quarkxpress for beginners

QuarkXPress™ is the industry standard page layout program. There are many features you can take advantage of in Quark™ to speed up and improve the quality of your work. This is especially true if you make a repeating type of document like a monthly catalog, magazine or newsletter.

Even if the task you are doing is a one-time project such as a book or booklet, technical document, product manual or price list you still can take advantage of master pages, style sheets and libraries to give your documents a consistent and professional appearance. Quark™ Documents - Pages QuarkXPress™ is the industry standard page layout program. Although it is a professional level application with features that will handle virtually any pre-press circumstance that may occur, it is has a user-friendly, intuitive interface and is surprisingly easy to use. QuarkXPress is designed for printed output. It is used for brochures, ads, newsletters and anything else that appears in print. Although Quark™ is not specifically made for web pages, there are utilities available such as Extensis® Beyond Press™ which can convert Quark pages into web pages. A page layout program is like a word processor in that a document is built on a page. However, that is where the similarity ends because page layout programs, unlike word processors, allow the precise arrangement of text and images on the page. The first step in making a new document is the creation of the page itself. You determine the page size and dimensions and, like a graphic artists drawing board, Quark opens up a work area that looks like a blank page with a pasteboard on either side. Basic Objects - Boxes and Lines Quark is box-oriented so layouts are built by placing boxes on the page. They are drawn onto the page with the mouse. The type of box is determined by its content. A box can contain either text or an image, or it can contain nothing at all. Thus a box is either a "text box", a "picture box" or an empty box. Boxes and line objects can be precisely positioned on the page. There are 72 points to an inch and objects can be positioned to within 1/1000th of a point. That's more than enough precision required for any job. The user selects the measurement system. Measurements can be set up in inches (standard or decimal), picas, points, millimeters, centimeters, Ciceros or Agates. Object Shape, Outline and Color Properties A box can be rectangular (or square), oval (or round), or polygonal (any number of sides). Previous versions of Quark limited the shapes of lines, boxes and polygons to straight line segments but the latest version allows curved line segments using Bezier curves more on Bezier curves. An assortment of dashed and solid lines and preset frames are provided to vary the appearance an object's outline (or frame). Thus, shadow boxes can be made as well as a number of other effects. Anything that can't be done along this line directly in Quark can be drawn using Adobe® Illustrator® or another illustration program, then imported into Quark in a box and placed on the page. Colors can be defined using any of the established color models - RGB, CMYK, HSB and LAB. Swatches from standard spot color systems are also supplied (PANTONE®, TOYO, DIC, TRUMATCH and FOCOLTONE). Each document contains is its own user-defined color palette. Colors can be created from scratch or copied from other documents and the supplied color swatches. Stroke (outline) and fill properties are applied to objects just like in illustration programs so the concepts learned in these applications apply here as well. Tools and Preferences Like illustration and image editing programs, Quark has a tool palette with tools for creating page objects and for modifying their shape, position and content. There also are other preferences you setup to tell Quark how you want to make documents. These are the individual settings or "environment" such as printer settings, units of measurement, etc.  There is a simple but important concept to grasp regarding tools and preferences. Tool and environmental settings made with no documents open become application defaults that go into effect when you create new documents. Settings made with an open document are retained only by the document when it is saved and are restored when the document is reopened for editing. Once a document is opened the working environment is replaced by the one saved with the document. New documents created while other documents are open will inherit the current working environment. There is, however, a provision for making changes to application defaults while documents are open. This is done through the Edit > Preferences menu. Here one can make changes to either the application preferences or document preferences.  It is important that the working environment be saved with the document because documents are often sent to a service bureau for output on a high resolution device. The working environment can be restored when the document is reopened ensuring that it will print as intended. Setting Up QuarkXPress™ Preferences Part One QuarkXPress allows you to setup the application preferences so it works predictably for you every time. I'll just show you my personal preferences on how I like to setup Quark™. You can set yours up the way you want. Click Edit > Preferences > Application to bring up the preferences dialog. There will be four tabs. If you installed the the Dejavu extension with the version 4.04 or 4.1 updater you will see a fifth tab (the "File List" tab - shown below). 1. The first tab is for the display preferences. I keep the defaults for "Guide Colors" and "Display". The "Display" section determines how images will be stored. When Quark imports an image into a picture box it generates a lo-res preview Tiff which it stores in the document. Images are linked to disk files by default to hold down the file size, but you can embed an image if you want. You can set a display value of either 72 or 96 DPI here (96 for Windows®, 72 for Mac® - but it's not critical). You can set it for more if you want a high-res preview. 2. On the "Interactive" tab check "Smart Quotes" to enable curly quotes for fonts that include them. The check next to "Tool Tips" will cause Quark to display the names of tools when the mouse pointer is moved over them. 3. This "Save" tab is pretty important if you value your work. Make sure "Auto Backup" is checked. You can either press the "Browse" button to navigate to a folder where you want to store backup files or type the name of a folder. If you type a name of a folder that doesn't exist, then the program will create it the next time you startup QuarkXPress. The default is the most recent 5 revisions of the file you are editing. If something goes wrong and you can't open the file, you can open a backup and save it as a new file. Believe me, this is important. I have lost days of work before Quark implemented this feature. The document file can easily become corrupted to the point where Quark can't even open it. I'll show you how to recover data from a corrupted file if it is not so bad that Quark can't open it, but I don't know of any way to open a file if Quark can't. 4. These are just the defaults for the "XTensions" tab: 5. The "File List" tab will appear if you installed the "Dejavu" extension that comes with the 4.04 updater. I want the most recent 10 documents to show up on the "File" menu. Setting Up QuarkXPress™ Preferences Part Two Continuing with setting up application preferences, make sure there are no open documents and click Edit > Preferences > Document. This may seem a little confusing (because you clicked Edit > Preferences > Document) but remember that any preferences you setup with no open documents will become the application defaults. It's just that these preferences are accessed by these mouse clicks. 1. On the "General" tab, select points for both horizontal and vertical units of measurement. Make sure "Points/Inch" is set to 72. I prefer my guides to be "In Front" and I'll accept the remaining dialog defaults. 2. I keep the "Paragraph" tab defaults... 3. Ditto for the "Character" tab... 4. Skip the "Tool" tab for now...and accept the defaults for "Trapping". Creating Setting Up QuarkXPress™ Tool Defaults - Part One Next we want to setup the tool defaults. Either double-click the zoom tool or any item creation tool in the tool palette or click Edit > Preferences > Document, then click the "Tool" tab. We are going to set the defaults for multiple tools at once. The objective here is to setup all text boxes with a background of "None" (clear background) and all picture boxes with a background of "White". The reason for this is that TIFF images with white or knocked-out backgrounds will not print correctly on high-end imagesetters unless the background of the picture box is either set to white or zero percent black (an imperceptible percentage). High-end imagesetters such as Linotronic® have a hard time differentiating the edges of an image from its plain white background if the picture box background is set to "None". The outline of the pixels in the image will come out ragged instead of smooth. If the box contains an EPS image with a clipping path, then set the background to "None" for that image. If you modify the "Clip Path" item settings for a picture box and either select an embedded clipping path or let Quark™ create one then Quark will automatically reset the background to "None" for that box since images with clipping paths require a clear background. I use these settings because the backgrounds of most printed pages are white. I always use "Send to Back" to place picture boxes with white backgrounds underneath text boxes. I make the text boxes clear and place them on top of picture boxes in the item stacking order. Usually, the only time I place a picture box over text is when it is an EPS file with a clipping path and a background of "None". First modify the text tools. Start by clicking the first text box creation tool. Then select the remaining text box tools. 1. You select multiple tools either by: a.) Holding down the Ctrl key (Windows®) or Command key (Mac®) and select them one at a time, or b.) Selecting the first one in a range and click the Shift key on the last one in a range, or c.) Selecting one of the text box tools, then click the "Select Similar Types" button (shown below). 2. Next click the "Modify" button. 3. In the "Group" tab of the "Modify" dialog, select a box color of "None". 4. In a similar manner, select all the picture box tools and press the "Modify" button. 5. In the "Group" tab of the "Modify" dialog, select a box color of "White". Creating Setting Up QuarkXPress™ Tool Defaults - Part Two Next we want to set the item runaround to "None" for all objects. This is the way I like to work. You can set it up differently if you like. 1. In order to do this you have to select one tool at a time, then click the "Modify" button: 2. This will bring up the same dialog as before but this time Quark™ presents you with the "Runaround" tab. Change the type from "Item" to "None". 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 above for every tool one at a time.  Setting Up The Color Palette Next we want to setup the default color palette and add a few colors. Quark™ permits you to globally replace one color with another throughout the entire document. This can come in handy if you are preparing a monthly publication or other periodical. You can create a magazine, newsletter or catalog using the previous one as a template. To give your periodical a fresh new look, you can make some global color changes. For example, if you are printing a 2-color or 3-color (spot color) document and the page headers, footers, logo or other graphic elements require color changes each month, this is a very fast way to setup the document. You simply select the color you want to replace, click Edit > Colors, select the color you want to replace, click "Delete" and Quark will ask you what color you want to replace it with. In order to save your colors for future issues, you can copy the color first, before deleting it. After deleting and replacing the color, you simply rename it back to its original name. Quark permits this trick on all but CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) process colors. If you use the default CMYK process colors as spot colors in any of your documents it won't permit you to delete them and replace them with a new color. But if you make copies of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow and use these as your spot colors, you can delete and replace them. Because black is so often used as the color for body copy, In practice I won't delete and replace black so I won't make a copy of it. 1. Again, make sure there are no open documents and click Edit > Colors. 2. Select Cyan and click "Duplicate". 3. Quark will assign the name "Copy of Cyan". Click "OK". 4. You will see the copy of cyan in the color palette. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 for Magenta then Yellow. 5. When you have finished, you will see copies of cyan, magenta and yellow in the color palette. Click "Save" to save the new defaults.  Images With Embedded Clipping Paths In QuarkXPress™ Prior to version 4.0 the only way a clipping path could be used is if the image was saved as an EPS file with a clipping path. In version 4.x there are a couple of new things regarding clipping paths. First, Quark™ recognizes embedded clipping paths in formats other than EPS. Second, Quark can create a clipping path whether or not one is embedded within the image. 1. It was a surprise to me when I placed a TIFF image into one of my documents and part of it wasn't showing (!). In the screen shot below I was seeing an image like the upper one, but it was supposed to be showing like the lower one. Clearly, something was amiss. I called Quark tech support and they explained what was going on. A TIFF image could have an embedded path! If there was, Quark would recognize it when the image is imported into a picture box. 2. To use or clear an embedded path select the picture box and click Item > Clipping (or Item > Modify, then click the "Clipping" tab). In the example below, the clipping path is visible as a green outline around the image. To clear it, click the "Type" pull down. You will see "Embedded Path" if there is one. The name of the clipping path is accessed by the "Path" pulldown. Here you can see the name of the path is "Path 1". There can be more than one path embedded and each has its own name. 3. Change the Type from "Embedded Path" to "Item", and the clipping path will clear. 4. If you need a clipping path where there is none, Quark can create one for you. This is especially handy for images with white backgrounds. Click Item > Clipping to bring up the "Modify" dialog. Then in the "Type" pulldown, choose "Non-White Areas". Note: Quark can also create a clipping path from an alpha channel. Many times images with knocked out backgrounds will have a selection mask saved as an alpha channel. 5. In the example below, the threshold tolerance was set to zero, the smoothness set to .5 points and then the "Rescan" button was clicked to regenerate the path. 6. The resulting clipping path is quite good and will work in a pinch. Images With Embedded Clipping Paths In QuarkXPress™ Prior to version 4.0 the only way a clipping path could be used is if the image was saved as an EPS file with a clipping path. In version 4.x there are a couple of new things regarding clipping paths. First, Quark™ recognizes embedded clipping paths in formats other than EPS. Second, Quark can create a clipping path whether or not one is embedded within the image. 1. It was a surprise to me when I placed a TIFF image into one of my documents and part of it wasn't showing (!). In the screen shot below I was seeing an image like the upper one, but it was supposed to be showing like the lower one. Clearly, something was amiss. I called Quark tech support and they explained what was going on. A TIFF image could have an embedded path! If there was, Quark would recognize it when the image is imported into a picture box. 2. To use or clear an embedded path select the picture box and click Item > Clipping (or Item > Modify, then click the "Clipping" tab). In the example below, the clipping path is visible as a green outline around the image. To clear it, click the "Type" pull down. You will see "Embedded Path" if there is one. The name of the clipping path is accessed by the "Path" pulldown. Here you can see the name of the path is "Path 1". There can be more than one path embedded and each has its own name. 3. Change the Type from "Embedded Path" to "Item", and the clipping path will clear. 4. If you need a clipping path where there is none, Quark can create one for you. This is especially handy for images with white backgrounds. Click Item > Clipping to bring up the "Modify" dialog. Then in the "Type" pulldown, choose "Non-White Areas". Note: Quark can also create a clipping path from an alpha channel. Many times images with knocked out backgrounds will have a selection mask saved as an alpha channel. 5. In the example below, the threshold tolerance was set to zero, the smoothness set to .5 points and then the "Rescan" button was clicked to regenerate the path. 6. The resulting clipping path is quite good and will work in a pinch.