Having a little fun, while checking out the PRINT 09 show floor with Markzware in Chicago. We are searching for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress users and of course those that have heard of us, Markzware and the new FlightCheck Professional v6.5! We also announced a new search engine technology called PageZephyr at this print-show which will examine, preview and let you extract content from many popular desktop layout formats. Look at it like a way to preview InDesign text stories, without the need for Adobe Creative suite, as an example.

Here is a neat and perhaps handy new resource for viewing and grouping RSS feeds called WebPartner. Standard, you can monitor all things Apple and another group of feeds for creative and graphic designer type stuff, you know Adobe Creative Suite stuff, etc. Here is Markzware’s page on WebPartner; just another way to view our feeds and this blog perhaps:

Don’t forget; a NEW version of FlightCheck is out. Preflight and Package or collect fonts and images from more than 50 file formats!

Here was an interesting Tweet I came across on a Twitter Watch List for InDesign which has an in-depth report with reviews for alternative desktop publishing or DTP applications for a Mac.

It is long, but interesting and starts with:

“You probably recognize this class of software I’m reviewing now as Desktop Publishing (DTP). Page layout tools allow a designer to arrange artwork, photography and type into a meaningful and attractive composition. Usually the features allow a designer to flow text across multiple pages and around artwork, exercise special control over type and other details, and make accurate and easy adjustments to anything in the publication. Better programs offer ways to make templates and master pages that can be used over and over, and for serious professional level work, they support different colour spaces (RGB for screen production and CMYK and spot colours for designing press ready materials).

In my professional life I use InDesign CS4 daily, and really like its features and tools. I have a very high regard for Adobe’s typesetting engine which has automatic optical kerning and a fantastic paragraph composer that sets text with real grace. I will be using this as my professional measure to compare and contrast the contenders in the review.”
Source: http://jonwhipple.com/blog/2009/08/08/laying-it-all-out/  Read more... (899 words, 1 image, estimated 3:36 mins reading time)

This is the last day, last hours and last minutes of our Q2ID, ID2Q, PUB2ID and Markztools 2 for 1 sale.
Click the link below to get two terrific tools for the price of one and save $199 while you still can.

http://eepurl.com/cMGi

Act now. Offer ends midnight TODAY!

For a limited time, you can get two conversion tools for the price of one. That’s right, two for $199.
Use the links in the promotional flyer link:

http://foxyurl.com/pP4

Act now… Offer expires 7/31

Here was a forum question over on the very popular InDesignTalk forum; which I get an email digest for. This had to do with how to convert page elements and paragraph styles from within Quark documents into InDesign Adobe files and of course applying those styles when you convert to Adobe files:

“In the past year or two I converted many files from Quark to InDesign for our education unit. I am now needing to make some changes to the files and my boss blithely pointed out that the original author was a faithful user of style sheets in Quark. I am a faithful user of styles in InDesign, but I must admit I paid no attention to them when I did the conversion. Now when I look at the files I see lots of styles in the InDesign panels, but none of them seem to be applied to any text. Am I correct about that? Did I miss a huge (and in retrospect ghastly) part of the conversion process?

Thanks as always for sharing your vast experience….
(and)  Read more... (476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Nick B. Davies Shares his insight about the Markzware Quark to InDesign Conversion Plug-in, Q2ID (check out the link for more information on Quark XPress plugins).

Nick discusses Q2ID with Markzware

1. Nick, can you confirm your title and organization, and tell us about your role there?

I am Creative Director for Tinstar Design Limited, a small graphic design studio based in Lymington, Hampshire in the south of England. I founded the company with a business partner in November 1997, and we’ve diversified over the years to adapt to the changing economy and nature of the market. When we started, our biggest clients were publishers such as Macmillan and Heinemann Library, and although we still undertake book design and packaging work (the endless takeovers and mergers of big publishers shrunk the amount of outsourced work along with the budgets), the emphasis today is on small business and corporate accounts.

There are three designers at Tinstar. An old boss of mine believed that a studio like ours should never grow above five employees to remain efficient, and the passage of time has proved him right! I project-manage and oversee all the work that leaves our studio, although I’m still most comfortable in a graphic designer’s role. I am also writer and editor of the training website, graphic-design-employment.com which was originally created as a training manual for our new designers, but which has evolved into a surprisingly (and gratifyingly) popular website.  Read more... (1219 words, 1 image, estimated 4:53 mins reading time)

Adobe Creative Suite 4 or CS4 has been officially announced, which is news for those interested in the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 upgrade, Adobe Creative Suite design standard, Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium, Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master, Adobe CS3 Design Premium OS X, and Adobe Creative Suite premium programs. It appears to be an Upgrade largely focused on web and multi-media designers, yet delves into some production stream-lining as well. (Markzware’s ID2Q can convert this upgrade to QuarkXPress.) In this print-production area, InDesign CS4 itself does appear to have some interesting things for layout artists and preflight operators alike. Chiefly what they are now calling ‘Live Preflighting‘:

“Preflight while you design. Continuous preflighting alerts you to potential production problems in real time so you can quickly navigate to a problem, fix it directly in layout, and keep working.” SOURCE: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/features/?view=topnew

CS4 in-app-preflight options sound interesting and potentially very useful, however FlightCheck Professional from Markzware will prelflight more than 50 file formats, including most of Adobe’s Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat PDF, etc) line as well as QuarkXpress, and numerous other image and layout types, all as a stand alone process, making it very easy to use. Preflighting “within” the layout is different than preflighting what comes in to your shop (or goes out)… One rather interesting feature of FlightCheck v6 to mention at this point, for instance, is it’s batch preflight mode:  Read more... (513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)