put on your cross-platform shoes

March 3, 2006 7:13 AM

what can you tell me about quark xpress and cross-platform (specifically, windows and mac) problems, "features," tips, etc?

i've been asked to help out with some of the graphic design at my job, which has so far been done on the mac. i have the latest quark and acrobat professional on my home (XP) machine; and aside from smaller issues such as fonts, what are some things to look out for? can i expect a pretty fluid cross-platform dynamic, as i will be sending quark files back and forth with the other designer? What about printing purposes (ie what are the best settings for PDF on acrobat 7/quark xpress passport 6.5)? any other suggestions, help? thank you in advance

posted by yonation to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I would not discount the problems you could run into with fonts. They are tricky devils - not well understood by most. There is a reason why there are companies making a killing selling expensive font management software.

Although not directly related to your question - another possible problem could be in editing styles. You'd both need to be fully commited to using style sheets or one or both of you could wind up insane. :-)
posted by machinecraig at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2006

As machinecraig mentions, fonts will be a big issue. With some exceptions, it's probably a good bet that none of the fonts on the Mac will work on your PC. If the Mac is running OSX, any OpenType fonts should be able to transfer over to your PC. Should.
Any TrueType or PS-Type1 fonts on the Mac are most likely Mac versions. OSX can use the PC versions of fonts though.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:10 AM on March 3, 2006

God. The fonts drive me batty. I avoid all cross-platform issues unless the other people involved have all the fonts that I need for PCs and Mac. I have to be really careful with translators, printers, designers and the like. Also, the style sheets need to be spot on. Best avoid the issue all together.
posted by katiecat at 9:22 AM on March 3, 2006

Watch your linked files closely - I've had problems with linked files getting dropped when switching platforms with a Quark document. Quark shows that the file is still linked properly but, when it goes to the rip, all you get is a big empty space or a screen-res, preview image. Softproof everything to Acrobat; it's annoying, but it can save you substantial time and money in the long run.

(And don't use Quark unless at gunpoint. Even then, beg and plead...)
posted by nathan_teske at 10:50 AM on March 3, 2006

Also watch the fonts for reorganized character maps. Nothing is more fun than having an accent mark switch a degrees symbol.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:52 AM on March 3, 2006

If you have just about any Adobe product, you probably have Adobe Type Manager, which will let you use PostScript fonts on a PC.

Collect for output, ZIP, and e-mail. Works for me.
posted by deadfather at 10:57 AM on March 3, 2006