Problem with letterhead templates created on Macs for PCs

[glenn]

Hi. I work on a Mac, but all my clients are PC-based. I create
letterhead designs in Quark, and then clients ask that I create an
electronic Word template of this art so that they can email. I usually
convert the original art to jpg (which looks terrible), then import
into Word. (I have not been able to import eps files. Should I be able
to?). But then the postion, quality, and file size of the template
becomes problematic when I send it off to clients. Is there an easy or
consistent way of doing this so that it works in all situations?

Thanks. Please email answer to me directly at (e-mail address removed)

Glenn Ruga
vizcom.org

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hi. I work on a Mac, but all my clients are PC-based. I create
letterhead designs in Quark, and then clients ask that I create an
electronic Word template of this art so that they can email. I usually
convert the original art to jpg (which looks terrible), then import
into Word. (I have not been able to import eps files. Should I be able
to?). But then the postion, quality, and file size of the template
becomes problematic when I send it off to clients. Is there an easy or
consistent way of doing this so that it works in all situations?

Thanks. Please email answer to me directly at (e-mail address removed)

Ask here, get an answer here. If you want to pay for one on one advice,
send a purchase order or cash.

eps will work.
simply insert picture from file etc. You may need to experiment with
eps variants on export from Quark.

Be aware that some versions of Mac Word use the low res preview on eps
export to PDF. If Quark is exporting without a preview, you will get a
rectangle where the art should go, complete with a message bleating
about the lack of preview, but it should print to a Postscript printer
OK.

If you are not too worried by file size, TIFF is a reasonable
compromise between quality and ease of use cross platform.

Please explain what is going wrong with respect to position.

It might be useful for others inclined to assist if you divulge your
Word version and Mac OS version. It will make a difference to the
answer you get.

 

[mmmmark]

Hi. I work on a Mac, but all my clients are PC-based. I create
letterhead designs in Quark, and then clients ask that I create an
electronic Word template of this art so that they can email. I usually
convert the original art to jpg (which looks terrible), then import
into Word. (I have not been able to import eps files. Should I be able
to?). But then the postion, quality, and file size of the template
becomes problematic when I send it off to clients. Is there an easy or
consistent way of doing this so that it works in all situations?

Thanks. Please email answer to me directly at (e-mail address removed)

Glenn Ruga
vizcom.org

You might consider providing them with .wmf or .emf graphics embedded in the
Word docs if all your clients are PC based. The advantage of these formats
is that they are smaller in size yet are still vector-based. They may not
look as crisp on-screen, but they will print much better than bitmap
graphics (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, etc.). They will work in any common PC
office applications, whereas .eps files may not.

Fonts are dicey if left in metafiles, so convert to paths. For best
reproduction, oversize your artwork considerably before inserting into the
Word docs and sizing down. This keeps the clarity high for higher-dpi
printers (especially while keeping filesize in check. If you are creating
the graphics in Quark, you might send them through Freehand, Illustrator,
Corel or even GraphicConverter.

I've had difficulty with .eps files working in real-world PC situations, so
have taken the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy with the
metafiles.

We provide is templates to our standard business groups for letterhead,
memos, envelopes, mailing labels etc. In addition, we give them a set of
graphics organized by use so they don't have to be a wizard to figure it
out. We'll give them transparent background .gif files (labeled "On-Screen
Use") for presentations. These files look good on any background and won't
have bounding boxes. I also give them a "Printing Use" folder with
..wmf/.emf vector graphics suitable for printing at most any size.

These two 'use' categories help them better utilize graphics in proper
situations and make them look better to customers. If they look good, our
department looks good, and our company looks even better. ;-)

Hope this helps!
-Mark