The decision to purchase a new software upgrade is becoming more difficult with each passing year. Think for a moment: What do you want your software to do that it can’t do now? What new feature are you just dying to have? This has to be a major challenge facing software manufacturers as they look for ways to entice us to upgrade to the new version of our favorite program or switch from a competitor’s product.

Take QuarkXPress for example, whose new version, 7.0, was introduced in May by Denver-based Quark Inc. Even though this ubiquitous program is celebrating its 25th birthday, the engineers at Quark still found a way to incorporate 160 new features into this upgrade. Obviously, in this column we’ll focus our attention on my favorite topic, the changes to the color management area.



Fig. 1: Quark partnered with Gretag Macbeth (now part of X-Rite) to help iron out the wrinkles in its color management functionality.
 

If you read my article on color management and QuarkXPress (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2006),  you’ll recall I indicated that there were some shortcomings in QuarkXPress’ color management.

It appears that I was not alone in my opinion. In a conversation I had with Quark Senior Product Specialist Dave Ebersole, he conceded that “color management was an area where we always knew we had problems. It was also something that we definitely wanted to address in this release.”

Check it out

Let’s see how Quark did.

First, take a look at the Preferences settings (see Figure 2). For starters, you can now select which CMM you want to use for any conversions. Quark now includes a CMM designed by Gretag Macbeth (now part of X-Rite). In fact, Quark partnered with Gretag to help it design the color management implementation in this new version of QuarkXPress. A very welcome addition is that you are able to select whether or not you want to use Black Point Compensation.

Fig. 2: The new Color Manager available in the QuarkXPress Preferences panel allows for more options and improved control.

Gretag Macbeth has also created generic ICC profiles supplied with QuarkXPress 7. The default CMYK profile is based on the SWOP standard with a somewhat higher D-Max, while the default RGB profile appears to be comparable with the ever-present Adobe RGB profile.

Ebersole informed me that Quark is very interested in the new GRACoL standard so we might see a profile based on this standard in a future QuarkXPress release.

Additionally, Quark hopes to develop a resource page on its Web site, making available additional ICC profiles for users to download.

The next area experiencing a makeover in the QuarkXPress Preferences panel is Source Options (see Figure 3).

Fig. 3: The Source Setup panel allows you to set default source profiles and rendering intents, making it much easier to switch between different workflow requirements.

Making moves

In previous versions of Quark, you could select default source profile and rendering intents for RGB, CMYK and Hexachrome graphics.

In the new version, Quark removed the Hexachrome option while at the same time extending options to include L*a*b* and grayscale images as well as Named Colors.

In addition, the selections that you make in this panel can be saved as named source setups to make it easier to change back and forth between settings needed for different workflows.

A soft proofing section has also been added (see Figure 4), which gives you normally expected selections of Composite RGB and Composite CMYK. Surprising and welcomed additions for soft proofing are Composite CMYK and Spot, Convert to Process, Process and Spot, In-RIP Separations, and Grayscale.

Fig. 4: New additions expand QuarkXPress' soft proofing options.



Fig. 5: QuarkXPress 7 now offers additional control when placing graphics.




Fig. 6: Quark's Proof Output options allow you to override the default selections made in the Preferences panel.

New options are available when you import a graphic into your Quark document providing support, among other things, for PDF graphics. A nice feature in this panel is the “Maintain Picture Attributes” option. Selecting this checkbox will force an imported graphic to honor cropping and scaling attributes if the graphic is imported into an existing picture box and replaces an existing graphic.

JDF support

Another nice feature is that grayscale images can be “color” managed while ensuring they maintain only a black channel. I’ll test this feature soon and report back in a future article.

Job Jackets is another new capability worth examining. With the Job Jackets feature, you can set, control, and verify the specifications for a layout from the point that layout is created until it is sent to output.

These specifications can include the Color Management settings.

For example, in the Edit Output Settings panel, (see Figure 7), you can select exactly how to output a job; whether it should be composite or separations, the color model used, and your desired ICC profile.

Fig. 7: QuarkXPress 7 allows you to build your own library of customized input and output setups.

Once saved, these settings can be called up in a Job Jackets Manager (see Figure 8).

The settings are then assigned to a JDF-based Job Ticket and a job can be built using these settings. This ensures that users will not accidentally select an inappropriate color setting, a boon for busy production staffs.

Fig. 8: Customized settings can be incorporated into Job Manager Tickets, a new JDF-based feature that can streamline production and help eliminate errors.
 

I look forward to putting QuarkXPress 7 through its paces over the next few months. Obviously, the app’s new capabilities go far beyond those impacting color management issues. You’ll need to judge for yourself whether or not the new features justify the investment in the upgrade. As for myself, the changes to the color management areas alone make my answer a yes. All of my testing to date has proven that much thought has gone into fixing most, if not all, of the color management shortcomings of previous versions of QuarkXPress. My hat’s off to the Quark engineering staff.