Re: Help! Framemaker vs. Quark

["Christopher" <addforlist -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

The printers we use (we're about to use them for a second time, and printing
is not their speciality (they're really a logistics organisation) and we're
in France but our s/w is worldwide) wanted the Xpress files at first...

On my telling them we used FrameMaker, they wanted postscript. On my telling
them that the last time (i.e. first time we used them - before I joined the
company) they said PDF was fine and actually even *wanted* PDF, they said no
problem (through gritted teeth)...

I should qualify that though - our print runs are *small* (first print run
of less than 2 thousand) and as such they use an offset printing method
without passing via films... However, we are asking them for a 'traditional
offset' printing quote...

IMVHO (and I'm a newbie :), any printer should accept postscript, and any
'with it' printer is ready or getting ready for accept PDF. Perhaps I've
over-dosed on Adobe propaganda, but PDF is great for sending to the printers
(isn't it?)...

HTH

p.s. the first version of our manual was produced with Word, that may be why
they wanted PDF in the first place...
p.p.s. this is FYI, I don't want to start another Word v. Frame thread
(honestly I don't!), but my company had more or less decided to move from
Word to Frame for our manual because Word had a tendency to move images
about, or just plain 'lose' them (no joke).
p.p.p.s. Please don't start another Frame v. Word thread, I don't want Eric
getting mad at me!

----- Original Message -----
From: Dina Marroquin <DMarroquin -at- FRXSOFT -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 7:24 PM
Subject: RE: Help! Framemaker vs. Quark


> From: Stephen Arrants <sarrants -at- roidirect -dot- com>
> <<Why does marketing want you to change to Quark?  Do they use your
> documents(or vice versa) as is?  Do they need to convert your documents
for
> their use as source material?  >>
>
> Hello.
>
> I thought I'd delurk and chime in.
>
> I'm currently working on redoing a book for my company. I chose to use
> FrameMaker for the doc. I contacted the marketing dept. to talk about
cover
> art. They in turn spoke to the company who does their graphic design. This
> guy, who's going to work on the cover art, informed them that I should be
> using Quark to produce the doc because it was an industry standard and
that
> most service bureaus didn't work with Frame. Have any of you had to deal
> with something similar? I balked, of course. This guy really didn't know
> what he was talking about. Sure, if you are going to produce brochures and
> slicks you use Quark. But, in my case, I needed to use Frame because it
> provided me a way to import PDFs easily into the pages, use an existing
> template, and generate lists with minimal effort.
>
> For those of you who use Frame...what do you provide printers/service
> bureaus with when you are ready to go to print? PDF? Postscript? Frame
> files? What about with Word? Just curious...
>
> BTW, I chose Frame over Word for a variety of reasons. For the record, I
use
> both tools in my work and prefer one to the other depending on what I'm
> working on.
>
> Sign me:
> An equal opportunity tool user.
> Dina
>
>
> Dina L. Marroquin
> FRx Software Corporation
> Technical Writer
> Technical Services Department
> Training and Education
> dmarroquin -at- frxsoft -dot- com
> (303) 723-7640