Press Release 6/11/08

Never before has the world of graphic arts been so dynamic, so ripe with change and new opportunities afforded by emerging creative technologies. And no longer are the creations made in popular desktop programs – like QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word – bound to the traditional constraints of print. These days, businesses create content for any number of purposes.

Even small to mid-sized businesses generate a significant amount of ‘content’ for dissemination in one form of media or another – brochures, marketing materials, advertisements, educational and training materials, presentations, Web site copy, and so forth. And no matter the output intention – whether the information will be printed and distributed, or used in some electronic fashion (the Web, an Intranet, a DVD/CD-ROM, email newsletter, etc.) – it’s up to the creator of that content to ensure that it reproduces with integrity.

While the ‘new media’ enables businesses greater opportunity for exposure and reach, it’s prompted those creating content to adapt and learn new skill sets.

David Creamer, owner of I.D.E.A.S. Training, Bonsall, CA says that there is greater burden on businesses to stay on top of the rapidly evolving world of graphic arts and electronic media.  Read more... (507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Submit Your video (or photos) and Win!

That is right, simply video yourself (or have someone video tape you) at work and tell us:

*Who you are and what you do(name, title, company, specialty, etc)

*How you use your Markzware product(s)(FlightCheck, Q2ID, ID2Q, PUB2ID, MarkzTools, etc.)

*Be Creative! Show us around your work environment

(The more educational and informative, the better!)

For full details, go to the contest details

Email your entries to sales@markzware.com
If your attachments end up being larger than 2MB, simply email us for our FTP details.

Terms & Conditions for Contest:

* One submission per person of either a video explaining who you are and how (what) you use of Markzware and why it is so awesome, or a paragraph or two of text doing similar along with a photo(s) of yourself or your shop.

* VALID – Contest will run will June 15th. 2008 OR until 100 submissions have been received.

* All valid submissions will get a FREE T-SHIRT from Markzware! (shipped for free to you.)

* Email entries to: sales@markzware.com
NO attachments larger than 2MB please.-Email FIRST for FTP upload details.  Read more... (209 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

Reviewed by Macintosh Users East.

I recently saw a video on the internet which featured a designer who had created an Adobe InDesign document that had somehow become corrupted. Eventually the file refused to open in InDesign.

Ordinarily an event like this would be disasterous to a layout artist, especially if the document were a huge commercial layout for a magazine or a book.

Since the file would not open he could not even revert to a saved copy. Instead of starting all over again the designer launched QuarkXPress (more)

American Printer, Mar 1, 2008

If you have been in the print industry for any length of time, you know that there are certain file types printers dread receiving from customers. Right at the top of the list is content created in Microsoft Publisher. You see, almost every prepress department out there is Mac-based, and Microsoft has never released a Mac version of Microsoft Publisher.

For those of us in printing, this is a bittersweet thing. We’re torn between the positions: “Why have they never deemed it necessary to make a Mac version for us poor saps who have to deal with the Publisher files people send in?” and “Thank God they haven’t made a Mac version of that program!” Microsoft Publisher is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an industry-standard application.

Unfortunately, with the shift toward a PDF workflow, more and more customers are using office software like Microsoft Word or Publisher to create their “print-ready” documents. This is bad news for printers, as we’d rather deal with professional programs, such as QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign, that deliver predictable, reliable results.  Read more... (759 words, estimated 3:02 mins reading time)