If you repeatedly use the same dingbats or illustrations from picture fonts in QuarkXPress, you can eliminate the need to include the font when outputting if you convert those characters to picture boxes in QuarkXPress.

Just select the character(s) and choose Style> Text to Box or Item> Convert Text to Boxes (depending on your version of QuarkXPress).

The result is a native QuarkXPress picture box shaped exactly like the dingbat, and the font is no longer necessary for output.

(Tip #2: In older versions of QuarkXPress, you can anchor the new picture box in the text by holding down the Option/Alt key when choosing Style> Text to Box. In newer versions, it’s one of the options in the Item> Convert Text to Boxes menu.)

Courtesy of Design Tools Monthly

Jay Nelson

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.