Package Designers Bridge the
Best of Both Worlds with Q2ID

Despite all the gains and benefits of computer-to-plate (CTP) imaging and digital design, the process of creating compelling packaging designs is actually more complicated than ever. In the days of film, it didn't matter what creative application you may have been using—Adobe Illustrator or QuarkXPress, for example—because in the end the creative work became film, which any packaging manufacturer could accept.

Then came CTP, and film stepped aside and allowed digital workflow to take center stage. No longer was film trafficked; rather, digital files became the means for exchanging packaging content. And suddenly, it became increasingly important what design application a creative director may be using, and what types of digital file formats a package printer may (or may not) accept.

There will be always be loyal Quark fans, or loyal Adobe fans, who stick with their favorite creative application, no matter what the other developer may offer. But increasingly, there are greater numbers of package designers who find that it's not a matter of choosing one application versus the other. Instead, they find themselves enmeshed in a creative workflow that requires the use of both Adobe's and Quark's solutions.

Design of the times

Caleb Clauset owns 2cdesign, a creative agency and consultancy based in Silver Spring, MD. Clauset splits his time between managing the firm, creative design, and globetrotting on consulting projects for which he helps publishers, creative agencies, and printing businesses build the most efficient digital workflows.

Clauset has been a witness to the evolution of design tools for the graphic arts. "I actually started out in my career using Adobe PageMaker, but quickly switched over to QuarkXPress," Clauset recalls. "I used QuarkXPress until 2001. But when Adobe introduced InDesign 2.0, I started playing with that, and eventually switched over completely to InDesign."

While Clauset continues to hold a license for QuarkXPress, he says that he's using the application less often. "I haven't had the need to open up Quark XPress in months," he confides. "When I do, it's usually to do a little bit of document clean-up work before I use Q2ID."

Q2ID is a plug-in from preflight pioneer Markzware Software, in Santa Ana, CA. "I'd heard of Markzware's Q2ID plug-in," Clauset recalls, "which will let you bring an InDesign file into Quark XPress. And I was just waiting for Markzware to come up with a tool that would let you do the reverse—pull a Quark file into InDesign."

Clauset admits that he was initially skeptical about any tool that promised a true conversion from one application to the next. "I was kind of reluctant to buy Q2ID at first," he recalls. "I checked out the information on the Web site, and the documentation was pretty thin. I really wanted to know more about it before I plunked down $200.

"But I had a job that I needed to turn around in a day, and I knew I needed this tool," Clauset continues. "If I had to recreate the file from scratch, in InDesign, I knew it would take me between eight and 10 hours." Clauset soon discovered why the technical documentation for Q2ID was so "thin," as he had called it.

"I bought the software, installed it, and found that the coolest thing about it was that it, too, is so thin!" Clauset affirms. "There's no user interface and nothing to learn. Essentially, it does its job, but it's completely transparent. It's the best kind of plug-in. You install it, hit "File" and "Open," and InDesign opens your document. That's it."

For Clauset, converting Quark XPress documents to InDesign-friendly ones takes mere minutes, rather than hours of duplicating work that process once required. "Q2ID maps everything that Quark does to the InDesign equivalent," he adds. "If it's a table in Quark, it becomes a table in InDesign, and so on."

Article contributed by Gretchen A. Peck, a freelance author who writes about the printing and publishing industries. She can be reached at gretchenpeck@verizon.net.