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Workflow and responsibilities might have been clearly divided between a magazine’s creative and production executives in the early days of digital design—the days when art directors could simply concentrate on aesthetics, while the production team fretted over the mechanics of getting that design to reproduce in print with integrity.
Today, the lines between the two disciplines are blurred, and creative professionals are increasingly relied upon to manage tasks once associated with production, such as preflighting page files and outputting final-format digital files (PDF/X-1a being the preferred format for publications).
So, it seems fitting that magazine creative folks expect so much more today from a design and layout tool; they need tools to help them create those aesthetically pleasing pages, but also to enable them to work faster, more efficiently and in a variety of mediums.
“I am most concerned with how the tool works in my overall production workflow—inside the office, as well as with customers and service providers,” explains Casey Kiernan, publisher of Extreme Boats Magazine.
Equally important, however, is how “user friendly” the tool is for the art director.
For example, George Lohin, art director for What’s Up Kids Family Magazine and a fan of Adobe InDesign, says that even the smallest time-consuming tasks add up. “The keyboard commands, menus, etc., [in InDesign] are similar, if not identical to, the rest of Creative Suite. This just means I have more time to think about designing and creating, than wasting my time saying to myself, ‘What was that command in Quark again?’ ” he says.
Though for many years QuarkXPress was the only game in town for magazine layout, Adobe InDesign infringed upon Quark’s solo reign more than a decade ago. Today, the two programs each have their die-hard fans. And both solutions have evolved in recent years to build in features that have significantly improved ease of use, as well as enabled collaboration and integration with other applications.
“[Adobe] Creative Suite’s text handling and application-suite integration make the difference for us,” notes Andrew Ladson, director of creative services for Mercury Creative Services, a Rockville, Md.-based custom publisher.
“Mercury [has] printed association, trade and special-interest magazines for over 37 years, and has always had an assembly/composition function that’s evolved with technology over the course of our history,” Ladson recalls. “For our design department, deploying the best tools available to help our customers is a primary mission.”
Easy Cross-Conversion of Quark and InDesign Files
Regardless of what design platform a publisher has chosen, scenarios will likely arise where it’s necessary to manage native application files generated in either application. For example, a publisher may wish to bring legacy pages back to life—pages that were previously created in QuarkXPress, for example, but now need to live on in Adobe InDesign. Or, perhaps a publisher prefers working in QuarkXPress, with all its editorial pages created in that application, but finds that certain advertisers prefer to submit Adobe InDesign files. Conversion of files from one format to the other has caused a lot of headaches for production and creative executives over the years.
There are, however, solutions out there that can simplify the process. Whether you’re migrating from Quark to Adobe or vice versa, or just in need of opening files from one in the other’s system, the following solutions from Markzware make opening files—and more importantly, retaining elements such as page positioning, fonts and styles—a one-step process.
Solution: Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign)
Features: A plug-in for Adobe InDesign, Q2ID enables conversion of QuarkXPress content into a new Adobe InDesign document, with a single click using the InDesign File-Open command. Items converted/retained from the Quark file include page positioning, color models, fonts and styles, linked text boxes, and anchored boxes. The solution supports Adobe InDesign CS2 and CS3, and will convert documents created in QuarkXPress v3.3 to v.7.31. Macintosh and Windows versions are available.
Pricing: Upgrades from previous Q2ID versions are available from $99 to $792, depending on the number of seats (single, five-seat and 10-seat licenses). For new users, full versions are also available in single-seat ($199), five-seat ($796) and 10-seat ($1,592) licenses.
Solution: ID2Q (Adobe InDesign to QuarkXPress)
Features: ID2Q is a Quark XTension, which enables users to migrate InDesign-created content into a new QuarkXPress document by selecting “Convert InDesign Document” from the QuarkXPress utilities menu.
Pricing: Upgrades from previous ID2Q versions are available from $99 to $792, depending on the number of seats (single, five-seat and 10-seat licenses). For new users, full versions are also available in single-seat ($199), five-seat ($796) and 10-seat ($1,592) licenses.
Magazine publishing customers include: Extreme Boats Magazine; Mercury; What’s Up Kids Family Magazine
Contact: (800) 300-3532, www.Markzware.com
Today, the lines between the two disciplines are blurred, and creative professionals are increasingly relied upon to manage tasks once associated with production, such as preflighting page files and outputting final-format digital files (PDF/X-1a being the preferred format for publications).
So, it seems fitting that magazine creative folks expect so much more today from a design and layout tool; they need tools to help them create those aesthetically pleasing pages, but also to enable them to work faster, more efficiently and in a variety of mediums.
“I am most concerned with how the tool works in my overall production workflow—inside the office, as well as with customers and service providers,” explains Casey Kiernan, publisher of Extreme Boats Magazine.
Equally important, however, is how “user friendly” the tool is for the art director.
For example, George Lohin, art director for What’s Up Kids Family Magazine and a fan of Adobe InDesign, says that even the smallest time-consuming tasks add up. “The keyboard commands, menus, etc., [in InDesign] are similar, if not identical to, the rest of Creative Suite. This just means I have more time to think about designing and creating, than wasting my time saying to myself, ‘What was that command in Quark again?’ ” he says.
Though for many years QuarkXPress was the only game in town for magazine layout, Adobe InDesign infringed upon Quark’s solo reign more than a decade ago. Today, the two programs each have their die-hard fans. And both solutions have evolved in recent years to build in features that have significantly improved ease of use, as well as enabled collaboration and integration with other applications.
“[Adobe] Creative Suite’s text handling and application-suite integration make the difference for us,” notes Andrew Ladson, director of creative services for Mercury Creative Services, a Rockville, Md.-based custom publisher.
“Mercury [has] printed association, trade and special-interest magazines for over 37 years, and has always had an assembly/composition function that’s evolved with technology over the course of our history,” Ladson recalls. “For our design department, deploying the best tools available to help our customers is a primary mission.”
Easy Cross-Conversion of Quark and InDesign Files
Regardless of what design platform a publisher has chosen, scenarios will likely arise where it’s necessary to manage native application files generated in either application. For example, a publisher may wish to bring legacy pages back to life—pages that were previously created in QuarkXPress, for example, but now need to live on in Adobe InDesign. Or, perhaps a publisher prefers working in QuarkXPress, with all its editorial pages created in that application, but finds that certain advertisers prefer to submit Adobe InDesign files. Conversion of files from one format to the other has caused a lot of headaches for production and creative executives over the years.
There are, however, solutions out there that can simplify the process. Whether you’re migrating from Quark to Adobe or vice versa, or just in need of opening files from one in the other’s system, the following solutions from Markzware make opening files—and more importantly, retaining elements such as page positioning, fonts and styles—a one-step process.
Solution: Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign)
Features: A plug-in for Adobe InDesign, Q2ID enables conversion of QuarkXPress content into a new Adobe InDesign document, with a single click using the InDesign File-Open command. Items converted/retained from the Quark file include page positioning, color models, fonts and styles, linked text boxes, and anchored boxes. The solution supports Adobe InDesign CS2 and CS3, and will convert documents created in QuarkXPress v3.3 to v.7.31. Macintosh and Windows versions are available.
Pricing: Upgrades from previous Q2ID versions are available from $99 to $792, depending on the number of seats (single, five-seat and 10-seat licenses). For new users, full versions are also available in single-seat ($199), five-seat ($796) and 10-seat ($1,592) licenses.
Solution: ID2Q (Adobe InDesign to QuarkXPress)
Features: ID2Q is a Quark XTension, which enables users to migrate InDesign-created content into a new QuarkXPress document by selecting “Convert InDesign Document” from the QuarkXPress utilities menu.
Pricing: Upgrades from previous ID2Q versions are available from $99 to $792, depending on the number of seats (single, five-seat and 10-seat licenses). For new users, full versions are also available in single-seat ($199), five-seat ($796) and 10-seat ($1,592) licenses.
Magazine publishing customers include: Extreme Boats Magazine; Mercury; What’s Up Kids Family Magazine
Contact: (800) 300-3532, www.Markzware.com
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