Export Layout as pdf

[TecNik]

Hi there,

I’ve created a few scripts for printing pages to postscript files and all work ok. As yet though I’ve not done any that ‘Export layout to pdf’. Please can someone point me in the right direction or to some info?

Is it a case of changing the print line:-

set thePSfile to (ps_folder & theName & ".p" & k & ".ps") as string 
print page k of front document PostScript file thePSfile copies 1 OPI omit TIFF and EPS without print dialog 

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks

Nick

[pidge1]

Hi Nik

Don’t think it can be script the normal way.
This is a GUI way:

tell application "QuarkXPress"
	activate
end tell
try
	tell application "System Events"
		tell process "QuarkXPress"
			tell menu bar 1
				tell menu bar item "File"
					tell menu "File"
						tell menu item "Export"
							tell menu "Export"
								click menu item "Layout as PDF..."
							end tell
						end tell
					end tell
				end tell
			end tell
			delay 1
			tell window "Export as PDF"
				click button "Save"
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
on error
	display dialog "UI not working"
end try

[TecNik]

Hi Pidge,

Thanks for the reply and for the code which does exactly what is says on the tin!

I know this isn’t what I originally asked but I kinda wondered if there might be some way to amend the print statement so a pdf is generated instead of a postscript. The option appears in one of the print dialog boxes.

Thanks again for the help.

Regards,

Nick

[mcgrailm]

just a note on this

my understanding of “export layout as PDF” from quark is not recommended and it has been said that “quark openly admits that this should really only be used for proofing” I have not verified that yet. However, I had some code setup to do what pidge1 has supplied here and about 50% of that clients I sent them to had problems. Not only that when you export as a PDF quark gives font errors on some fonts which may or may not be corrupt and may or may not be replaced with courier. I have since changed my code to to make a PS file then us PSTOPDF to convert it this also results in a smaller file size.

MM

[TecNik]

Thanks for the infornation. I think I’ll pick a better route.

I’ve not come across PSTOPDF, however I’ve had a search and found some useful info on it. Is it something I need to install?

Thanks again,

Nick

[Mark67]

TekNik, use print to postscript file & distiller route. PDF is Adobe’s technology and best done by their apps. Quark’s export uses JAWS yuk!

[TecNik]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply and the suggestion. Looks like that’s going to be the best option.
Can’t say I’ve played around too much with scripting Distiller, can you recommend any good info (besides Macscripter that is ;)).

Thanks in advance,

Nick

EDIT: Sorry Mark, have just found another of your posts which is pretty nice.

[Mark67]

take a look at the next post down. I’ve just posted some code that I’ve been using for some time its functual but not elegant but may give you some ideas to work in to your own process.

[TecNik]

Sorry Mark, found that straight after I’d posted the other. The post from Matt-Boy works a treat.
And your solution is pretty impressive.

Thanks for the reply,

Nick

[mcgrailm]

while I agree with Mark67 Distiller is expensive and the license agreement says that you can’t use it on a server unless you have licensees for the other machine in your company that are going to use the resulting PDF there by making it more expensive. PSTOPDF is a shell command that comes with the OS there is nothing to install.

mm

[nellbern]

In Quark 7 as usual some things has changed. I had a script that prints using Adobe PDF 7.0 then to a ps file to be run through Acrobat Distiller. This worked perfect until v7. Now if I use this method my final PDFBoxes such as the Trim, Bleed and Crop are not injected in the final PDF.

This quote is from Quark website: “Quark only inject special code called PDFMarks into Export as PDF path. In previous versions of QuarkXPress PostScript, Acrobat Distiller could key on certain variables to inject these boxes into the resulting PDF. Something has changed and this no longer is the cae.”

So now I’m changing my method of creating pdf’s from Quark & I’m trying to script GUI way using Export Layout as PDF… with the script posted in this section but Quark keeps defaulting to captured settings within the pdf styles dialog when running the script to export to pdf. I want to use my own defined pdf style but not sure how to do this. I already post this on Quark’s forums but I haven’t been succesfull & I hope I may get answer here. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance,

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