Quark 6 prints not centered?

[idkew]

i am stuck using crappy quark at work. my boss is afraid of chage, and even though we have indesign, she is afraid of it... long story.

but- i can't seem to get a print from quark to be centered on the page. i have the correct page setup, correct printer setup, os x 10.3.5, quark 6.0, page centered in the print dialog...

right now i am forced to export to eps and open in illustrator, which can correctly center a page.

anyone know why i can't get a print centered in quark?


(i hate this program with a passion)

 

[Mudbug]

probably not a quark issue - but one in the printer driver itself. What kind of printer is it, and when's the last time it was updated?

I ask because I updated my driver for my HP 1220c yesterday, and while it restored the original speed and quality of the printer from what the last miserable excuse for a driver did, it decided that it doesn't want to accept any prints from Preview.app now. Lucky me.

anyway - back to Quark - I'm sure you know this already, but the print dialog has a center option in it (attached pic) which I'm sure you know about, but maybe forgot? depends on how far 'out of center' your print is.

<edit> I went back a re-read your post, and yep, you're set up right - it's probably the driver interpreting info from Quark</edit>

 

[scan300]

but- i can't seem to get a print from quark to be centered on the page. i have the correct page setup, correct printer setup, os x 10.3.5, quark 6.0, page centered in the print dialog...

Normally it works. Can you describe the output you are getting?
What is the document size compared to page size?
Do you have manual tiling turned on?
Does the preview tab in the print dialogue box show your image centered on the page?

 

[Blue Velvet]

You must absolutely upgrade to 6.1...

Asap.

It fixed many (but not all) issues.
6.5 is due in a couple of weeks...

 

[Col. Panic]

i am stuck using crappy quark at work. my boss is afraid of chage, and even though we have indesign, she is afraid of it... long story.

I feel your pain. My department is still using XPress 4 in classic. I tried moving everyone over to InDesign but couldn't get it approved by the powers that be. What is it with with bosses and change?

 

[Blue Velvet]

What is it with with bosses and change?

Possibly because they're responsible for maintaining a production work-flow.

The issue of moving a studio over to Indesign must take learning curves & training into account. If you don't send work out by PDF, then printing firms must be up with your upgrade/switch as well.

The innate conservatism that exists within the printing industry is due to investment & technical setup for their platemaking/presses.

We're looking at also moving to InDesign but it's something that has to be planned and prepared for. We're too busy to have production down for a week while everybody gets to grips with a new app...

EDIT: To convince management of the need for change, then you have to convince them of the business need. When I had to convince our management team of the need to plan & budget for our OS X migration, I had to put a paper together with a costed upgrade path and schedule. There than followed endless meetings while the rough edges were ironed out and all parties had their say... so when the time came, everything went so smoothly, we were only down for 3 days which was good going as we all had new workstations, a server, RIP etc.

 

[idkew]

the "uncentering" is happening with an archaic color laserjet 4500. and an equally old laserjet 5000.

no tiling set up.

tried to trick it by adding a bleed, no help.

the "print preview" from quark shows it is centered. (photoshop has a print preview, quark has crap)

it is only 1/4 or less of an inch out of center on the right and bottom sides. with no border or bleed, you would never notice, but with one, you see it immediately.

(my boss won't change because she has no clue what she is doing. not only is she sub par as a designer, she doen't know photoshop or illustrator past novice level, and only really knows quark 4. believe it or not, she wants me to run 9 on my computer (she has a g5) so that she can run quark 4 on it when she feels like it. translation- she wants 4 for when she can't figure out 6. my first day at work i was showing her how to open a pdf in photoshop and put text on it.... how would she not know that as an AD?

i'll stop now, you guys don't need to hear this.)

 

[Col. Panic]

Possibly because they're responsible for maintaining a production work-flow.

The issue of moving a studio over to Indesign must take learning curves & training into account. If you don't send work out by PDF, then printing firms must be up with your upgrade/switch as well.

The innate conservatism that exists within the printing industry is due to investment & technical setup for their platemaking/presses.

We're looking at also moving to InDesign but it's something that has to be planned and prepared for. We're too busy to have production down for a week while everybody gets to grips with a new app...

EDIT: To convince management of the need for change, then you have to convince them of the business need. When I had to convince our management team of the need to plan & budget for our OS X migration, I had to put a paper together with a costed upgrade path and schedule. There than followed endless meetings while the rough edges were ironed out and all parties had their say... so when the time came, everything went so smoothly, we were only down for 3 days which was good going as we all had new workstations, a server, RIP etc.

Did all of that. Documented the need. Documented the benefits of ID over XPress. Spoke with our printers to make sure there wouldn't be any issues with their outputting ID files. Got budget approval. Developed a migration plan with training. Met ad nauseum with anyone and everyone who could possibly be affected. Then the boss got gun shy right when it was time to pull the trigger. And a year or so later I am still using XPress 4 in classic.

 

[scan300]

the "uncentering" is happening with an archaic color laserjet 4500. and an equally old laserjet 5000.

no tiling set up.

tried to trick it by adding a bleed, no help.

the "print preview" from quark shows it is centered. (photoshop has a print preview, quark has crap)

it is only 1/4 or less of an inch out of center on the right and bottom sides. with no border or bleed, you would never notice, but with one, you see it immediately.

Does this happen with every document since you got Quark 6?

Are registration marks off?

Do you get the same problem if you print to PS then Distill a pdf? (if you have Acrobat).

Often a printer's paper feed is misaligned, the manual feed guides or the paper tray guides are incorrectly set, or the printer hasn't been calibrated. I would look at this issue first unless...

if this is happening with Quark's automatic centering option but other apps automatic centering options print true, then I would assume that Quark is accessing the wrong printer driver.

Quark needs to access printer drivers from a single location, it can't locate the printer driver from the current printer in the print center like almost every other app. Usually /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj (You set this up in Quark from the utilities/ppd manager menu.

Sometimes PPD's can be stored in multiple locations, and you might have varying ppds, out of date ppds or totally the wrong ones.

Check to see if you have multiple copies of a ppd. To do this check the printer driver version number in the printer list of the Printer Setup Preference Pane. (Use the show info button and select printer model.)
The version number should be the same as when you select the printer from the Quark print dialog. If it isn't, then you have a printer driver conflict.

 

[MisterMe]

the "uncentering" is happening with an archaic color laserjet 4500. and an equally old laserjet 5000.

no tiling set up.

tried to trick it by adding a bleed, no help.

the "print preview" from quark shows it is centered. (photoshop has a print preview, quark has crap)

it is only 1/4 or less of an inch out of center on the right and bottom sides. with no border or bleed, you would never notice, but with one, you see it immediately.

(my boss won't change because she has no clue what she is doing. not only is she sub par as a designer, she doen't know photoshop or illustrator past novice level, and only really knows quark 4. believe it or not, she wants me to run 9 on my computer (she has a g5) so that she can run quark 4 on it when she feels like it. translation- she wants 4 for when she can't figure out 6. my first day at work i was showing her how to open a pdf in photoshop and put text on it.... how would she not know that as an AD?

i'll stop now, you guys don't need to hear this.)

You may very well have not properly chosen the correct PPD files for your printers. If that is the case, the correct PPD file for both printers should be on your computer. If you use Printer Setup Utility properly with each printer, then they should behave properly. If for some reason the PPD files have been deleted, you can download them from HP.

 

[idkew]

i will look into the ppd's.

i am sure they are the correct ones, but they might be out of date.

thanks for the help so far everyone.

 

[MisterMe]

i will look into the ppd's.

i am sure they are the correct ones, but they might be out of date.

thanks for the help so far everyone.

PPD files don't get out of date. PPD is an acronym for PostScript Page Description. It is a plain text file which tells your PostScript print driver which features are available on your printer. It includes such information as the PostScript version, the fonts included in ROM, and all of the hardware features. You may use the same PPD file on any computer that accesses your printer.

 

[idkew]

PPD files don't get out of date...

my bad. i was thinking maybe the ones i had were rushed to become os x print center compatible or something...

but- i am selecting the ppd named exactly the same as the printer. the printer was auto setup over appletalk, and the printer icon is of the same printer. so, i don't think we can blame this on print center, especially since adobe products canprint correctly.

i miss my indesign.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Did all of that. Documented the need. Documented the benefits of ID over XPress. Spoke with our printers to make sure there wouldn't be any issues with their outputting ID files. Got budget approval. Developed a migration plan with training. Met ad nauseum with anyone and everyone who could possibly be affected. Then the boss got gun shy right when it was time to pull the trigger. And a year or so later I am still using XPress 4 in classic.

The final trick you have to pull is to convince your boss that it was HER idea all along...

Some superiors are so territorial they can't accept any ideas/changes from their staff and some may be so stuck in the mud that change can run straight past them and they end up relics... fear of becoming fossilised was the motivation for our management team.