Specifications
10
plug-iNs
More Colo(u)rful
Language
e ColourFulLanguage
plug-in for InDesign high-
lights all the text in differ-
ent languages in your doc-
ument so that you can eas-
ily distinguish between
each one.
You can set the color and
opacity of each language’s
highlight, and the high-
lights can be seen in an in-
teractive PDF. e col-
or added by the plug-in
doesn’t affect any styles ap-
plied to the text, so your
document won’t be over-
run by overrides.
e plug-in supports up
to 250 different languages.
Contact Kerntiff Publish-
ing Systems for pricing.
www.kerntiff.co.uk
Share InDesign Stories
Rorohiko’s StoryTweak-
er is a plug-in for InDesign
CS4–CS6 that lets you ex-
port stories as assignment
files that can be edited by
other people, then import-
ed back into your InDe-
sign document.
StoryTweaker costs $99,
but it allows the owner to
collaborate with an un-
limited number of con-
tributors for free. e con-
tributors use the Assign-
mentTweaker applica-
tion (available for Mac and
Windows) to edit the as-
signed stories and then
hand them back to the
owner.
is simple system does
not require your contrib-
utors to have InDesign or
InCopy.
www.rorohiko.com
Scoop Up
Illustrator Assets
Very recently, users of
Adobe’s Creative Cloud
had a feature similar to In-
Design’s Package func-
tion pushed out to them.
For those not using the
Creative Cloud, Work-
er 72a’s Scoop ($25) might
fill that gap. is Illustra-
tor CS6 plug-in gives you
the option to collect a doc-
ument’s fonts, linked im-
ages, or both, and it puts
them into a folder for easi-
er organization and distri-
bution. An older version of
Scoop is also available for
Illustrator CS3–CS5, but it
must be purchased as part
of a plug-in bundle ($30).
www.worker72a.com
Badia Printools:
MUCH Better Printing
from InDesign or
QuarkXPress
Badia Soware’s Printools
($80) is a plug-in for InDe-
sign CS3–CS6 or QuarkX-
Press 4–9 that adds many
new features when printing.
It provides a live preview
that shows you an exact
representation in real time
of how the output will look
as you change the print
settings, including paper
boundaries, single pages or
spreads, crop marks, man-
ual or automatic tiling,
page rotation, bleeds, and
negative printing. You can
even manually tile a page
by dragging the mouse
over the preview area.
Its preview also shows
page scaling and color
mode (color, gray, or black
and white). It can also
warn you when the docu-
ment size is larger than the
paper in the printer or im-
agesetter.
One feature it adds that
QuarkXPress inexplicably
lacks is to output all the
layouts in a project at once.
It can preflight a document
to detect RGB images, text
overflows, missing fonts,
suppressed items, EPS with
JPEG compression, hair-
lines, unknown image for-
mats, and low-resolution
pictures. It can also auto-
matically check every doc-
ument before it is printed.
It can add a tempo-
rary page border and add
page slugs showing own-
er name, machine name,
bleed, scaling, line screen,
emulsion, and any custom
text you like.
You can batch print mul-
tiple documents using the
same output settings or
create PDF or PostScript
files from batches of doc-
uments. Its Rename at
Print feature can automat-
ically rename files at print
time using any combina-
tion of the project or lay-
out names, page range,
custom text, or an auto-
matically incremented se-
rial number.
www.badiasoftware.com
Create QR Codes
in InDesign or
QuarkXPress
CoDesCo’s ex QRCode
(€39) is a plug-in for In-
Design or QuarkXPress
that creates QR codes! You
simply type in the destina-
tion URL or text, and ex
QRCode generates a black
Quick Response (QR)
code. Anyone with a mo-
bile device can use a QR
code app to take a snap-
shot of your QR code, and
they’ll then be taken to
your URL or see the text
you supplied. A pro ver-
sion is also available that
supports colored QR codes
and additional data types.
www.codesco.com
Free iDropper XTension
from Quark
Quark is now giving away
the iDropper XTension for
QuarkXPress 9. is mul-
tipurpose tool allows you
to effortlessly add new col-
ors or copy colors from
one box to another. You
can select a color out of
any graphic or choose
from one of 9500 colors
available in the Color Dis-
play Bar. iDropper can
also automatically create
darker tints and comple-
mentary colors for you.
Get it at
www.quark.com/Sup-
port/Downloads/
Easier Access to
Adobe Extensions
Adobe has improved their
Adobe Exchange experience
for Creative Suite users.
e Exchange (free) is now
available as a panel with-
in many of the CS6 appli-
cations. is allows you to
browse, update, and pur-
chase plug-ins and ex-
tensions using a unified
browsing and payment
system, and the products
shown are relevant to the
exact version of your cur-
rent application.
Much like iTunes, the pan-
el will highlight the latest
and featured additions to
the Exchange and will sep-
arate products out into free
and paid offerings. Get it
at
www.tinyurl.com/9cxqnno.
Design Tools Monthly
™
• Issue #237 • Acme Printing • www.AcmePrintingUSA.com