Quark / PDF Printing Problems (Save as PDF in OS X)

Question

I upgraded from Quark 4.1 to 6.5 about a year ago, and ever since then the files I create and print don't look as good. The primary issue seems to be color -- colors don't come out as deep, there seems to be less color saturation, sometimes colors are just pretty far off. I'm working in Mac OS 10.4.8.
For many years my method has been to design documents and output as PDFs to be professionally printed. These days my PDFs don't print as well. I suspect that the problem has to do with the process of creating the PDF. In Quark 6.5 I create PDFs by selecting "Save as PDF" from Quark's Print menu. Back when I was using 4.1, since Quark didn't have a built-in PDF-creator, I would go into the Chooser, select AdobePS as my printer, and then just choose Print in Quark and it would "print" to a PDF.
One other problem I've had since the upgrade is that the PDFs Quark creates are HUGE files -- tens or hundreds of megs -- often too large to email. When I used to create PDFs from the identical Quark files using 4.1, the resulting PDFs printed much better and were much smaller files (often far less than 1 meg). Solving the color problem is a higher priority for me than solving the file size issue, though.
I've spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this with our local printer here in Albany, NY (the same guy who printed my stuff in the old days, when it came out looking a lot better). Things we've tried that haven't seemed to solve the problem:
- Increasing the LPI to 300
- Checking the box for Full Resolution Tiff Output
- Experimenting with OPI active and not
- Experimenting with different PDF options like "Save as PDF," "Compress PDF," "PDF-X," etc. (Compress PDF does result in smaller PDFs, but the quality of the resulting prints is even worse)
Also, if anyone has suggestions about Quark-specific forums I could post this to, let me know. I tried creating an account on the discussion forms on Quark's website, but I don't receive their confirmation email to confirm my account.
Any advice greatly appreciated -- thanks so much!
Marshall
iBook   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Quark 6.5

Answer 1

Marshall,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
colin clarke1’s info is spot on. I will add a bit more. Acrobat Professional includes Distiller in addition to a print driver called Adobe PDF 7.0 (version number matches version of Acrobat). I think the print driver installs automatically, but if not, you should choose to install it and then it will show in your list of printers. This will allow you to make PDFs from Quark XPress much as you did with Quark 4.1.
Distiller comes with some pre-defined Settings (formerly know as Job Options) for different types of printing, i.e., Smallest file (low-resolution like online viewing), Standard, High Quality, Press Quality and others. These Settings are general standards in the industry in terms amount and type of image compression, font embedding, color management, compatibility with previous Acrobat versions and etc.
colin clarke1’s method of saving a Quark doc as a PostScript and then distilling it is one method. (You can set this in your Quark Preferences.) Alternatively, you could do the following within Quark XPress…
(a) Select Print, which brings up the Print window. At the bottom of the window are some buttons. Click on Page Setup and in its window, for Format for: select the Adobe PDF 7/8, the appropriate Paper size and then OK.
(b) Returning to the Quark print window, make all the necessary choices for Layout, Setup, Output, Options, Layers, Bleed, OPI and Profiles.
(c) Next, click on the button Printer (at the bottom) which brings up a Mac OS print window. Click to the right of Printer and select Adobe PDF 7/8. Next, click and hold on Copies & Pages for a drop-down list of options and select PDF Options. Click on the bar to the right of Adobe PDF Settings and a list of Distiller Settings will pop up and select the one that best fit the type of printing you are doing, e.g., Press Quality. If you want to see the PDF version afterwards, then select Acrobat for After PDF Creation. Click Ok.
(d) Returning to the Quark print window, click Print button (lower right). A Save window appears for you to name your document and select where you wish to save in on your computer. (If you choose to see the PDF afterwards, then Acobat will launch and the PDF will then appear in Acrobat.)
You could learn more about the latest version of Acrobat 8.0 (released November 2006) by Adobe’s “tour” at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/productinfo/features/
Hope this helps.
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