We all know what most say is the worlds oldest profession, but I start to wonder if we are not part of what amounts to mankind’s oldest trade – the art of graphic representation!

We read in an interesting New Scientist article titled, “Oldest ‘writing’ found on 60,000-year-old eggshells,” this sniplet:

“COULD these lines etched into 60,000-year-old ostrich eggshells (see photo) be the earliest signs of humans using graphic art to communicate?”
Source: New Scientist

Looks like they tried to use a grid layout to help their typography, but surely not with Adobe InDesign CS4 or similar. Also, being Friday and all, could not resist inserting this cartoon image of a “graphic novel” by a caveman as well:

Source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/graphic%20arts,%20caveman/BECPL/caveman-1.jpg

Visit Markzware at PRINT 09 and See:

NEW FLIGHTCHECK® Professional v6.5

and

PageZephyr™

The new & unique search, content extraction and re-publishing tool

Get the full story and discount details here:

Just received my Pro2col newsletter today in the Apple Mail in-box and this caught my eye, especially for those receiving layouts & graphics, packaging layout, layouts software for print, or layouts design print jobs from various sources:

Dramatic savings – Printers’ file delivery/preflight workflow

In the current economic climate where marketing budgets have been slashed and margins are tight, making savings are key.  This workflow enabled the printer to completely automate the file delivery, preflight check, notification process and further expand the workflow into other areas.
Source: http://www.pro2col.com

Using an Enfocus Switch (FullSwitch or LightSwitch) workflow, one can also easily and quickly integrate FlightCheck Professional. Which will be updated for Adobe InDesign CS4 and QuarkXPress 8 support within the coming weeks!

Want to set-up your own Preflight Workflow, which could also link in with what Pro2col has created? Watch here this video of FlightCheck and FullSwitch from Enfocus in action:

We are working hard on new features and functions for our preflight and conversion software and as such, are always glad to share other customer experiences, including with QXP, Adobe InDesign CS3 and Adobe InDesign CS4 (preflight a file without InDesign missing quality control checkpoints). You can also convert QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign and move content with the Q2ID plug in in InDesign.  Markzware has a nice growing list of video testimonials and also a page with customer quotes. We have taken some of the more interesting ones and highlighted them in this video:

Hi, I’m Khristyl Clerigo and I’m going to show you some of the most interesting Markzware product testimonials.

Let us hear what Shellie L. Hall of Ducktype Digital and Get Creative News has to say about FlightCheck Professional.

As a prepress professional I have spend many hours going through customers’ digital files one by one, checking for everything from fonts, to page size and image resolution to make sure the files would print correctly on press.  Read more... (671 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

Here was a post that showed up on my “preflight” watch-list this weekend, which I found interesting:

It also would be nice if it was possible to preflight InDesign documents if there were any untagged RGB images used. My intension is to create an InDesign script to preform a preflight.

Source: http://graphicstart.com/item.php?&itemid=1060906

It is important to note that FlightCheck Professional would be the *perfect* candidate for this task, as it can preflight both the PDF as well as the InDesign Adobe file and many other file types besides Adobe InDesign files. FCPro can also specifically let you know if the Adobe PDF has RGB images which do not have ICC Profiles attached and ignore the CMYK images.

David Creamer has reviewed Markzware’s document conversion tool, Q2ID v4 in the current issue of “Layers Magazine.”

FROM QUARK TO INDESIGN IN A SNAP

The main focus of Q2ID v4 is to support InDesign CS4 and QuarkXPress 8 files. One important thing that’s changed in this version is the updated conversion notes PDF, which now lists most of the conversion issues you might encounter. Another change is that you can use either the InDesign Open menu or the new Markzware menu. Quark files with multiple layouts can be converted individually or all at once; multiple Quark files can be converted, too.

This version appears to fix most of the issues I noted in the last version, including keeping the proper based-on settings, better translations of Quark’s transparency effects into InDesign (with one major exception noted below), and better layer translation between programs.  Read more... (333 words, 1 image, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Screencast.com, coupled with Jing is neat and a handy way to share and categorize screen shots or grabs and even screen captured videos. Here we share a collection of Adobe InDesign problems, including cannot open dialog messages like “InDesign has encountered a problem.” Got any other strange messages about problems with InDesign that InDesign throws at you? Share it with us! (email me on david A_T markzware DO_T nl) Here is our collection with info on how you can fix or recover your bad InDesign files and avoid InDesign font problems, as can be accomplished with Markzware products compatible with Adobe InDesign:

For more info on how we recover or can attempt to fix your bad Adobe InDesign CS2, Adobe InDesign CS3 or Adobe InDesign CS4 documents, see this blog post:
http://www.markzware.com/blogs/bad-corrupted-adobe-indesign-software-docs/2008/09/15/

Markzware brengt een belangrijke upgrade op de markt voor haar QuarkXPress naar InDesign conversie tool (Q2ID v4)

Converteer QuarkXPress snel en eenvoudig naar Adobe InDesign CS3 en CS4

VOOR DIRECTE PUBLICATIE

RIJSWIJK, Nederland, 4 December 2008 – Markzware (www.markzware.com), de leider in de ontwikkeling van preflighting-, data extractie- en conversiesoftware heeft vandaag een upgrade op de markt gebracht voor haar zeer goed gewaardeerde conversie applicatie Q2ID (QuarkXPress naar InDesign). Q2ID v4 is ontwikkeld met als doel een snelle, gemakkelijke en betaalbare methode te bieden QuarkXPress documenten te migreren naar een nieuw Adobe InDesign document.

Deze nieuwe versie van de plugin ondersteunt Adobe InDesign CS3 en CS4 en converteert QuarkXPress versie 3.3 tot 8. Q2ID v4 is ontwikkeld met de behoeften van de grafische industrie in het achterhoofd. De conversie tool biedt een uitgebreide oplossing, simplicifeert het creatieve process en optimaliseert de layout workflow.

“Markzware blijft bezig zich toe te leggen op de behoeften van de grafische industrie. Q2ID speelt een zeer belangrijke rol in de creatieve workflow en we willen ons bezig blijven houden te blijven voorzien in de behoeften met producten als Q2ID”, zei Mary Gay Marchese, PR-manager voor Markzware.  Read more... (376 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Markzware lance une mise à niveau majeure de son outil de conversion QuarkXPress To InDesign (Q2ID version 4)

Convertissez rapidement et facilement les fichiers QuarkXPress aux
formats Adobe InDesign CS3 et CS4

POUR PARUTION IMMÉDIATE

RIJSWIJK (Pays-Bas), 4 décembre 2008 – Markzware, développeur de premier plan de logiciels de contrôle en amont, d’extraction des données et de conversion de fichiers, a lancé aujourd’hui une mise à niveau de son outil de conversion particulièrement prisé Q2ID (QuarkXPress To InDesign). La version 4 propose une méthode rapide, facile et bon marché pour convertir les fichiers QuarkXPress en documents Adobe InDesign.

Conçue spécifiquement pour le secteur des arts graphiques, cette nouvelle mouture prend intégralement en charge Adobe InDesign CS3 et CS4, et assure la conversion des documents QuarkXPress versions 3.3 à 8. L’outil Q2ID propose une solution complète visant à simplifier le processus de création et à optimiser le flux de conception graphique.

« Markzware travaille sans relâche pour répondre aux attentes du secteur des arts graphiques. Q2ID joue un rôle clé dans le flux de création et nous souhaitons continuer de satisfaire les besoins de ce secteur d’activité en développant des produits tels que Q2ID », déclare Mary Gay Marchese, Directrice des relations publiques de Markzware.  Read more... (466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

“Zevrix Solutions has announced compatible versions of its plug-ins with Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 software. Zevrix makes plug-ins for InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

InPreflight is a quality control tool for InDesign that manages file packaging and reporting. Its latest release is 2.6.1.”
SOURCE: http://www.macworld.com/

You can read the full article here.