Markzware Flightcheck Pro
29/10/06 15:01 Filed in: Apple
Because I work in an advertising agency, it is
vitally important that our files go out to the
printers 100% correct. We preflight all our work
before we send it out. We use a tool called
Flightcheck Pro from Markzware to do this.
This product has really struggled since the move to OS X. We have stuck with this product mainly as their are few, if not no other products to use. Markzware has beaten off all the competition. The last few releases of Flightcheck Pro have actually failed to collect the fonts correctly and their forums are full of this fault. We have waited and waited for this to be fixed.
On the 2nd June 2007, Quark released Quark 7. We obviously needed Flightcheck Pro to work with Quark 7. As of the writing of this article, Flightcheck Pro still doesn't work with Quark 7. Of course software like Flightcheck Pro can't be written overnight, but we were a private beta test for Quark long before it even became a public beta. Quark had two public beta releases. I would have thought the Markzware would have been ready shortly after the official launch of Quark 7 with a product that they know a lot of users of Quark will require.
Back in August on their forums a public beta was promised. I am sure a public beta for a product such as Flightcheck Pro would help the users and the Markzware get a better product to market quicker. There is no better way to test it than let users put proper jobs through the checking engine. More users, more jobs, more testing, more bugs found.
Hopefully now some good news. I spoke to David, the Managing Director, from Markzware at the London Mac Expo last week and he promised that I would have a beta this week. Not sure if this is going to be a public beta, but at least we now know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is switched on. To be fair to David, he was very apologetic as I expressed our concerns about the way this situation has been handled. He asked for just a little more patience.
I did point out that with some better communication from Markzware some of this could have been avoided. Public betas seem all the rage at the moment. Adobe has Photoshop Lightroom and Soundbooth. Parallels used a public beta very well to iron out issues in their first release of Desktop For Mac, and then later, with Mac Pro issues. Quark, the company who never used to communicate, had Quark 7 as a public beta.
I do hope Markzware has now turned the corner. We might know this week.
This product has really struggled since the move to OS X. We have stuck with this product mainly as their are few, if not no other products to use. Markzware has beaten off all the competition. The last few releases of Flightcheck Pro have actually failed to collect the fonts correctly and their forums are full of this fault. We have waited and waited for this to be fixed.
On the 2nd June 2007, Quark released Quark 7. We obviously needed Flightcheck Pro to work with Quark 7. As of the writing of this article, Flightcheck Pro still doesn't work with Quark 7. Of course software like Flightcheck Pro can't be written overnight, but we were a private beta test for Quark long before it even became a public beta. Quark had two public beta releases. I would have thought the Markzware would have been ready shortly after the official launch of Quark 7 with a product that they know a lot of users of Quark will require.
Back in August on their forums a public beta was promised. I am sure a public beta for a product such as Flightcheck Pro would help the users and the Markzware get a better product to market quicker. There is no better way to test it than let users put proper jobs through the checking engine. More users, more jobs, more testing, more bugs found.
Hopefully now some good news. I spoke to David, the Managing Director, from Markzware at the London Mac Expo last week and he promised that I would have a beta this week. Not sure if this is going to be a public beta, but at least we now know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is switched on. To be fair to David, he was very apologetic as I expressed our concerns about the way this situation has been handled. He asked for just a little more patience.
I did point out that with some better communication from Markzware some of this could have been avoided. Public betas seem all the rage at the moment. Adobe has Photoshop Lightroom and Soundbooth. Parallels used a public beta very well to iron out issues in their first release of Desktop For Mac, and then later, with Mac Pro issues. Quark, the company who never used to communicate, had Quark 7 as a public beta.
I do hope Markzware has now turned the corner. We might know this week.
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