Quark Forums

I have been using Quark since the late 80s and I have been increasingly frustrated about how long-winded it is to create a custom colour from an imported bitmap or vector graphic. For instance, if I import a tiff from Photoshop and want to match a colour from the graphic, I have to open the tiff in PS, use the eyedropper, write down the CMYK breakdown, go back into Quark , create a new colour, enter the CMYK values and name it. Is it not possible to have a simple tool in Quark like an eye dropper that recognises CMYK or RGB values? perhaps by hovering the tool over the imported graphic and pressing alt and click, the custom colour window opens with the CMYK values displayed and the name field ready. It could even give the closest Pantone colour. This would save me a lot of time.

You've probably missed a recent message: a free Eyedropper XT is available from Gluon. HTH.

On my end, I've been using an AppleScript for several years (thanks to mates here) that would create a new colour in my current doc from the foreground colour in PS. AS is very powerful and saved me a lot of hours of work or repetitive tasks.

Great - thank you. I will try the Eyedropper XT. I will let you know how it goes.

That extension is brilliant!!!!!!!! Works perfectly. Thank you!

Just note that it reads the colors in the Quark screen preview, not in the actual Photoshop file. Works fine for "pretty close," but not so much for exact color matching.

Umm...

So perhaps not ideal for serious design work? Also, it really is something that should be a native feature within QuarkXPress, not an add-on that someone has to hear about, find and install.

thatkeith:

Umm...

So perhaps not ideal for serious design work? Also, it really is something that should be a native feature within QuarkXPress, not an add-on that someone has to hear about, find and install.

 

Close enough is good enough in the newspaper industry. Ads run once or multiple times on newsprint. The customer only cares that red is red and blue is blue and so on. I can count on one hand in the past 12 years I've worked in this industry the number of customers that have demanded the color be exact.

As to native versus addon. Many of the "native" functions of XPress are actually XTensions. PDF handling, PSD import, HTML handling, GIF import, PNG import, Composition Zones, etc, etc. In the case of PDF handling, Quark has used an XTension for that since version 4.x. It's never been written into the main code.

I'm just bringing that up because I'm always in favor of expanding the capabilities of the existing version of XPress. That's the whole point of why Quark uses the XTensions feature. Just like ID with plugins.

 

Fair enough for that market - newspaper work is not that critical. Other markets, however, such as magazine production, wil be a different matter... :-)

Good point about native vs addon. I totally agree; I was thinking of the standard/bundled/default things as 'native', which is somewhat sloppy of me. I do think it should be something that is part of every installation of QuarkXPress. Although only if it is accurate enough for ALL markets. It may actually need to be truly native, however, as it may be the case that the plugin architecture can't get that deep into imported images. (I have no idea, I'm just wondering.)

thatkeith:

Fair enough for that market - newspaper work is not that critical. Other markets, however, such as magazine production, wil be a different matter... :-)

Good point about native vs addon. I totally agree; I was thinking of the standard/bundled/default things as 'native', which is somewhat sloppy of me. I do think it should be something that is part of every installation of QuarkXPress. Although only if it is accurate enough for ALL markets. It may actually need to be truly native, however, as it may be the case that the plugin architecture can't get that deep into imported images. (I have no idea, I'm just wondering.)

 

Yeah, magazine production is a whole different matter. So is national ads and coffee table books, etc. So, I'm with you in regards to that.

Quark has a tendency to introduce XTensions, take user feedback and then include the XTension into the next release. That's what they did with the PDF FIlter XTension for QXP 4.x. By version 5.x it was part of the install. They did it with the PSD XTension (Dave Ebersole and Dan Logan's baby) too. So this might be the same thing. Quark get's user feedback, the engineers improve it behind the scenes and it gets put into XPress 10.x as a standard feature. That would be my guess anyway as to what's happening.

 

Yes, I have just realised that it is a close representation of the colour. I have checked the break down on the PS file and the Quark breakdown and there is a difference. This plugin will still be useful for web though - not litho print. Come on Quark - give us a tool!

 I'm totally with you all to say this should be part of QXP by default. Working with colours in Quark is not friendly. In the meantime, here is a AppleScript that might come helpful. You're supposed to have picked up the colour in Photoshop and it will create the new colour in Quark's current doc, named after its seps. The code was originally given by a mate here or on Publi-Script forums. Thanks to him because since then it's almost a pleasure to deal with colours

 tell application "Adobe Photoshop CS5"
    --activate
    try
        set FGC to (convert color (foreground color) to CMYK)
        set MyC to (cyan of FGC) as integer
        set MyCyan to ((MyC) * 655.35)
        set MyM to (magenta of FGC) as integer
        set MyMagenta to ((MyM) * 655.35)
        set MyY to (yellow of FGC) as integer
        set MyYellow to ((MyY) * 655.35)
        set MyK to (black of FGC) as integer
        set MyBlack to ((MyK) * 655.35)
        
    on error
        beep 1
        display dialog "Please choose a foreground colour." with icon caution
        return
    end try
end tell

tell application "QuarkXPress9.1"
    activate
    tell document 1
        if not (exists (color spec ("C" & MyC & " " & "M" & MyM & " " & "J" & MyY & " " & "N" & MyK))) then -- NOTE: this only checks wether the colour name exists, not the colour after its values!
            make color spec at beginning with properties {name:"C" & MyC & " " & "M" & MyM & " " & "J" & MyY & " " & "N" & MyK, CMYK color value:{MyCyan, MyMagenta, MyYellow, MyBlack}, separation:true}
        else
            beep 1
            display dialog "The colour already exists." with icon stop giving up after 3
            return
        end if
    end tell
    beep 2
    display dialog "The colour \"C" & MyC & " " & "M" & MyM & " " & "J" & MyY & " " & "N" & MyK & "\" has been created." giving up after 3
end tell

Thanks for this. I have to admit, I a have never played with AppleScript before so I am a little confused. Do I open AllpleScript Editor, paste the 2 parts of the script separately and 'Run'?. If I do this I get the error 'error "The variable MyC is not defined." number -2753 from "MyC"'. To be honest, I have no idea what this means. I have changed the part 'tell application "QuarkXPress9.1"' to 'tell application "QuarkXPress8.5.1". If you have five minutes would you mind briefly telling me what to do please. Many thanks!

So the whole thing must be copied/pasted to AppleScript Editor (from: tell application "Adobe Photoshop CS5"; to the last end tell). Compile and run. Save it in the Scripts folder of Quark. You can even assign a keyboard shortcut to it via System Prefs.

Note that if no picture is open in Photoshop, it should still work and pick the curent foreground colour. Call again if more info needed. HTH.

Thanks for that. I am still having problems though. I am getting the error 'Expected "," but found class name.' when I compile. it highlights the word 'colour' after the first set FGC line. This is when I wish I had paid more attention at school! I think I will throw the towel in unless you have any ideas? Thanks for you help though - much appreciated.

Hum! I can't see what it is. Could you post a screenshot of that (with the whole code visible and the error)? I suspect sth went wrong at copying/pasting the text, but hard to say like that.