My commercial printer has Mac system

[JAOK]

I am working with a commercial printer who uses Pagemaker and Quark on a MAC system. They always have problems reading my Publisher 2000 (PC) files. So far the only thing that has worked in saving my Pub file as a Word for Mac document when they then copy & paste. This is OK except we loose some formatting and images. Does anyone know how we can overcome this problem?
Thanks.......Joan

 

[Gort]

Joan,

Sorry it took so long to reply to this.

Publisher is not commercial printer friendly. I went through a number of printers before I found one that could do my stuff. They're in the Chicago area, and I would be happy to pass their name along to you if you would like. They're a bit more expensive, but their results from a Publisher file is excellent.

I've tried all types of tricks to get my Publisher files to work with commercial printers, but nothing worked. You need a printer that knows how to handle Publisher.

Many printers will just say no to Publisher output. I had some that lied and said they could do it, but when the final product came out is had formating problems.
Jon Holmen

http://www.djcyborg.com

http://www.i-hate-computers.org

 

[Guest_imported]

We are printers in London, UK and often receive Publisher files.

Let me tell you that Publisher is not recognised as a page layout software for commercial printing.

However, it is possible for us to get reasonable results in full colour but only because we have spent hours and hours trying to get to grips with the programme.

Sadly (and don't be offended) the main problem we find is not with the software but with the people who use it.

The fact that they do use it indicates that they are not professionals and make far too many mistakes - like assuming "It looks fine on my screen, so why can't you print it correcty"? They have no understanding of colour at all and don't know there is a difference between RGB and CMYK (Offset Printers use CMYK). There is no accurate colour conversion between RGB & CMYK (especially with colour blocks). Page elements are often made up technically incorrect eg out of RGB (although they may look fine on the screen).

Many of our Publisher users seem to think that because they've shelled out £89 on a piece of software then thats gonna give them top quality - why then is Quark the designers choice at 10 times the price?

In addition, a good quality photo output from Publisher instead of say PageMaker, Quark or InDesign loses a lot of quality.

Most offset printers will print an A4 leaflet 4 or 8 up on a large sheet which means you have to run it through a page imposition software - and there aren't any that support Publisher that I know of.

With all these headaches (and I haven't even got started on text reflow) this is why most printers won't touch publisher.

Future help for Publisher users will be with PageMaker 7 which apparantly can now open Publisher files but I expect you will lose a lot of the formatting.

There is one possibility if you have a laser printer. Create a postscript file (see your manual) and ask your printer to create a pdf from distiller - if they don't have this then you really need to find a new printer!

There are 2 other options - both involve cost.

a) The cheapest is to consider purchasing the full Acrobat Suite and then create a pdf - you need to ensure that Publisher can create colour accurate pdf's first - log onto the Adobe Acrobat Forum site and ask.

b) If you are going to be doing a lot of commercial printing work then buy PageMaker - it's widely accepted, is similar to Publisher and handles colour very well.

Publisher has many good features but it is really for outputting to desktop printers.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant but you did ask.

 

[Gort]

The rant is okay, and you're right for the most part about Publisher. You're wrong to put the blame on the people who use it. The problem is with Microsoft.

The reason I used it, and a lot of others use it, is because it comes as part of Microsoft's Office Premium package, and Microsoft misleads people by claiming it gives a printer ready output.

A small company that is dishing out the money for Microsoft Office may have difficulty spending another wad on Illustrator of Quark.

I agree that if a company is planning on doing a lot of publishing they definatly need to trash Publisher and spend the money on a good program. For a small company doing an occasional piece, however, Publisher works fine.

It can be printed without a lot of rework, but the key is in not giving the printer the "Printer Ready" output. The printer I found uses the actual publisher files. I'm not sure exactly what they do, but our newsleter comes out great. Jon Holmen

http://www.djcyborg.com

http://www.i-hate-computers.org

 

[Guest_imported]

I'd like to think that the clients who send us Publisher files are also happy with what we give them.

I also understand that if something comes free you're gonna be reluctant to simply go out and buy alternative software which, for the occasional user, appears to do the same job.

Your printer probably does the same as us when you give them your file - sigh with a heavy heart and after you've left their shop start shouting and banging their head against the wall!

One area to keep your printer happy is to make sure that text is in small, separate blocks which DO NOT run into the next page (I don't want to get too deep into text reflow in Publisher and spoil my Sunday).

Don't put text too close to picture boxes as when opened on a different system the picture box may increase its boundary and push the text - which pushes something else - which pushes something else and so on.

Also if the job is to be printed digitally this will help but if it's going offset (and in colour) then your always gonna find difficulty getting the job done at another printer.

At the moment, for digital colour output we can handle 90% of the Publisher files we receive direct from the application itself.

For quality black & white offset we output each page to bromide, cut and paste and make analogue plates.

At present we're trying to create press optimsed pdf's from Publisher (we often do this from PageMaker, Quark etc) with limited results.

However it is almost unheard of for a Publisher file to open on our system and match your hard copy and we always have to fiddle about with it.

Medium and large printers are receiving PageMaker and Quark (usually MAC) all the time and are reluctant to accept PC files.

That is slowly changing.

In our immediate area we have about 6 other printers but as far as I know none of them will accept Publisher.

One of the major steps forward in Publisher 2000 was the ability to output in 4 colours (CMYK) which is still a bit hit and miss.

We normally find that Publisher users who want to have regular print eventually buy something like Adobe Publishing Collection which includes PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.

Btw, Acrobat (pdfs) is definately the way forward in printing.

In my humble opinion, Microsoft products are the bees knees when it comes to office use and Publisher 2000 represents a "toe in the water" approach to offering the possibility of commercial printing from one of their products but they've got a long way to go.

 

[Gort]

Great tips for Publisher users.

I agree that if you are serious about having something printed on a regular basis, or want something that will be accepted by any printer, stay away from Microsoft!

The Adobe Publishing collection would be my choice too. It's really not dificult to learn, and it sells in the US for about $900.00. Jon Holmen

http://www.djcyborg.com

http://www.i-hate-computers.org

 

[Guest_imported]

$900!

In the UK it's £900! (c.$1300)

Don't we speak the same language (well near enough) or is the extra $400 for shipping?

Is it true that you Americans call us "Treasure Island"?