Dotted line under 1pt in Quark... how?

[MacBoobsPro]

I have a document in Quark 7 and I want a dotted line at 0.5pt thickness but when I set the thickness and then print it, it prints as a solid line.

However a 1pt dotted line appears just fine but it is too heavy for my liking. How can I get a 0.5 dotted line in Quark 7?

 

[PixelFactory]

Few questions. What color is the line and what color is the background? What type of printer are you printing to? I just printed a test sheet with dotted lines from 1 point to .1 point thickness to a color laser (black lines on white background) and I could see dots all the way down to .25 point.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Black line.

No (white) background.

HP Inkjet.

The dots look ok on screen but they print as a 1pt solid line complete with square edge/ends.



Its going to destroy my design if I cant' get this to work.

I may try sending a file to our print guy down stairs to see how his rip handles it as that will be the final output, not the inkjet.

 

[PixelFactory]

Another option is to make your own style of dash. Go to edit –> Dashes & Stripes. If you duplicate the Dashes preset your using you can expand the space between the dots.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Another option is to make your own style of dash. Go to edit –> Dashes & Stripes. If you duplicate the Dashes preset your using you can expand the space between the dots.

I'll have a look but the dots arent close together and so look like a solid line, it is definitely a solid line. Like I said it has the square endings of a solid line and is 1pt not 0.5pt.

 

[PixelFactory]

I'll have a look but the dots arent close together and so look like a solid line, it is definitely a solid line. Like I said it has the square endings of a solid line and is 1pt not 0.5pt.

The space between the dots is only .2 points roughly .003 inches (40% thickness of the line). Your printer may not be able to resolve that so it prints solid. Used to have a similar but opposite issue when lines were set at "hairline". On a laser of inkjet printer they would be visible but when ripped to film they would disappear due to the resolution of the film. If your project is going to press, it will most likely be fine. Just get a proof.

 

[covisio]

Is it a PostScript issue? - do you have a proper PostScript RIP on the inkjet? Strokes are all defined in PostScript I think.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Is it a PostScript issue? - do you have a proper PostScript RIP on the inkjet? Strokes are all defined in PostScript I think.

No postscript at this point. When it goes to rip for final proof/print yes. I will send a sample to my printer today to see if its ok.

Thanks guys.

 

[PixelFactory]

Another thing to try is to output a pdf and print from Acrobat. I do this to get around postscript issues when printing to a non postscript printer.