Importing Quark to Illustrator?

[Phillip_Clark@adobeforums.com]

Has anyone come up with a way to import Quark files into Illustrator. Not Quark EPS files, but native Quark files. We have old files that were separated using Quark, and we want to bring them into Illustrator. It seems like this could be possible since Indesign imports Quark files.

[Lance_K@adobeforums.com]

Hi Phillip,

Opening Quark files in InDesign is possible because of a decision by Adobe to build this feature into InDesign, a sensible idea if you want to lure customers from one page layout program--Xpress--to another--InDesign.

Illustrator does not have this capability.

Lance

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Curious why anyone would want to do that? A page layout program like Quark or InDesign is best left for page layout situations. Converting to an Illustrator file is likely to create headaches for your prepress people and others. Did someone use Quark to create graphics? If so, the best solution is just to save as eps or pdf and open in Illustrator. Vector graphics etc. created in Quark are fully editable this way.

[Phillip_Clark@adobeforums.com]

We are a screen printer and for about a 6 month period we used Quark to print separations of Illustrator files and Photoshop DCS files. Our specific screen printing marks were created in Quark, and there may be some elements (type copyright information) that were also built in Quark. So I am looking for a simple way of getting those Quark separation files into Illustrator (which we are now using for our separations).

Sounds like the best bet is to get InDesign and import the quark files into InDesign and then export to Illustrator from there. I was just hoping to be able to skip a step since each step introduces the possibility that something could change.

We still use Quark for some catalog production, but we are trying to convince the artist who does that to switch to InDesign, particularly since upgrading to the latest Quark was a pain in the butt. It took us two weeks to get the activation code once we had the software CD in hand. Yeesh.

[Lance_K@adobeforums.com]

Hi Phillip,

If you don't want to go the extra step of creating EPS files directly from Quark to open in Illustrator, why are you more willing to go through the additional extra steps of purchasing InDesign, opening your Quark files in InDesign, exporting your InDesign files as EPS (or PDF), and then opening those in Illustrator?

Is there something I'm missing?

Lance

[Dee Holmes]

I agree with Lance, just make the Quark file an .eps and open it in AI.

[allenatl@adobeforums.com]

Have to agree that going through InDesign is adding a step instead of skipping a step, to do basically the same thing, export a file. Best option from Quark is to Export>Layout as PDF or save as EPS. With the latest version of Quark, there's less chance of things moving around or changing.
If using the pdf option, you may need to set the Output>Print Colors to DeviceN if using spot colors. I would also use the Text To Box option to convert text to outlines wherever possible. My only concern is how all of this would affect your DCS files. You may need to re-link everything in the new Illustrator file. Not exactly a simple solution but it works.

[Phillip_Clark@adobeforums.com]

The problem is I don't have access to Quark. We only have one copy of it that will run in OSX, and it is used by our catalog production artist. So saving files as Quark EPS is not an option particularly since we had such a bad experience with purchasing the OSX version of Quark. While doing that would be my preference, in order to do it I would have to reformat my drive so I could load system 9.x, then load OSX and then get quark onto my machine. And it isn't worth that kind of trouble. Not considering how rarely I run into those kinds of files.

I was just hoping that since InDesign and Illustrator ar so closely related, someone had come up with a plugin for illustrator to import Quark files into illustrator.

Guess I have to keep searching for a viable option then. Thanks for the help.

[Dee Holmes]

I just came across this script and thought it might be of some help to you. I haven't tried it though.

It's called Magic Postscript 1.0 found here

<http://www.scriptbuilders.net/category.php?start_record=30&cat=56>

I hope it works for you. Good luck.

[Vicky_Payne@adobeforums.com]

Save as a postscript file and open or place in Illustrator.

[Dee Holmes]

Vicky, they don't have access to Quark anymore, they just have the old files.

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Sounds like the best bet is to get InDesign and import the quark files
into InDesign and then export to Illustrator from there.




Well, there is no direct export from InDesign to Illustrator.

If you do not like Quark 6 or for whatever reason your company will not purchase 6 why not use 4 in classic mode?

Also, InDesign can only convert Quark 4 documents. You will need to backsave 6 documents back to 5 and use Quark 5 to backsave to 4.

You are asking for a unorthodox workflow solution that is fraught with dangers of the artwork outputting differently than it was created.

[Dee Holmes]

I'm courious if they tried the Magic Postscript script.