On Apple’s web page under Mac OS X productivity tools, you can see the new and exciting tool from Markzware, PageZephyr- perfect for publishers of all sorts (Book, magazine and newspaper publishing houses) or of course anyone with archives of DTP files which need to be easily searchable. This Macintosh application allows you to search your entire drive or network full of Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress documents, WITHOUT opening them.. and so much more, like extraction:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/pagezephyr.html

—> Do not forget to preflight and then check again your application print files with Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional v6.5. Supporting more than 50 file formats, it takes quality control in the publishing workflow to the next level…

It’s Friday; Microsoft Windows 7 just out, so I’m going retro, as in last years “I’m a PC” ad buzz -

“I’m Linux” (video).. sure glad we primarily use Apple Macintosh around here:

When an InDesign.INDD file is really a Quark .QXP layout…….

Hi, David Dilling here from Markzware and here is yet another interesting one. A customer sent in a email with the dreaded “I have a bad InDesign file please help me!” This one was a little bit different in that he knew it was an old file and that there were defiantly issues with it and he couldn’t quiet figure it out. The subject of this movie is “When InDesign isn’t InDesign but QuarkXPress.” Yes follow me on this one. Come check it out on my screen here because it is quiet a common problem, in any event I’m hearing more and more about this and the type and creator being zapped in the file and other issues like this. It’s very important, the file extension use and how you use it on a Macintosh or even a Windows machine of course as well.

It is not as easy as just adding .INDD to a QuarkXPress file and woof magically it become a InDesign file. Visa versa you just can’t take a Jpeg add a .tiff and it becomes a tiff file, it just does not work that way. If it did life would be a lot simpler but that is just not so. Now come check it out on my screen and thank you for watching.

Font diskette for an Itek 1200/1400 phototypesetter

Last week, Frank Romano posted a video blog on Whattheythink.com entitled ‘How Online Content is Changing Print.’ He concluded by holding an item and asking ‘What is this?’

There were 120 respondents.

One correct answer – which is – a font disk for an Itek phototypesetter!

My reward – a copy of the 2oth edition Pocket Pal(r).

Many years ago, I was a typesetter, familiar with several proprietary typesetting machine languages, including the Itek’s.

My very first experience working on an Itek was at the ‘Horsetrader Magazine.’ Dave Jacobson owned the magazine and also founded the Gutenberg Festival, once the largest print show of its day.

Not long afterwards, I worked for a company in California, ICIB (Insurance Companies Inspection Bureau) typesetting detailed insurance forms. The Itek’s ‘display monitor’ did not reveal the typesetting code ‘graphically.’ Consequently, it took a few times to get the forms to output as conceptualized. My goal was to typeset the forms for outputting as one piece, without the need to ‘paste-up.’ Let’s call it an early form of ‘what you see is what you get,’ or more to the point ‘what you conceptualize is what you get.’  Oftentimes, minor changes were needed, and outputting as one piece helped avoid opaquing the negative. This resulted in less time spent preparing the piece and a higher level of print quality.  Read more... (254 words, 1 image, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

Testimonials (video)  -

Graphic artists, designers, publishers and printers giving their feedback and experience on the power and advantages of using Markzware’s software tools for the graphic arts industry. Video testimonials on Markzware’s Adobe Plug-ins, QuarkXPress XTensions and stand-alone Macintosh and Windows applications:

To view the rest of the non-video testimonials on Markzware’s FlightCheck, Q2ID, ID2Q, PUB2ID, MarkzTools or our service to fix bad Adobe InDesign files, see:

http://www.markzware.com/marketing/testimonials/

Markzware interviewed one of it’s valued customers, Mr. Valentin Ocheda and during taping, he deeply explained his usage of a neat Macintosh tool called, Default Folder X. Check out here how he uses this to semi-automate his preflight and graphic design workflow:

“Quality Control [via FlightCheck] on his desktop.”