I enjoyed your Nov/Dec cover story, "Few Tickets to Paradise." It was informative, humorous and well-written. I disagree on only two points, and they're related:
Our deadlines have gotten stricter, mainly because of the RIPs, not Quark. The program has proven---in the hands of the experienced user---to be a boon to getting pages out quickly and accurately. DewarView is also part of the reason the deadlines are stricter; we don't trust it enough to take the chance to move close to deadline.
The Press of Atlantic City is 99 percent paginated in editorial. Ads are proving elusive, mainly because of the number of camera-ready pieces sent by clients and agencies. There is also a problem linked to fonts; PCs have a limit that Macs can apparently exceed. Our DewarView system is PC-based.
Dewar will, one day, have a good pagination system. But it's not there yet. The biggest problem, I think, is not what the programs will or won't do, but rather what programmers and integrators promise they'll do.
Quark is an outstanding DTP application, and it's being pushed to its limits by paginators around the world, including Sweden, Europe and Australia. My concerns aren't with the program, but with what pagination-suite designers and integrators tell us the program will do.
Even though I have a lot of experience with Quark (I've been using it to paginate since version 2.0), I was taken in by promises that have yet to be met.
Maybe Quark's not ready for multi-user functions, and I should have known that. But I was convinced by others that it was. I accepted what they told me.
I will say, however, that DewarView is a good pagination system, and, without having had the chance to fully test QPS, probably the best DTP system available.
The print industry is going through a revolution as dynamic as Gutenberg's press, and we've got to be willing to adjust as we go. I think we will. The adjustment would be easier, though, if programmers and integrators would tell us the truth.
David Benson
Production Editor
The Press of
Atlantic City
Pleasantville, N.J.
dobenson@acy.digex.net
Amen on your article Few Tickets to Paradise (Nov/Dec 1995). I've been trying to replace my aging Mycrotek publishing system for some time now. I'm doing it in steps---starting with back-end Macs on a Novell server. I'll be researching a front-end replacement in '96 and implementing it in '97.
When I did my research in '94, there was nothing out there up to par. It's nice to hear I'm not the only one frustrated with the current problems.
Ibrey M. Woodall
Production Director
Golfweek
Winter Haven, Fla.
Questions? Comments? TechNews wants your input. You can contact us in any of the following ways:
©1997 Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.