Working with PSD files in Quark/InDesign

Quark heralds their PSD Import options as

"the best integration with Photoshop’s PSD file format of any layout tool available today."

Yes, you read that right. This appears in a free PDF on their website, QuarkXPress 8, Xperience Design. So, I thought I’d test the waters and it turns out that the statement is pretty accurate.

There are limitations to what Quark’s PSD import feature can handle so in the help files, there’s a section on preparing PSD files. The key thing is, don’t use any layer styles. If you do, you’ll get the following warning:



Quark will effectively flatten the file and you won’t have access to the layers if you include any effects. You can get around this by converting your effects into layers. Quark also recommends converting Shape layers to Smart Objects for maximum compatibility.

So what can you do with PSD files, once they are imported into Quark? You can turn layer visibility on and off and change the blending mode and opacity.



Unfortunately, you can’t change the order of the layers, add layer masks, or effects to them. However, you can view and work with Channels and Paths that are saved in the PSD file. For example, you might have a Spot Color channel in a file. Let’s say that you decide you want to change the spot color. You don’t have to go back to Photoshop to do that, just double click on the Spot Color channel and choose another color in the palette.



Any changes you make to the PSD file outside of Quark will be indicated by a Red circle in the lower right-hand corner of the PSD Import palette. You won’t need to go to the Usage dialog to update the file, just double click on the red circle.

InDesign has a feature called Object Layer Options for placed PSD files. There’s two things you can do with this, turn layer visibility on and off and choose a Layer Comp, if they are in the file. Here, again, you can’t change the order of the layers but more so, you can’t change the opacity or blending modes on the fly. You can’t get to the Channels or Paths, but InDesign does handle them. In the case of that Spot Channel, the color is added to the Swatches panel and Paths can be used in the Text Wrap panel.

So, as you can see, Quark does have a little bit of a leg up here on the PSD thing, with potentially less trips back to Photoshop for edits. Is it a tighter integration than InDesign? Hmmm. What are your thoughts?

Layout Zones

QuarkXPress has a feature called Composition Zones. This feature allows you to export portions of a document so that other individuals can edit them. The portions in the original document are automatically updated after a save. This means that sections of a publication can be farmed out to different parts of a team and the final publication can be put together on the fly.

InDesign, up until now, didn't have this feature. But thanks to Layout Zones, you can now do all of this and more. After installing the script, you can select sections of a page and assign them as a Layout Zone. This exports that section as a native InDesign file that then gets re-imported to the original document. You can then put that file on a server or in a public location so that it can be edited. The original file will be updated when the Layout Zone is saved.

You can also export selected Layout Zones as SWF, PDF, or IDML. This is a very exciting script and could possibly take some thunder away from Quark, yet again.

Quark's Guide to CS4 Integration

As Quark struggles to stay alive, they release a new Guide to Integration with the Creative Suite.

InDesign v Quark: Runarounds/Text Wraps

Quark

Quark has no way to ignore runarounds on a text box. Even text boxes placed on layers or master pages will react to runarounds created by picture boxes above them.

InDesign

In the Text Frame options dialog, there is a check box to Ignore Text Wrap.

Significance

Here's an example: A large text box with a text logo was placed on a Layer. Other layers with picture boxes was created above that. The text moved in reaction to the picture boxes. If the text box with the logo in it was placed on the Master page, the same result occured. There's no way to ignore runarounds in Quark. They seem to be inherently on. In this case, since the large text was behind everything else, it's extremely important to keep the position of that text in place. Locking the text doesn't work either.

InDesign v Quark: Type Stroke

Quark

You cannot apply strokes to type in Quark.

InDesign

As in Illustrator, InDesign allows you to add a stroke to type by selecting a text box, and in the Swatches panel or Toolbox, selecting the Type option, with Stroke fill in the front, and choose a color. You can then change the stroke weight in the Stroke panel.

Significance

It may seem trite, but again, we see more creative flexibility on the part of InDesign here in comparison to Quark. Would Quark greatly benefit from adding a feature like this? Probably not, but at least a designer using InDesign doesn't have to step outside of the program to do something like this.

InDesign v Quark: Master Page Items

Quark

Items placed on Master Pages in Quark are no longer locked on regular pages, as in previous versions of Quark. For example, if you place a picture or text box on a master page and then go to page 1, you can manipulate that box with either the Content tool or Item tool. These 'local' changes are ignorant of the Master page. There is a Preference (Print Layout > General) for deciding what to do with these 'local' changes. You can either Keep the changes or Delete them. When you have Keep on, and you replace the page with the Master, the changed item remains. If you have Delete on, which is preferable, the changed item is deleted when the master replaces the page.

InDesign

Items placed on a Master page in InDesign are inherently locked on regular pages. This keeps those items away from you while you lay other elements on top of them. A Master page item can be accessed and changed by Command (Control) + Shift clicking on it. There's also an option in the Pages Panel to Hide Master Items on a selected page or range of pages. This effectively removes master page items from a page.

Significance

In my humble opinion, Master page items are placed on the Master pages specifically to add consistent items that will appear throughout a publication with little variation and change. Once the items are in place, having the flexibility to change those items is great, but I can see potential issues with Quark's approach. It's too easy to accidentally select a Master item on any page and delete or move it. I like the fact that InDesigns Master items are not accessible unless you make them so.

Indesign v Quark: Picture Control

Quark

An imported picture in Quark can be sized in the Measurements palette, with the X% and Y% fields. There's no way to link those fields, you have to address both to size an image. Another way to scale an image and its picture box is by holding Command and dragging the corner of the box to scale both. Oddly though, adding the Shift key doesn't constrain proportions in the image, but forces it on the box, so the image gets distorted.

Finally, you can scale the picture to the size of the box by right clicking on the box and choosing the command Scale Picture to Box. Adversely, you can fit the box to the picture by choosing Fit Box to Picture. You can crop an image by changing the size of the box and move the image within the box with the Content tool. To center an image in a picture box, you can use Command (Control) + Shift + M.

InDesign

A placed image can be manipulated separately from it's picture frame in InDesign with the Direct selection tool. You can scale the image with the Direct selection tool. Clicking and holding on the placed image for a few seconds will reveal its total size beyond the boundaries of the picture frame. You can control the percentage of the size of the picture in the Control panel and link the horizontal and vertical aspects.

InDesign has several Fitting options. You can Fit Content to Frame, Fit Frame to Content, Center Content, Fit Content Proportionally, and Fill Frame Proportionally.

Significance

Quark feels clunky when it comes to placing and sizing images, whereas InDesign offers so many ways to deal with placed images. There's more room to change your mind with InDesign, more opportunities to experiment and alter them. Again, I think Quark's mindset is that the designer should already know the size of the imported image beforehand.

InDesign v Quark: Linking

Quark

Quark has two tools for linking: the Link tool and the Unlink tool. You can automatically flow text into a new Project that has automatic text boxes created in it. To manually link, you need to select the Link tool and then click on an text box that has an overset symbol on it, then click on an empty text box to flow that text into it.

To break a text link, select the Unlink tool and click on a text box that is linked. An arrow will appear that indicates the link between the text boxes. Click the tip of the arrow to break the link.

InDesign

InDesign offers three ways to link text: manual, automatic, and semi-automatic. There is no link or unlink tools in InDesign for linking text frames. Every text frame has an In and Out port. When text is overset, the Out port will have a red plus sign in it. Click on the red plus sign and now you will have a loaded cursor. To manually link, click on an empty text frame. To semi-automatically link, hold down Option (Alt) and click on multiple text frames to continue the thread throughout a document. To automatically link, hold down the shift key. Click on a column and new text frames will be created to accomodate the entire story.

Another thing about InDesign is that you don't need to create a text frame to begin flowing text through a document. Once you Place a story and the cursor is loaded, you can then click on a column to flow that text.

Significance

Again, Quark is expecting you to plan ahead and have all of your text boxes in place before you flow text. The advantage in InDesign is that you don't need to have text frames in place to link or use special tools to do it.

InDesign v Quark: Guides

Quark

Quark has a utility called Guide Manager under the Utilities menu. You can add a number of horizontal and vertical guides with this tool. You can also remove guides that have been added in the same utility. What's odd about this tool is that you cannot use it on a master page, which would make the most sense. You can add the guides to All Pages or All Spreads, but as soon as you add additional pages, those guides are not on the new pages.

InDesign

Under the Layout menu, go to Create Guides. You can specify the number of Row and Column guides and fit them either to the page or to the margins. This tool can be used on master pages - where it probably should be used.

Significance

If grids are really important to you, then creating a logical set of guides to help you during the design process is very helpful. However, if your design does not neatly fit into a specific grid or only requires a few grid lines, then neither of these tools are anything to gain from.

InDesign v Quark: Eyedropper

Quark

Quark doesn't have a color picker or eyedropper tool to select colors. Even when you are creating new colors, there's no way to select colors from imported images.

InDesign

InDesign has an eyedropper tool in the Toolbox. With the eyedropper tool, you can select colors from a placed image. Click once to hold a color. Option click to select again. then you can go to the Swatches panel and choose New Color Swatch from the options menu.

The eyedropper tool does more than just color in InDesign - it can select formatting attributes. With the eyedropper tool selected, click on some formatted text and those attributes will be held. Click and drag over some unformatted text with the eyedropper tool and now that text will be formatted.

Significance

Yes, I suppose you should know the colors that you will be using in a given project ahead of time, but there are those times when you need to reference a color within your layout program without having to go back to Photoshop to find out it's CMYK or RGB values. Apple has a utility called Digital Color Meter that you could use while in Quark to pick out values, but you'd still have to write them down and make new colors. Not as easy as InDesign.

Update

This is a real ass-backwards workaround, but you can get color sample/eyedropper functionality in Quark:

http://www.quark.com/service/desktop/support/techinfo/knowledgebase.html