Quark Xpress & Logos?

[Weecutz]

Hi, just wondering if someone can help me out.. I'm trying to layout a Poster in Quark which I'm not very familiar with... I've inserted a Picture Box for my main Poster Image and then I've been trying to insert EPS Logos over the top but the transparent areas appear white and I was just wondering if anyone knows why this is?

Should I just do the layout in Illustrator... I mean will it work the same way?

Thanks

[activeseven]

Right Click the Picture box, select "Modify," click the "Clipping" tab.....have fun.

[MD]

do you have runaround on or? (Command T and switch to none)

is the background of the box colored white? (I think it is by default)

vector eps or protoshop eps? if it is a photoshop .eps you may need to make a clipping path.

[Virgo Nightingale]

If it's not a photoshop eps, you most likely have the box's background color set as white - set it to none.

[Weecutz]

Ive turned off the white in the box but the lettering in the logo still has white and when I do the clipping this its still got some white bits... a bit messy for print if you ask me so I must be doing something wrong!?

[rickself]

If you're more familiar with Illustrator, use Illy...better than Quark

[activeseven]

Quark is pretty crappy with clipping, I agree with the above post. Use Illustrator for things like this, its far superior to Quark in this regard.

[Weecutz]

Hi thanks guys... I always thought Quark was thee layout program for print... so I can basically use Illy as a layout program too and not just a Vector program!?.. e.g. I'll be able to create print ready files in Illy like posters and stuff?

[activeseven]

Well...I would suggest inDesign to be honest, but since your just doing a poster Illustrator will do just fine.

FYI: the same clipping functionality in Illustrator is present in inDesign.

[Weecutz]

cool. I heard good stuff about InDesign... so then, anyone know of any good sites were I can get some CD Cover layout templates and stuff for Illustrator?

Thanks

[activeseven]

Illustrator CS2 ships with CD cover, insert etc templates.

Help/Welcome Screen
Click "New from Template"
Select the "Band" Directory.

[Riya]

Illy is fine for single page layout, but when you get more than one page, you are probably better off using Quark or InDy

[urstwile]

Ive turned off the white in the box but the lettering in the logo still has white and when I do the clipping this its still got some white bits... a bit messy for print if you ask me so I must be doing something wrong!?
Is it a vector EPS? If so, don't go just by the preview, since Quark's EPS preview is really yucky. The proof is in the printout when it comes to Quark's image previews.

If you have InDesign, do it in that instead, otherwise, yeah, for a poster, Illy should be fine.

[Brie]

Adobe exchange has some templates, once you get the hang of navigating thier amazingly annoying site. Also, I just googled "free templates" (Indesign, Illy, Quark, etc..) and got some pretty good free stuff.

Weecutz, are you using the magic wand or pen tool? Lots of times if you are using the magic wand, your results will not be so good, also, if you are simply using the clipping path check box native to quark and illustrator, it just won't give the results you desire, sometimes, even though it looks like a white background, there may be minute areas of color or other stuff that will not clip out without using the pen tool to create a precise clipping path. Try that. I work with amazingly crappy images of tiny parts and stuff and with the pen tool I get beautiful clean paths every time. ( I edit all my images in photoshop and clip them there, then save as tiffs and bring into quark or Indesign)

[urstwile]

^^^what she said.

Unless the EPS is vector, or done with a properly done clipping path out of Photoshop, the non-white areas clipping thing in Quark doesn't work well, if you want crisp clean edges.

And you might also need to (if the file is vector) turn it into a compound path, so the counters in the letters don't show as white.

[urstwile]

Adobe exchange has some templates, once you get the hang of navigating thier amazingly annoying site. Also, I just googled "free templates" (Indesign, Illy, Quark, etc..) and got some pretty good free stuff.

And yeah, what is up with the Adobe site? I almost hate going there now, not only is it circuitous as heck, but it takes forever to load certain pages, and you go around and around in circles finding stuff you want.

[Ned]

Ive turned off the white in the box but the lettering in the logo still has white and when I do the clipping this its still got some white bits... a bit messy for print if you ask me so I must be doing something wrong!?

Sounds like the clipping path on the logo is not a compound path, but just an outside outline... Open it in Illy and see. This may be a Photoshop EPS, not a vector logo.

If you find no errors in the logo, try laying it out in InDesign.

[Brie]

Urst,I agree. I finally saved the "exchange" page to my favorites and so I can download whatever, whenever, but If I ever need answers, FORGET IT. It sucks, they are the developers, but they can't develop a site that works as far as troubleshooting/answers...The search function is crap. It is so random its useless. you'd think they could do better.

[urstwile]

Sounds like the clipping path on the logo is not a compound path, but just an outside outline...

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/673/images17lh6.jpg

And you might also need to (if the file is vector) turn it into a compound path, so the counters in the letters don't show as white.

:p

[Ned]

:)

Thanks, Urst. I think I posted and missed seeing the second page, as I just did in another thread...

[urstwile]

Just teasin', Ned. That's just how I roll.

[greyghost]

Quark can't read eps that way, you have to take the bugger into PS and create a clipping path, save it as a ps.eps and then pull it into Quark again. Not my fave thing to do, but it works.

[Ned]

Quark sucks. :)

To expand, if you take your file into Photoshop, you can CTRL-click on the layer icon to select all opaque pixels on the layer, then go to your paths palette, and click on the "Create Work Path from Selection" icon to turn that selection into a path. Then you can make that path a clipping path by clicking on the Palette Options Menu (little arrow on top right of palette), and click on 'Clipping Path'.

If you've done that though, I wouldn't save it as a Photoshop EPS afterwards. I would just save it as a TIFF, as that is a more sensible format for a rasterized image. Rasterized EPS files are a big pet peeve for me.

[greyghost]

I don't like rasterised EPSs either, so I keep the name of the file as _ps.eps - it's what we were taught to do way back when I worked at a newspaper. Saved as tif, sometimes they did some really strange things come press time. So that's why I keep the PS eps going if I have to do something like that.

[Ned]

That makes sense. Two things I always do with TIFFs going to print is 1) never use compression, and 2) never use layers. That's always avoided problems for me...

[SurfPark]

I'm not getting into the InDesign vs. Quark debate, but I do want to mention that InDesign opens BOTH InDesign and Quark files. Quark only opens Quark files. I think the only reason Quark still has a market share is because of the grandfathering of the product. It has been on the market the longest and many printers and some design firms insist on just upgrading their layout programs rather than switch.

[urstwile]

Well, to be fair, Surfpark, InDesign only opens Quark 4.1 and lower files. To open later versions, you need to buy a $200 plug-in. And it (to me) stinks that InDesign won't save down to earlier versions, that would have been an additional market point for them, if they'd followed their Illustrator model, which lets you save down to version 8 from the CS2 version.

Greyghost, not sure what you're referring to when you say Quark can't read EPS that way. Which way?

Quark has been the big boy on the block for a while, InDesign is definitely catching up fast, but it's still good to know what to do and how to do it in both programs.

[PrintDriver]

^What she said.

Even with the new hi-res preview, Quark still sucks at showing placed eps files. And it STILL can't print an eps to a non-postscript printer. So even if above poster prints this eps, if the printer isn't postscript enabled, it may still show a blocky logo with a white box.

As an aside on Quark (and Indesign) and Logos...
Don't go sending a file with placed eps vector art in either to a fabrication house to pull apart for 3D elements. Every update is getting increasingly difficult to translate into something we can use (or I'm getting old and lazy, but that's another thread here. :D)