September 1999, Vol. 10, No. 9
Inside InDesign
A look at the new page layout tool from an XPress user’s perspective
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Conversion confusion: On the left, a screen shot of a prototype newspaper page made up in Quark XPress; on the right, a screen shot of the same page as converted by Adobe InDesign; note many headlines and the far-left story didn't convert accurately. Conversion is a one-time process. |
Just in case you've been living in a cave for the last year or so, Adobe InDesign was finally released on Aug. 31.
InDesign, the new page layout application from Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose, promises
to be a boon to newspapers that have cultivated less-than-cordial relations with Quark Inc., the Denver-based provider of the leading professional page layout product, XPress.
Correspondent George Powell, a longtime XPress user, has tackled the problem of comparing and contrasting InDesign with XPress, and I think you'll find his insights beneficial.
Also inside this issue, you'll find Correspondent Marion J. Love’s profiles of three former newsroom types who have gone over to the Dark Side -- they've become workers at system supplier firms.
Correspondent L. Carol Christopher takes a look at how system suppliers are responding to the problem of providing mechanisms for the public to enter classified advertising orders and text over the World-Wide Web.
Lastly, I give you my thoughts on the raft of mergers, acquisitions and new operating conditions at a score of publishing systems suppliers.
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Housekeeping notes: This is a particularly sad item to write, as it is the first time since July 1991 that Pete Wetmore won't edit the words in this space.
Wetmore was the Sunday editor and system editor emeritus of The Sun in Baltimore in 1991 and agreed to serve as copy editor in the maiden voyage of The Cole Papers as a monthly newsletter.
Over the last eight years Wetmore has performed a yeoman’s job of not only wrangling with technical copy, but also blossoming into a cogent and insightful writer. In that time, he has made two personal transitions, going from an executive job at The Sun to a copy editing job at The News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., and then moving out on his own as a free-lance writer and editor.
Two years ago I persuaded him to take on additional duties as the primary writer for The Cole Group’s NewsInc., the biweekly newsletter on the business of the newspaper business.
Wetmore’s work at NewsInc. has been exemplary. He has mastered the nuances of publicly traded companies as well as the arcane aspects of newspaper marketing, circulation and manufacturing issues.
But Wetmore informed me a few months ago that it was time again for him to make a transition. He told me he wanted to do things he found exciting and cut out things he'd come to find rote and, frankly, boring.
Among those duties, he told me, was writing and editing for The Cole Papers.
I could see the reluctance in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He didn't want to leave The Cole Papers, but to grow as a person and a writer and editor, he had to move on.
Wetmore will continue to be the senior editor of NewsInc. and I'm thankful for that. He is, of course, irreplaceable. Nonetheless, while I scour the country looking for someone to be senior editor, Marion Love has agreed to take the temporary position of associate editor.
I am a better writer, editor, businessman and person because Pete Wetmore worked with me. I hope you now understand his influence on this newsletter and will wish him a fond farewell.
-- David M. Cole
Also see Hellbox
From THE COLE PAPERS, September 1999, Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved.