Better EPS Previews
Note: This tip is for users of older versions of QuarkXPress. If you’re using version 9 or higher, you’re already getting better EPS previews. (!)
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If you’re not happy with the previews of EPS files imported into QuarkXPress, it may be because QuarkXPress uses the preview embedded in the file when displaying an EPS file in a picture box.
You can change QuarkXPress’s preferences so that it generates the previews for you instead: just choose QuarkXPress> Preferences (on Windows: Edit> Preferences), scroll down to the Application section, then the EPS section, and choose “Generate” from the Preview popup menu. This will cause QuarkXPress to generate its own preview for each EPS file you import after that.
Existing picture boxes won’t be affected, but you can tell QuarkXPress to regenerate the preview for each EPS picture box. Just select the picture box, invoke its contextual menu by either Control-clicking on it or right-clicking on it, and then choose Preview Resolution> Full Resolution. Or, you can simply re-import the EPS file and QuarkXPress will generate a new preview for you.
Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.
Ok, and now if you are not satisfied with the preview generated by Quark neither? The image is still pixelized. Hard to work in detail with Quark… I have the 7.5 version and I tried to put the full resolution preview but it still doesn’t change a thing, the ctrl-clic menu doesn’t even allow me to select a the full resolution mode.
I checked with Quark about how this feature is handled in newer versions of QuarkXPress, and they replied:
“We no longer have that preference because nowadays we ALWAYS generate the preview. However there is still an issue that you should know about here: In the current version of QXP — 9.3.1 — we have “Color Manage Vector EPS/PDF” turned off by default, which may result in non-optimal color in the preview. The user may decide to turn this option on to get better color, but they should only do this if they’re NOT using spot inks in those graphics. If they are using spot inks then turning on that setting would cause separation problems. Ideally that setting should only affect output and we should ALWAYS color manage the screen preview; we will make that change in a future version.”