There are quite a few posts on here re: postcript files from Quark. Everything seems to work just fine except the settings I’ve given for bleed.
Here is what I’ve got for print setup:
tell application "QuarkXPress"
tell print setup of document 1
set separation to false
set printer type to "Tektronix Phaser 780 Plus"
set paper size to "Custom"
set paper width to pagewidth
set paper height to pageheight
set orientation to portrait
set bleed to ".25""
set page position to center horizontal
set print spreads to false
set reduce or enlarge to "100%"
set registration marks to centered
set tiling to off
end tell
print document 1 PostScript file {FilePath}
close document 1 saving no
end tell
From everything I’ve read here and in the Quark dictionary, "set bleed to “.25"” should work.
I’m writing this postcript file to the distiller to create a PDF and no matter what I do, the document prints with whatever bleed settings are already set in the document (ie if bleed is set to “0” then my script does not set it to “.25”
Can someone tell me why Quark is ignoring the bleed setting?
Also, I cannot find the correct way to set separations to “false” or no.
There seems to be a nasty problem in Quark with setting the print setup properties. Sometimes trying to set too many at once will cause a problem, though that’s not the problem in this case.
What’s going on here is that the parameters of the PPD for some reason don’t allow you to set the bleed. If you change the printer type to something like “Generic Color,” this works fine. You’ll have to play around with some different printer types to see what kind of workarounds you can find.
I wrote script to batch print to .ps files so I could layter distill them in Acrobat Distiller. Initially, I tried to use the “Acrobat Distiller” PPD. But I needed to set the paper width and that wouldn’t work with the PPD.
So I changed the printer type to “Generic PDF” and that PPD allowed me to spec the paper width.
What’s even odder is that the Generic PDF PPD doesn’t even appear in the print setup dialog pull down menu in Quark. I only found it by looking at the print properties of a document and noticed that it was there even though it was not visible in the dialog window. Go figure. That script is below if you don’t know how to do get print setup properties for a doc. I think it’s a lot more useful than the dictionary.
Like I said, I’d try some other PPDs and then test your results. You may be able to fudge it like I did, Until Quark fixes things, I’m not sure there are any other options. Though I’d sure like to hear of any if there are.
tell application "QuarkXPress Passport"
tell document 1
get properties of print setup
end tell
end tell
I incorporated several of the suggestions and its working fine now.
I put the bleed info in a new tell statement
I do have Quarks custom bleeds extension loaded so I addressed the doc’s custom bleeds.
I didnt try the Generic PDF PPD suggestion but had thought of that and tried other PPD’s with no luck. I never tried the PDF one because, like you said, its not shown. However, I came up with this solution before I tried the Generic PPD:
tell custom bleeds setup 1 of document 1
set bleed to ".125""
end tell
This is the only way I could get it to work. Thanks for all the suggestions and hope this helps someone with the same situation.
I’ve encountered yet another problem with writing postscript from Quark to a distiller folder.
This time, black is knocking out when I send the same instructions to a “PRESS” quality distiller folder. If i send the same postscript file to the “Screen” settings, the black does not knock out.
here is the Postscript commands for print setup:
tell print setup of document 1
set data format to binary data
set printer type to "Generic PDF"
set paper size to "Custom"
set paper width to pagewidth
set paper height to pageheight
set orientation to portrait
set page position to center horizontal
set print spreads to false
set reduce or enlarge to "100%"
set registration marks to centered
set registration marks offset to "12�pt"
end tell
tell custom bleeds setup 1 of document 1
set EPS bleed type to symmetric
set EPS bleed to ".125""
set bleed type to symmetric
set bleed to ".125""
set bleed clipping to true
end tell
print document 1 PostScript file {FilePath}
Cany anyone tell me why this results in the black knocking out in the Press quality PDF adn not in the Screen quality PDF.
I should note that if I print a postscript file to the PRESS job options through Quark’s dialog and save as postscript. THE BLACK DOES NOT knockout like it does if the script writes a Postscript file directly. So it is not the distiller settings that is making it knock out…something in the Postscript that the Applescript is writing is telling distiller to knock out black…Also, the trapping in Quark is set to overprint for black.