s my first time doing one. I had to ask a bunch of people for help and so far it’s looking pretty good. :beam:
thing about the database, is this is just phase1…phase 2 is
getting it on the web via php. :sigh: Luckily I have a good friend
who does it for a living, so that helps. :beam:
I’m seriously scouting for help, so vts31, if you are serious, I’ll
keep you in mind. Thx for the offer.
You using MySQL or something else for your webproject? Obviously it will depend on the amount of data used but if its php your using, mysql is excellent.
Well if your no expert (you will pick it up easily) I suggest using phpMyAdmin. Its an excellent free utility that will help you do all your work, work out your SQL queries etc. Its free so no problems there.
DO NOT however keep it on the finished site, there are real security issues with it. ANd while developing make sure the directory you are keeping it all in is secure.
excellent, thanks for the tips again. Just so you know, my php
guy is on top of these things. All I gotta do is make it look pretty
when the database is finished.
