It is nearly impossible to make a truly standard, yet open (i.e., allowing many and any customers in) design-to-print workflow; but their are standard tools, tips and tactics to make things flow properly. Here was a great post on the PrintPlanet forum asking for preflight, prepress and general workflow help. It reads:

Basic Workflow Standardization
“I am a print shop manager in an in-plant. One of my biggest problems is fonts. Most of the documents I get are from Word or uneducated Publisher users. Some other problems are users creating a two-color jobs in CMYK and black text not being pure black. Currently we handle everything we get on an individual basis, but it is getting completely out of hand. I need to start putting in place some systems to handle some of these problems

Is there a easy way to convert documents to pdf with the correct specifications before I get them? For example is there a pdf print driver that I can put on my web site or push out to everyone on my network that it will create a pdf to my specifications so I do not have to worry about fonts or poor resolution? If so how much does something like that cost?  Read more... (373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Temple Baptist Church

Markzware recently spoke with Jana Amos, design communications at Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi about one of the many challenges she faces in her role of being in charge of the communications and designs.

Markzware: Tell us a bit about your role with Temple Baptist Church.

Amos: I’m a graphic designer that works in conjunction with about 15 pastors and their assistants. I design all the church-wide information, but also work with the assistants on their individual design projects.

Markzware: How problematic are Microsoft Publisher files in terms of receiving and getting them through prepress?

Amos: Publisher files are pretty much the only ones the assistants send me that aren’t a plain email. Previous to the convert tool, I had to run Windows XP on my Mac through Virtual PC on my PPC and VMWare on my Intel Mac just to open Publisher. Then I would copy and paste into Word, saving the pictures separately. Then I could open the Word doc on my Mac to get the info needed in the design process.

Markzware: How did you learn about Markzware’s PUB2ID application? And what piqued your interest in this plug-in?  Read more... (528 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Many who still work in QuarkXPress, now  have an easy way to open and convert those Adobe InDesign documents they get in with Markzware’s ID2Q v4. This QuarkXPress XTension for version 7 and 8 will open all versions of InDesign (CS1.5, CS2, CS3 and CS4). Watch this video demonstration of how easy it is here:

ID2Q v4 (Adobe InDesign to QuarkXPress) Video Tutorial

This was an interesting one, that had a print catalog workflow stopped dead in it’s tracks. These Adobe InDesign files were not opening. They contacted Markzware to see if we could assist, as they heard we are working on a system to repair InDesign files that are broken… Check out this video to see what the REAL problem was and why it is so very important to preflight every job with FlightCheck that comes in first, before jumping to conclusions:

For more info on how we can try and fix your corrupt InDesign files, see here:
http://www.markzware.com/blogs/bad_corrupted_adobe_indesign_docs/2008/09/15/

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.

It was an honor to get to film this interview between Mary Gay Marchese (PR; Markzware) and Anne-Marie Concepcion, InDesign expert, InDesignSecrets.com co-founder and author. She tells an incredible story about how Q2ID (Markzware’s QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign conversion plugin) saves her literally DAYS worth of time on just one document! Check it out here:

Adobe Plugin developer Zevrix has updated its InPreflight solution for InDesign.

Zevriz has updated InPreflight, a quality control solution for Adobe InDesign that lets
users locate potential problems and produce error-free documents, to version 2.2.5.

SOURCE: MacsimumNews.com via Graphicstart.com.

Yet another piece of evidence of why not to be tricked into feeling safe using the pre-flight feature within InDesign itself, as this video highlights titled, Adobe InDesign preflight vs Markzwares FlightCheck.