Quark 4.1 to .pdf

[Kira]

Ok, I've been asked by my printer to convert my 124 page Quark 4.1 document to .pdf.

How do I do this.... He also mentioned something about having to distill it first. Any clue?

Thanks,
Kira

[D-Zine]

You need to set your Quark preferences for PDFs to "create postscript file for later distilling" and also set up "watched folders". Then when you export to PDF it will create your postscript file only. Then open up Adobe Distiller and drag and drop your files into Distiller to create your PDF files. Be sure you to check your settings in Distiller. Most likely if you ask the press you are using, they can give you a file of the settings they want you to use for Distiller and you can just import that file. If not, they will atleast be able to tell you the settings you need to have for the job you are sending them, if you ask them.

I'm not positive but they may ask you to create it page by page. I do 64 pages individually so that if a postscript error occurs, I don't have to sit and try to figure out forever which page it was that caused me problems, I will already know and can troubleshoot from there. It seems like a long route but definately saves time in the end if you do have any types of errors occur when creating the PDF.

[emel]

One of the service bureaus I use prefers that I use the quark PDF export without using distiller; though if you distill your PDF as D-zine says it should be set up right it and probably won't matter.

I currently use Q6 and it's been a LONG time since I've used q4.1, but you should be able to:

File > Export > Layout as PDF

[D-Zine]

You can just export as PDF and not use Distiller, but if your files contain alot of graphics, images and complex type treatment you will eventually run into problems I think. Quarks built in PDF creator does not use the postscript language and this will cause you errors at one time or another unless your files are fairly simple.

Best thing to do? Talk to your printer since they have told you that they want PDF files. Ask them which process they recommend you use to go about creating them. If you are unsure of how to do what they suggest, then ask them for help. They will help will because ultimately they want the same as you - a smooth run with no or atleast minimal errors and troubleshooting.

Good luck :thumbsup:

[emel]

You can just export as PDF and not use Distiller, but if your files contain alot of graphics, images and complex type treatment you will eventually run into problems I think. Quarks built in PDF creator does not use the postscript language

Of course Quark uses PostScript language when it creates PDF.

In all actuality when you choose the PDF export option quark writes a post script file to disk, quietly launches distiller, feeds it the postscript file and then quits distiller. If distiller was already running before you chose export as PDF then quark will leave it running after processing the file.


If you do wish to Distill later or use the 'print' command - before you can print your files to PDF, you must set up the PostScript printer to print to a file.

For Windows:
You must set up your PostScript printer at the system level to print to a file.

For Mac OS:
Mac OS v10.3.5 only: You must set a generic printer as your default to export a QuarkXPress layout as a PDF file

For more detailed 'how-to' I defer to Quarks website
http://euro.quark.com/en/about/newsletter/05/05/secondary.html

[D-Zine]

Of course Quark uses PostScript language when it creates PDF

What I meant was Quark uses a PDF Writer instead of using Distiller. It basically uses a print driver installed on your computer but it doesn't have the ability to handle the conversion of postscript files and doesn't handle graphic intensive files very well.

This link may help you some Kira
http://necesis.ucsd.edu/computing/pdfwriter.asp

and this one...
http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/seminars/acrobat/pdf-create1.html

and one more...
http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/articles/distiller_pdf_writer.htm