I've decided not to upgrade Quark but to move to In Design. Any of you guys a recent convert and how was/is the learning curve. What are the pitfalls a newcomer should look out for. I'm proficient in Photoshop and pretty good with GoLive but do not use Illustrator ( Freehand man ). I do a regular 64 page brochure, Perfect bound and my printer has software to do the imposition from Quark. The repro guys don't have this software for InDesign but it could always be done maually.
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In Design Learning Curve
- Thread starter rickwells
- Start date
An awful lot of the basic ID interface is similar to Illustrator, especially text formatting and the basic drawing elements. If you're familiar with Ill, the basic pickup is a dream. I went from Quark 4 to ID3 with no problems at all, although I never really liked Quark - preferring Pagemaker if I could get away with that. I knocked out a 100 page program for a pro sporting event in 3 days within 2 weeks of buying ID. It used to take me twice that time in Quark.
If you're going to go ID, you should consider the whole Creative Suite Pro package. Adobe offers an "upgrade" from any version of Photoshop for $750 - giving you Photoshop, Illustrtator, Indesign, Acrobat Pro, and Golive plus a binck of Opentype fonts. That's a pretty good deal. Even the full prics of about $1200 is pretty good. When I bought it last summer, it also included this Pagemaker plugin pack which includes InBooklet SE - a basic imposer. I find that Acrobat Pro is really useful. I rarely use ID pdf export for final print pdf creation because printing a postscript file from ID gives you a lot more options than a straight pdf export.
As far as the printer goes, if he's not able to use ID or pdf, he's going to lose business and that loss is going to increase. An awful lot of user, from individuals to major corps and ad agencies are adopting ID. I've found some printers who can't handle ID but can handle PDF or they can't handle PDF but can handle ID. I haven't run across an (in New York) who can't handle either.
If you're going to go ID, you should consider the whole Creative Suite Pro package. Adobe offers an "upgrade" from any version of Photoshop for $750 - giving you Photoshop, Illustrtator, Indesign, Acrobat Pro, and Golive plus a binck of Opentype fonts. That's a pretty good deal. Even the full prics of about $1200 is pretty good. When I bought it last summer, it also included this Pagemaker plugin pack which includes InBooklet SE - a basic imposer. I find that Acrobat Pro is really useful. I rarely use ID pdf export for final print pdf creation because printing a postscript file from ID gives you a lot more options than a straight pdf export.
As far as the printer goes, if he's not able to use ID or pdf, he's going to lose business and that loss is going to increase. An awful lot of user, from individuals to major corps and ad agencies are adopting ID. I've found some printers who can't handle ID but can handle PDF or they can't handle PDF but can handle ID. I haven't run across an (in New York) who can't handle either.
um...jm... he said he doesn't use Illustrator.
As for the learning curve, it's not too bad to learn the basics. My ID came with a training CD that teaches the basics quite quickly. I also got Blatner's book "ID for quark users". So whenever I can't figure out something that I used to do in quark, I look it up in the book.
It really is worth the change. The chart features make charts a breeze. Much easier than doing them in Illy. I also like the parent & child master pages.
As for imposition, there's a $99 plug-in (do a search here, I forget who makes it) that works great. I used the trial version. Wanna split it with me? I only need it once a month ;-)
As for the learning curve, it's not too bad to learn the basics. My ID came with a training CD that teaches the basics quite quickly. I also got Blatner's book "ID for quark users". So whenever I can't figure out something that I used to do in quark, I look it up in the book.
It really is worth the change. The chart features make charts a breeze. Much easier than doing them in Illy. I also like the parent & child master pages.
As for imposition, there's a $99 plug-in (do a search here, I forget who makes it) that works great. I used the trial version. Wanna split it with me? I only need it once a month ;-)
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks jm and Lessa. I've checked out imposition software on the net and come up with a couple. One is InBooklet from Power XChange and the other is Studio Pro from Farrukh Systems. Any one of these the one you are referring to Lassa ? The latter works in over 100 applications including InDesgn, Quark and Pagemaker ! I've also located a preview of the Blatner's InDesgn for Quark Users. This book is a MUST !!
Thanks again guys for you help. Any other offers from all you happy converts ?
Lessa I'm happy to do a deal on the software cost but I'm in the UK - any solution ?
Thanks again guys for you help. Any other offers from all you happy converts ?
Lessa I'm happy to do a deal on the software cost but I'm in the UK - any solution ?
- Thread starter
- #6
I just switched from Quark 4.1 to InDesign CS. I read InDesign for Quark Users. Very helpful for the terminology transittion. Strange things like its Text Wrap instead of RunAround.
Have a great day
~D
Denice
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
Have a great day
~D
Denice
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
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