Quark Forums

ShadowCaster Returns for a Limited Engagement
Take a look at ShadowCaster 3.3 for QuarkXPress 7 on Quark Labs and let me know what you think. Eventually we'll adopt some of these concepts into transparency offering of QuarkXPress. I'm curious where you see the most value in how ShadowCaster approaches the problem. Keep in mind, this is not a formal release of the software, so it's non-warranted.

Continue on to our ShadowCaster Project page on Quark Labs for more information.
http://labs.quark.com/projectdetail.aspx?did=13

Erm ... Quark Labs?

I figure I'm blind, but where is that? Any chance of a direct link here for the ... oh ... visually impaired? :lol:

Greg

http://labs.quark.com/

It's a sneak peek at what quark is working on, really good idea!

Yeah, got it thanks Nitro. Especially since a heap of stickies appeared recently!

Personally I like the look of the image drag & drop Xtension. I can see a lot of uses for that - particularly in setting image heavy catalogue pages.

Greg

Hi,

It's great to see ShadowCaster making a comeback! So far, it looks like some work still has to be done for placed vector EPS files. I tried to put an outer bevel on a logo, but the effect only worked on the picture box, not the content. Type would bevel, glow and emboss with no problems. I'm looking forward to the future development of this feature.

mrcrawford

Since ShadowCaster doesn't include a PostScript RIP, it can't apply effects to EPS or PDF files because it only has access to the low-res preview. Your best bet for these formats is to use QuarkXPress 7's built-in transparency features (if you're doing opacity, shadow, or glow) or apply the effect outside of QuarkXPress. Once we add things like inner shadow, bevel, and blend modes to QuarkXPress then you'll be able to apply them to any format since our flattening engine supports those formats, but I can't commit to a timeframe for that.

Dan Logan
Technical Product Manager
Quark

Thanks for your quick response. I'm glad to know that Quark is working on expanding the transparency features. I've been very happy with Quark 7 and look forward to it getting even better.

dont know why but it crashed every time with a french passport Xpress
best regards
jacques

ShadowCaster is not localized into French, but it should work OK with QuarkXPress Passport set to French, you'll just see English UI. You should try rebuilding your preferences and make sure you have write privileges to the XTensions folder.

-Dan

Yes, SC3.3 crash all the time at least with the French version of QXP immediately when I try to import elements in SC Create.
Bernard (Vous et Votre Mac magazine)

Strange... I'm able to add text and picture boxes to the Create palette with the Program Language set to French and then place the rendered file with no problem. Can you do me a favor and confirm that you're still crashing even if you set your Program Language to US English? If it still crashes then you should try the preferences and permission tests I mentioned above.

-Dan

Sorry for answering so late.
I tried in English US language, same crash.
I rebuilt Preferences. My Extension folder is in Red and Write state.
Xpress still crash each time i clic on the add icon in the Create palette. IN fact it starts working but crash almost after two or three seconds.
It's happening no matter the type of page and the mix of elements (photos, text blocs…) I try to mount in the Create palette.

Can you post the crash log here?

sorry for the delay, i have also removed prefs and set passport to english, and it crashed a few seconds after adding an item to shadowcaster

I have also a problem with SC 3.3 First of all my system: Mac Pro, Intel, OSX 10.4.11, Quark 7.31 we couldn't do an update, cause we are working on serverside documents. The server software support only QXP 7.31 files. I copied the extionsion into "xtension" folder but qxp isn't able to load it after a restart. Have I did something wrong? best regards, Selcuk