Always check all similar images that you use with the Eyedropper Tool in Photoshop — it will prevent those images from being different after being printed, the difference between them might be invisible on the screen, but it will show off after your project has been printed. So take your time and check all of your similar images for the equal ammount of Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (keeping your eyes on the info pannel, while moving your Eyedropper Tool across your images).

It is necessary to check for pixellation on the 'doubtful' photos of your document through the channels: on Mac press Command1, Command2 Command3, Command4 (for CMYK) and Command1, Command2, Command3 (for RGB) and this will give you the opportunity to see shortcomings of the image more clear and get rid of them, blurring the image on those channels which are too 'sharpened'. After finishing go back to CMYK or RGB pressing Command~. On PC use Ctrl instead of Command.

For fine prints such as brochures, calendars, magazine ads, etc. all images must be saved at 300 pix per inch (or about 120 pixels per centimeter) to be used in QuarkXPress or InDesign. Then it might be possible to enlarge them but not more than 170%. For a newspaper ad resolution of 150 pix will work alright.

If there are Pantones or if you are using Silver or Gold in your document for print, it is necessary to check them in Colors panel (Edit—>Colors) as Spot color (in QuarkXPress).
To make a final check for the colors in your document, you should print it in separation mode. (choose "print separations" in Quark in Page set-up).
For example, after printing separations of your document which has two Pantones (plus all CMYK colors), if you have more then 6 pages going out of your printer for any page, it means that you have used more then 2 Spot colors in your document.

For expats-designers working in Russia, I would remind that before bringing your files to the printers' office (or, much better, before starting working on your files — if you know already where you are going to print your work), make sure to contact your printers and ask them specifically, what format they preffer. There are some printers working only on PCs in Russia. Some are persistently using only old versions of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. Some might ask for your files to be prepared in PageMaker (a program for PCs only, working a little bit similar to QuarkXPress) — and in this case you will have to look for another printer if you work on Mac.

All TIFFs used in Quark Document should be saved in Photoshop preferrably without LZW compression.
It is especially necessary to be attentive while creating EPS in Illustrator. I would recommend to save your eps graphics in Illustrator 8.0 or (in case of transparency) parse them in Photoshop (open them), and save them as TIFFs or EPS from Photoshop.

You should use matte or dull coatings for protection of an uncoated sheet — at least for the sake of not seeing fingerprints on your printed piece. Gloss, satin or u.v. coatings are not advised for uncoated surfaces because the gloss adhere to the high points on the paper, and the ink will look mottled. To create high and even gloss on the uncoated stock of paper, you could use two hits of gloss varnishes, and then apply u.v. gloss coating (with this you will achieve the same efect that u.v. has on the coated stock of paper — i.e. even and high gloss).

Gloss and dull aqueous coatings won't go yellowish in time on the white paper, so you might concider using it instead of gloss or dull varnish.

When using big fills of Black, use so-called Rich Black — a mix of black with other colors for creating an effect of rich and deep Black. For example, use 100% of Black, 30% of Cyan, 20% of Magenta and 20% of Yellow. You could also consider using 2 hits of super pigmented black black ink with no under-color support.

Sometimes you'd like to emphasize one specific color in your print piece, but you should not consider pushing the density of this color too high because this way this ink can plug your image. If your budget allows — and today most of the Printers have 6-color presses anyway, 4 for CMYK, 1 for coating and 1 for Pantone, so it could be even almost the same price — consider using one of the plates (in case if you'd like to exaggerate Red, use Magenta plate, etc.) for running on it additional emphasizing Red Pantone — like fluorescent PMS 806 — this way your Red Sunset will look as though it is burning on the paper in your hands.

If you are creating a gradient from any color to black, instead of using just black color make a mixed one — 100% of the first color and 100% of black. Result will look better — your will not have grey tones in the middle of your gradient.

When using Silver Pantone in the document one should use more contrast difference for creating shadows or other effects in Quark, for example 90% or even 80% of Silver Pantone will not have visual difference with 100% Silver, so in order to make these accents in silver visible, make them 60% or 50% of Silver on 100% of Silver.

US bleeds = 0.125 (1/8) inch.
Russian bleeds = 5 mm

Getting the image to the image box in Quark:

1. Select the box with the image
2. Use shift + option + F to make the image fit the box.
3. Use shift + alt + option + F to make the image proportionally fit the box.
4. Try to get an image proportionally to just created box, getting the dialogue box open with option + E command, and then pressing 'open' while holding simultaneously shift + alt + option + F with your left hand (though it might be tricky!).

© — Copyright in Quark (though depends on a font) usually can be done via Option G.
® — Registered symbol in Quark (though depends on a font) usually is Option R.
™ — Trademark in Quark can be done through Option 2.

Resizing all items on a page in QuarkXPress:

1. Group everything
2. Use shift + alt + command and drag.

next > > have some fun with Quark!