Quark Forums

What's going on? I have always printed from Quark (I am on v 8.1.6.2) to Adobe PDF in the printer dialogue box, (first going through Distiller to PDF) but lately I can't alter my page size even though I have changed it in the 'custom sizes' pane. I use Acrobat Pro 9.4 and am on Snow Leopard 10.6.4. The issue seems to have either happened since I updated to Quark 8.1.6.2 or to Acrobat 9.4. But what has happened, why has it changed and given me fewer options in the Quark print dialogue box? I am trying to print to a .ps file for an A3 page, but it won't give an A3 option even though I have added it in the 'custom sizes pane'. It just crops it to A4. Help please!

I'm not experiencing this, but I'm on Tiger. Supposedly Apple has removed the ability to print to PS in Snow Leopard. I don't know if you have been printing to PS in SL or not.

In any case, you might try this. Set yourself up as if you are going to print to a real physical PS compatbile printer. Now, in your print dialogue box for PPD, switch this to the Adobe PDF PPD. Make your settings (as before, use a custom setting). Print to PS. Then distill. I don't know if that will work for you or not, as again, I'm not on Snow Leopard. But it is how I do it on Tiger and I have no issues.

Hope it helps. 

Thanks, but I am now advised Adobe PDF Printer is not available on Snow Leopard and all applications that used Adobe PDF Printer to print pdfs will not be able to print pdfs. So that is an issue you won't be having with Tiger. See this link: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/509/cpsid_50981.html But that doesn't help me with Quark to PDF. What a pain! When I now go to the print dialogue box in Quark 8 on Snow Leopard it won't let me use a custom page size I've put in, and what do I put as the printer name given that I can't use Adobe PDF? Surely I don't use my physical printer's settings? Because if I do that not only can I not set the custom size but I can't save to .ps or set any of the traditional PDF settings, such as high-res Tiff images etc. This is important as I want to save a .ps file then use Distiller to get a high res PDF for print. Any Quark/Snow Leopard people out there who can help? Thanks so much.

Yes, I did mean print to an actual real printer. In the print dialogue box you can then specify a PPD. You'd choose the Adobe PDF PPD. That PPD would give you access to the custom settings you need. You then print to postscript. Since you are printing to a PS file nothing actually goes to your real printer.

In any case, if SL doesn't let you make a PS file then this is pointless.

With regard to your link. Yes, you are correct. No more Adobe PDF printer. But you can select a real printer and use the Adobe PDF PPD for that printer and then print to PS. 

Thanks again, but with Snow Leopard you don't get an option for Adobe PDF PPD through the Quark print dialogue box. You don't even have the choice of an Adobe PDF printer or PPD as they don't work with SL and nor Acrobat Pro 9. Anyhow, I wrote to tech help at Quark and this is what they say: "To create a PS file, navigate to QuarkXPress Preferences, and then under PDF, choose ‘Create a PS file for later distilling’. Me talking now: Then within Quark go to 'file' - 'export' - 'layout as PDF' ( actually a .ps' as it is now changed in the preferences) and under 'PDF style' there is a drop-down menu to select setting for 'Press' or 'Screen' etc. Then go to the 'options' drop down menu and make specific settings for the job. Save that .ps file and then use Acrobat Distiller as usual to make the PDF. It seems to make a bigger end file though... It seems odd to set the .ps file as a 'Press' file through Quark then within Distiller have to set its output again for 'Press" Well, now I have tried that and it seems to work, I just hope it is fool-proof for Press output. And on we go, muddling through! By the way, how do you format your forum text? I get no paragraph breaks and it uses tiny type, how do I change that? Thanks.

If what you say is true about PPDs then I have yet another reason to avoid Snow Leopard. I already have plenty of reasons to stay on Tiger and not use Leopard. I can add this as another strike against an Intel Mac and SL.

In any case, Quark tech support took the easy way out (they always do, they want to "solve" your problem and move on quickly) by giving you directions on Exporting to PDF/PS versus what you were trying to do (old school). Exporting to PDF/PS uses the JAWS engine. JAWS is a third party PDF engine that Quark has licensed so that XPress can export PDF/PS files versus printing to a PS. You're asked to choose an output stye because XPress wants to know what settings to export your PDF/PS file at (some settings actually affect the PS file, such as using AsIs to pass spot color through).

Your end result is different because the original PS file is JAWS created. For me, I don't trust this just yet. The system was horrible in v6.x, but has gotten better. However, I still see things that for our workflow just don't cut it. So, I still print to PS and Distill.

As to posting and line breaks. These forums are NOT Safari friendly. Consequently, if you want line breaks you will need to do one of two things. Either use a different browser or use HTML coding for paragraph breaks between paras. The coding for that would be "<p>" 

Hi! You'll find all you need here: http://indesignsecrets.com/acrobats-adobe-pdf-printer-replaced-in-snow-leopard.php. In order to print a PDF with Acrobat settings, you'll want to choose from Print dialog under PDF > Save as Adobe PDF. After a couple of seconds, a new window shall appear allowing you to choose the joboptions you wish. Hope this helps!

And in order to use Acrobat 9 PPD, you'll have to locate it on the Install DVD (choose Columns as the Finder presentation, then Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro:Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro:Acrobat Distiller.app:Contents:MacOS:SelfHealFiles:AdobePDFPrinter:PPDs:Contents:Resources:en.lproj:ADPDF9.PPD). Copy it to [HardDrive]:Library:Printers:PPDs:Contents:Resources. Though this won't let you choose the joboptions like we used to before. HTH.

We are using Snow Leopard AND printing to postscript. Adobe only removed the installed files from the system, they are still in Acrobat. I wrote an applescript to re-install the files and lock them in place, but it can also be done from the command line. (Wrong place for AS, I know, but there's not much to it) Here it is:

Thank you so much guys for all your comments. I am away now for 2 weeks, but may need to pursue this when I get back. Hope that's OK with you.

 Big THANK Jean-Marie and gavandi! You are best. Nobody else could help me, but now works everything fine.

http://forums.quark.com/p/25091/101238.aspx#101238

I think this problem is due to your printer or your acrobat settings. You should chek the both the things. First check your printer configuration and drivers and then check for the acrobat settings.

So does this give you back the option to Print a PDF from the main print dialog box? I used to have it set up to print to Adobe PDF printer with the Adobe PDF.ppd, select page size, colours etc, then hit printer and select my job options from Distiller and then hit print? God I miss this way of making PDFs!

Hi. I am the original poster for this topic. Yes, I miss the Distiller way of creating a PDF but it's quite simple now really. In Quark preferences go to PDF and click 'create postscript File for later Distilling'. Then go to your file and choose 'export' then 'layout as PDF'. In the 'save as' box the name of your file will have a .ps tag. At the bottom of the dialogue box it asks you to fill in the PDF style settings you want. You can open the 'options' panel if you want to change the settings such as colour, bleed etc. Save the file to the desktop then open Distiller as normal and choose your default settings: 'Standard'. 'Press Quality' etc. Drop the .ps file into Distiller as usual. There's your PDF. One thing I can't make sense of though is that under the 'compressions' option settings, even when 'Press - High Quality Print' is chosen, the compression options default to 'Automatic ZIP/JPEG Low' which seems odd for high end output. This can be manually changed but why is it set so low and why is there no info on this issue? Life is full of such mysteries...

I have recently upgraded to quark 8.5 and snow leopard, with same problems, and am now getting used to doing pdfs in different ways. My litho print company has supplied a list of instructions of how they want pdfs made from quark for high res artwork (PDF/X-1a ) and for visuals to email to clients, i use the simple export as pdf , or distill later option. Anyway my question is - did you find a way to set a custom page size when creating a .ps file to distill later? Sometimes I'm asked by publishing companies to leave a 20mm clear border around crop marks and bleed, so used to set this in the custom page option in the quark print folder. It seems now that using the export menu it automatically sets the white area around crop marks and bleed and it cant be changed?

Susie51:

It seems now that using the export menu it automatically sets the white area around crop marks and bleed and it cant be changed?

I'm not with you. File > Export > Layout as PDF, then Options button, Bleed submenu in the lefthand pane, and set the bleed as you wish. Or am I missing sth?

Oh! maybe you'll want to install Custom Bleed extension.