Using Batch Print™

The Batch Print™ XTension helps to streamline your printing operation by allowing groups of Quark XPress documents to be printed automatically. Documents can be output to any PostScript printer supported by QuarkXPress, and Batch Print even supports output to disk file as well.

Like all of our Quark XTensions, Batch Print is intuitive and very easy to use. To start a Batch Print session, select Batch Print™... from the Quark File menu. The Batch Print™ main menu dialog will be presented (see below):

 

The basic procedure for any Batch Print session is as follows:

1) Select the jobs you wish to print.

2) Set up your Batch Print options.

3) Begin the Batch Print session.

1) Choosing Your Print Jobs

Batch Print maintains a list of documents in what is called the "Print List". To add jobs to the Print List, click on the Edit Print List button. You will be presented with the following dialog:

Use the Print List job selection dialog to navigate to the documents you wish to print and add them to the Print List. Batch Print can process hundreds of documents at a time. Click on the Done button when you have finished selecting documents to print. You will be returned to the Batch Print main menu.

2) Setting Batch Print™ Options

Batch Print offers many different types of printing options. Once set, most of the options will not need to be changed. Such options appear under the Batch Print Configuration section (described later in this chapter).

The three most common options appear as a part of the Batch Print main menu. These three check boxes are described below:

Log File Enabled: NOTE: If you have not yet selected a Batch Print log file, please do so before enabling this option. See the Optional Configuration Items section (below) for further information. If this box is checked, Batch Print log file option will be enabled. The log file contains a summary of each Batch Print session, including any errors which might have occurred during the session. You can select the log file to use by accessing the Batch Print Configuration Options (described later in this chapter).

Display Errors: With this option enabled, any messages which would normally be written to the log file will also be displayed on-screen. This option is provided for debugging purposes only. Check this box if you wish Batch Print to stop processing and display error messages during a session.

Note that the errors which are displayed will also be written to the log file if that option is also checked. 

Unless you are having a problem with a particular document, you will probably want to leave Display Errors unchecked. Otherwise, you will have to check on the progress of the Batch Print session from time to time and clear any error messages that might be present. If you just use the log file option instead, Batch Print will not stop when errors occur. It will simply write those errors to the log file and continue on with the next job in the list.

Print Specified Page Area Only: With this option checked, Batch Print will print only the page area specified in the Configuration Options (described later in this chapter). Leave this option unchecked to print the entire document page.

3) Starting The Batch Print™ Session

Once you have finished selecting documents and checking your options, click the Start Printing button.

If you have opted to copy default Page and Print Setup values, you will be presented with the following dialog at the start of the Batch Print session:

This dialog gives you the option of verifying/changing the default Page Setup values which will be applied to all of the documents in the Print List. Click on Verify Page Setup to verify/change any of these values, or click on Continue to go to the Print dialog. You may also click Cancel to stop the Batch Print session at this point.

After clicking on Continue, you will be presented with the LaserWriter Print dialog.  Fill in the options for this dialog as you normally would for any QuarkXPress document and hit Print. The Batch Print session is now underway.

Batch Print will now open each document in the list, copy the default Page/Print Setup options (if enabled), and send each document to the selected printer. 

Cancelling a Batch Print™ Session

To cancel a Batch Print session, hold down the Command-Period key combination as you normally would to cancel any printing operation. If you should decide to cancel a Batch Print session, the job that Batch Print was currently working on at the time of the cancellation may remain open. If it does, close this document  (without saving the changes if you are prompted to do so) and you can continue using QuarkXPress.

Printing To Disk

Batch Print can also be used to automate the process of printing documents to disk. To start a disk file session, simply print the first job in the list to disk file as you normally would. The output folder selected for the first job will be used to store all of the other jobs in the print list. Once the first job has been printed, Batch Print will write a PostScript file for each remaining job in the Print List. The print file will be given the name of its originating document, plus a user-defined extension which identifies the file as PostScript output (see Configuration Items below).

 

Batch Print™ Configuration Items

Batch Print provides a number of different configuration items which are accessible from the Configuration dialog. Each of the items contained in the Configuration dialog are described below:

DOCUMENT: These parameters deal with the opening, closing and updating of all documents in the Print List.

Missing Fonts:  (Two Options)

Skip Job: Causes Batch Print to skip a document that uses fonts which are missing.

Print Anyway: Causes Batch Print to print the document even if it uses fonts which are missing.

Preferences: (Two Options)

Keep Doc: Will force Batch Print to open the document and Keep Document Settings.

Use XPress: Will force Batch Print to open the document and Use XPress Preferences.

Missing Pics: (Four Options)

Skip Job: If a picture is missing, the document will not be printed.

User Locate: If a picture is missing, Batch Print will prompt you to find it.

Suppress Printing: If a picture is missing, Batch Print will suppress it from printing.

Print Bitmap: If a picture is missing, a low-resolution bitmap of the picture will be printed instead (same as clicking OK to Quark's missing picture dialog).

Modified Pics: (Four Options)

Skip Job: If a picture is modified, the document will not be printed.

Auto Update: If a picture is modified, Batch Print will automatically update it for you.

Suppress Printing: If a picture is modified, Batch Print will suppress it from printing.

Print Anyway: If a picture is modified, the picture will be printed anyway (same as clicking OK to Quark's modified picture dialog).

PRINTING: These parameters relate to the actual printing of the documents in the Print List.

Copy Page & Print Setup: With this option checked, the Page Setup and LaserWriter Print Setup options selected by the user for the first job will be copied to each job in the print list. This lets you set up your Page and Print parameters one time at the start of the Batch Print session.

Disk File Ext: When PostScript disk files are created, Batch Print must determine which filename to write the PostScript data to. The filename that Batch Print creates consists of the title of the document plus the filename extension entered here. For instance, if the job being printed was entitled JOB1, and the Disk File Ext: was .PS, the resulting disk file would be called JOB1.PS. Note that Macintosh filenames can be no longer than 31 characters in length. Consequently, Batch Print will truncate the original document name as necessary to allow the filename extension to be appended.

Verify Setup Info: This option controls when you will be prompted to verify your Page Setup and Print Setup values. Select At Start to prompt for the first job only, or select Before Each Job to prompt at the start of each job. The At Start option is designed to be used in conjunction with the Copy Page & Print Setup option. This lets you enter default Page Setup and Print Setup parameters one time at the start of the session, and instructs Batch Print to make a copy of those parameters and apply them to each job in the print list.

Extra Plates (Spot Colors):

This option deals with spot color usage in a document and is valid only for color separation work. An example of where this option would be useful is when a document contains EPS images which use spot colors that were not already defined in XPress. This scenario often caused extra plates to be printed when color separations were created. The reason for this is that the user often did not know that extra colors had been added to the document because Quark does not warn you when this happens. Consequently, unless the user had modified the imported colors in Quark’s color list to force them to process separate, each spot color would be printed on a separate plate.

In order to eliminate this potential problem, Batch Print generates a complete list of all spot colors that are actually used in a document, including those colors which may have been imported into Quark via an EPS graphic. Batch Print examines this list before printing each document and provides you with various options on how to deal with the “Extra Plates”.

Each of these options is described below:

Prompt: This option will inform you that spot colors have been used in the document, and will give you the option of either skipping the job, or printing it anyway.

Skip Plates: With this option, Batch Print examines each plate as it is printed. If a request for a plate other than CMYK is received, that plate is skipped and the printing of the document stops at that point. Batch Print will make a note of this in the log file, and continue on with the next job in the list.

Skip Job: If spot colors are used in the document, the job will be skipped.

Make Process: If spot colors have been used in the document, Batch Print will modify the colors so that they will be forced to process separate. It will then proceed with the printing of the document. Because the document is closed without saving, the changes to the colors will not remain permanent when the document is edited later.

Print All: This option simply allows all of the plates in a document to be printed.

DCS Images:

Batch Print checks each DCS image and verifies that the required plates area available. If they are not, Batch Print reports (in the log file) the color name and the filename of the FIRST missing plate. The action take at that point depends on what you have selected in the configuration option for Missing DCS. Each option is described below:

Skip Job: This option instructs Batch Print to skip the current job and move on to the next job.

Suppress Printing: Will instruct Batch Print to suppress the printing of the DCS image.

Print Bitmap: Will cause a low-res bitmap of the image to be printed in place of the DCS plates.

Disable: If you do not use DCS images, this option allows you to disable the feature.

The log file will contain any messages concerning DCS image use.

Batch Print™ Optional Configuration Items

The Batch Print Optional configuration items contain such things as Log File and Print Area selection, as well as several other infrequently needed items. To access the optional configuration items, click on the Options button. You will be presented with the following dialog.

Each item contained in this dialog is described below:

Log File: This selection lets you change the log file that Batch Print is currently using. Click on the Change Log button if you wish to select/create a different log file. You can also check the Append box if you wish future Batch Print session logs to be appended to the log file. This lets you accumulate multiple sessions in the same log file. Leave this option unchecked to clear the log file at the start of each Batch Print session. You can also change the log file creator type by entering a 4-character string (such as ttxt for TeachText, MSWD for MicroSoft Word, etc.).

Print Area: This selection lets you set up a specific Page Area to print. This print area will only be in effect if you have also checked the Print Specified Page Area Only checkbox which appears on the Batch Print main menu. You can use the radio buttons here to choose whether the values entered are in Page or Spread coordinates. 

Doc. Close Delay: For each job in the print list, Batch Print does the following: Opens the document, Prints the document, Closes the document (without saving). The Close Delay is the amount of time that Batch Print will wait once it determines that printing is complete before it actually closes a document window. This option is provided to give other XTensions enough time to finish up any processing that may also occur at print time. Generally, a 6 second delay should be sufficient.

Install Menu Separator: The Batch Print option gets added to the Quark XPress File menu. With this option checked, a menu separator bar will be installed ahead of the Batch Print option. You may wish to disable this option if you are running other XTensions which add options to the File menu as well. Note that this option is provided for aesthetic purposes only and does not affect the operation of Batch Print.

Allow Duplicate Entries: Check this option to allow duplicate filenames in the Print List. Leaving this option unchecked will cause the Print List dialog to filter out filenames which have already been added to the Print List. However, when this option is not checked, the list of available jobs is refreshed each time a job is selected. This can slow you down if you are selecting a number of jobs from within the middle of a large list.

Working With Log Files

The Batch Print log is a text file which contains a history of each Batch Print session. The log file provides a complete summary of each job that was processed including a complete list of missing fonts, missing pictures, modified pictures, extra spot color plates and missing DCS plates associated with the document. It will also let you know what action (if any) was taken by Batch Print to correct problems with a job (such as auto-updating a modified picture). A sample log file appears below:

**********************************************************
Batch Print Session:        Date: 11/7/1994     Time: 6:38 PM
**********************************************************
1) - Batch Print Manual ------------------------------------------
Missing Font: Cheltenham. Ignored.
Missing Font: Futura Book. Ignored.
Missing Font: Cheltenham Ultra. Ignored.
DCS Image “Q21446B01m” missing “Cyan” plate.
Unable to locate DCS plate file “Q21446B01m.C”. Suppressed picture.
EPS Image “MeadowsLogo.Color.eps” uses spot color “PANTONE 422 CV”.
EPS Image “MeadowsLogo.Color.eps” uses missing font “CaslonTwoTwentyFour-Bold”.
EPS Image “MeadowsLogo.Color.eps” uses missing fonts. Printed as bitmap.
EPS Image “CheltCondBold.Illustrator.EPS” uses missing font “Cheltenham-BoldCond”.
EPS Image “CheltCondBold.Illustrator.EPS” uses missing fonts. Printed as bitmap.
Modified Picture:  “Apple Computers.eps”. Auto-Updated.
Missing Picture:  “Apple Components.eps”. Printed as bitmap.
Spot color: “PANTONE 422 CV”
Spot color “PANTONE 422 CV” was forced to process separate. 
Printing complete.

2) - Text Grabber Summary -------------------------------------
Missing Font: B Frutiger Bold
*Error in document. Not printed. 

Notes On Log Files

The last line in each job log entry indicates whether or not the job actually printed. If the last line reads “Printing complete.” as per above, then the job printed to completion. If the last line reads “*Error in document. Not printed. ”, then some error condition caused Batch Print to cancel the printing of the job.

If a job was printed to completion, that does not necessarily mean that everything was OK with it. For instance, you may have instructed Batch Print to “Print Bitmap” for missing pictures. Consequently, if the job contained any missing pictures, Batch Print would print only the PICT preview of the image. The job would print to completion, but it is unlikely that the job would be completely usable. 

Always examine the job log entries for each print job to see if any errors occurred. The job log should list everything that was done to the job in order to get it to print.

Hint: Perhaps one of the easiest ways to utilize the log file feature is to first create the log file in a specific location (such as your QuarkXPress folder). Then, make an alias of the log file and copy the alias into the Apple Menu Items folder within your System Folder. Then, whenever you wish to view the log file, simply select it from under the Apple menu (see below):

This method produces the same result as double-clicking on the actual log file but is much more convenient to use.

Clearing The Log File

If you have checked the Append Log option, then all Batch Print sessions will continue to be appended to the end of the existing log file. If left unchecked, the log file can grow quite large in size. Therefore, if you will be appending to an existing log file you should occasionally clear the log file out, or simply delete the log file by dragging it into the trash. The log file will be re-created the next time a Batch Print session is run (assuming that the Log File Enabled option has been checked).

If you do not check the Append Log option, the log file will automatically be cleared at the start of each Batch Print session. This means that you do not have to clear the log file manually as described above.

Batch Print™ Compatibility

Batch Print™ has been tested using Macintosh operating System 7.1 in conjunction with the LaserWriter driver v7.1.2 and Quark XPress v3.3 and v3.31. Certain printer-specific options may not be supported. Please report any problems or questions to Meadows Information Systems, Inc. at (708) 882-8202.