QuarkXPress Integration with Adobe Creative Suite 3
Page 5

Drop Shadows

The good news is that the drop-shadow feature of QuarkXPress works on imported Illustrator PDFs, so you can apply a drop shadow to your imported art right in QuarkXPress.

One final tip on preview resolution: Illustrator PDF native files can take advantage of the full resolution preview in QuarkXPress 7. (See below.)

QuarkXPress vector tools

QuarkXPress is well equipped when it comes to basic, or even intermediate, drawing tasks. However, there are some differences in the way our drawing tools work. We have a great tutorial on how to use QuarkXPress Illustrator tools in our QuarkEd™ training course. (See the links section at the end of this article.)

Drop shadows

One great advantage of doing your basic vector art in QuarkXPress is that you can choose to use shared content (item > share). This adds the vector item to your shared content palette for easy drag and drop to any page of any layout of your project. If you edit the shape in one place it’ll change everywhere else.

QuarkXPress vector tools quick start

Using the Beziér tools in QuarkXPress is very easy. For step-by-step instructions, turn to this PDF article by Stephen Gray on Shortcutting Your Way Through Beziér Drop Caps.

Quark offers some terrific ways to create vector art without having to master the pen tool, that many users have struggled with in applications such as Illustrator.

One is the QuarkXPress freehand line tool that you’ll find in the QuarkXPress tool palette (its icon is a wavy line; if you don’t see it in your tool palette, then click and hold the pen tool for the fly-out options). With this tool, simply sketch out the shape you want, and it will be converted into a close vector representation. If you have a graphics tablet, this tool can be very effective.

Another useful option is style > text to box. Select a range of text and convert it to a vector path.

In this article by Stephen Gray, learn some great shortcuts and quick starts for using the QuarkXPress union and merge options. Check out the online version of The Shape-making Power of Union and Difference or click here for the PDF.

If you have an existing square or oval box, you can convert it to a Bézier shape with item > shape > lasso icon tool. You can then add or remove anchor points with option + click.

Also, you’ll find that the item > merge allows you to take basic shapes like circles, squares and stars and combine them to make more complex shapes.

If you do a lot of Illustration work, why not set yourself up with an Illustration toolbar? Go to edit > XPert toolbars and make a toolbar that includes menu options such as style > text to box, item > merge, split, duplicate, and so on. (Make sure you have installed Quark® XPert Tools Pro that is free for QuarkXPress 7 users. Refer to the links section at the end of this article.)

Vector paths from Illustrator to QuarkXPress

If you have a vector shape in Illustrator or Photoshop that you would like to bring native to QuarkXPress you’ll have to perform a few steps, but it can be done.

This requires XPert Box Tools, a component of Quark XPert Tools Pro.

Select the path in Illustrator and copy it to the clipboard.

Create a document in Photoshop (size and color model doesn’t matter).

Open the paths palette and paste.

Select paste as path in the Paste dialogue box. This pastes the paths into a new work path.

Double click the work path on the paths palette to name it and save it.

 

Save the image as a TIFF and import it into a QuarkXPress layout.

 

From either the measurements palette or modify dialogue box, go to the clipping tab and select embedded path as the type (it will default to the first path it finds).

Select item > picture box shape from path > new box from clipping path.

If necessary, use Item > Split to separate compound paths.

 

Delete the picture content from the resulting box.

 

Color and style items as needed in QuarkXPress.

 

This technique only works one path at a time, but it can handle compound paths so you can gang several paths and convert them all at once if you like. There are also limitations to how closely you can match the styling of the original if it used a thick stroke (since QuarkXPress does inside or outside frames instead of strokes), but if you’ve ever considered recreating a complex shape in QuarkXPress you’ll find this to be a good time saver.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

If you enjoy our articles, click here to subscribe.
Free JavaScripts provided by The JavaScript Source