Many different image types are acceptable for importing in to a Quark picture box. The most common are JPEG, EPS, Tiff. However you might find yourself in a situation where you need to import a PDF into a picture box. Importing PDFs is also acceptable but there is a subtle difference you need to be aware when placing PDFs. PDFs can have “geometry” applied to them. This “geometry” consist of embedded ArtBox, TrimBox, CropBox, BleedBox and MediaBox. These boxes are used by prepress software to determine the different areas of the PDF

• ArtBox is the area that holds the “meaningful content” (this is Adobe’s official definition). This is obviously up to the Author to define, and is hardly ever different from the TrimBox.
• TrimBox is the finished format after cutting off the bleed etc. When you create an Letter size document, the TrimBox is 8.5″ wide and 11″ high.
• BleedBox is the TrimBox plus the bleed, i.e. some extra space on each side that holds printed content but is to be cut off, such that the result has no borders.
• CropBox is what PDF readers display as white. It’s the area that should be considered the part that contains actual content (in the technical sense).
• MediaBox is the "actual Paper". Anything that is not in the MediaBox can, for the pupose of rendering the PDF, be regarded as non-existing. The difference to the CropBox is subtle, and both are usually the same.

The reason this is notable is because when placing PDFs there is a setting in the Quark Import dialog box that needs to be set that isn’t an option for other types of images. At the bottom of the Import dialog box is the Bounding Box To Use selection box. Be sure to set this to MediaBox.

If you don’t Quark defaults to the Trimbox which would eliminate image area that could be necessary for bleed. This is especially important for full page PDFs being imported.