This is great news! Now there’s an easy way to bring a shape (path) from Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop into QuarkXPress as a native QuarkXPress item! Quark’s new Print Selection XT has a hidden feature that lets you convert an embedded clipping path into an editable Bézier box within QuarkXPress.
Here’s how it works:
- Copy the path from Illustrator
- Paste it into Photoshop
- Save the Photoshop file
- Import the Photoshop file into a QuarkXPress picture box (or just drag it onto a QuarkXPress page)
- In QuarkXPress, select the picture box and choose Item> New Box From Clipping Path
You can then edit the new Bézier box however you like! Change its shape. Stroke it with a Frame. Fill it with a picture or text. Fill it with a gradient. Add a drop shadow.
This is also an incredibly handy way to get the built-in shapes from Photoshop into QuarkXPress:
If you want to get that shape back into Illustrator, you could export your new QuarkXPress box to EPS format using the File> Print Selection menu item added by the Print Selection XT, then open the EPS file in Illustrator.
You can download the Print Selection XT XTension, and several other innovative XTensions at the “Quark Labs“ section of Quark’s website.
(Note to longtime QuarkXPress users: this feature was included in the XPert Box Tools XTension, which was not updated for QuarkXPress 8.)
Popularity: 8% [?]
11. November 2009 at 10:37 am
I can’t imagine why anyone would prefer to edit vectors in Quark over Illustrator. Thanks for the tip, though.
11. November 2009 at 12:03 pm
JT: So they’ll be native QuarkXPress items, and you can use the QuarkXPress skills you already have to breathe life into them. :-)
12. November 2009 at 2:06 pm
I don’t believe the point is to simply edit vectors in Quark instead of Illustrator [I'm NOT a big fan of 'all-in-one' software, so I do my vector work in AI]. HOWEVER, I have [since older versions of Quark] on many occasions wanted to use a unique shape I created outside of Quark as a picture box. Since I find it easier to manipulate vector shapes in Illustrator, it’s great to know that I can do so and still use the object Quark. There were projects that I redesigned because I was not able to use a complex shape the way I wanted to in Quark. Now I will not have to rule out a design concept based on that inability. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Jay!
13. November 2009 at 4:46 pm
Thanks, Paul! If you haven’t tried the Bezier tools in QuarkXPress 8, you may want to try them out. They now work just like the tools in Illustrator, so you should be comfortable with them.