According to Macworld UK , Quark has announced the forthcoming release of Xpress 6, a Mac OS X-native version of its layout and pre-press product. Is this an announcement that will spark a new round of migrations to OS X among pro designers who use Macs?

still no release date or real details.  how long is Quark going to continue this bull crap!!  I’m so sick of quark.  I switched to InDesign about 9 months ago.  It’s not as trouble free for output as quark has been, but it works, and it works in OS X, and it’s not from crappy quark!!  :x

I suspect for some, Quark is a really big deal and a deal breaker when it comes to migrating to MacOS X. 

I don’t use the software personally, but wonder how much damage Quark has done to their customer base by waiting so long to release a MacOS X version of Xpress.  I have read quite a few articles and posts by people who have switched their workflow over to InDesign because they got tired of waiting and that Adobe has used this opportunity to really grab some market share from Quark.

I guess, for Quark’s sake, Xpress 6 had better be worth the wait.

"First Look…"

I love that they are calling it a “First Look.”  Anyone remember a certain demonstration at MWNY ‘01!  I guess at the time they might have been planning on releasing it as V 5.5. 

I think a lot of people who were hoping to get their feet wet with OS X, AFTER Xpress came out are not going to be happy with an OS X only version.  I agree that it will be easier on Quark and ultimately better for OS X (as long as people don’t decide to switch to XP instead of X).

I’ve never understood Quark, has anyone?

zip

Too Late

Unfortunately for Quark, in the four months since I ordered Adobe’s Design Collection, Gov. Davis has eliminated my ability to purchase software… hell, he’s eliminated my ability to purchase just about anything from just about every private sector.

I can’t see how I can justify to our president that Quark is an “essential need” considering I’ve survived just fine for months either without it or working in Classic.

Of course, bt the time QXP 6 actually ships, maybe California’s budget crisis will be over and I’ll have budget again.

Quark 6, too little TOO LATE!!!!

I’m sorry but I only have contempt for Quark despite that it had been my bread and butter. I really feel that Quark has been in control of the page layout market for far too long, resting on it’s laurels. While Quarkxpress was the best page layout application at the time, I think that Adobe Indesign has much surpassed Quark with features that we should have expected out of version 4.0, such as layers and mulitiple undo’s, that combined with the extraordinate amount that Quark has chosen to extort from the design and print industry while not giving back what-so-ever. So, that said, when OS X became an valid OS at 10.1 Adobe had a great application revved and ready with full features and innovation that the Graphic Industry has been requesting and expecting for the last 4 years minimum. I have converted to Indesign and hearded my users and clients toward Indesign.
Quark can only blame themselves for their defeat. I hope that the community kicks Quark in the teeth for trying to hold us hostage, yet again.
Try Indesign, make the change.

Jon Coleman

[quote author=“Macworld UK”]Quark has consistently insisted it will not ship the application until it has been through extensive beta testing and “is ready”.

That would be novel. 

I’m glad I don’t do any long-format technical projects anymore (650 pages… ::shudder:: ) so it’s very rare that XPress gets launched, and even then it’s version 3.32. Illustrator with Photoshop handle the layout tasks now. I’d think that anyone holding their breath for a decent version of XPress has passed out long ago.

lets be honest here

Im no quark lover but lets face it apple snookered us with the first release of os x it was pretty and had lots of shiny chrome widgets but it was useless. why should quark have rushed in when print drivers weren’t even finalized from company’s like epson. custom page sizes and other necessities were not even in the os. epson has not even got x drivers today for the greatest number of their large format printers even the new 7600.
how the heck can you proof your work with no print drivers? colorsync is now a moving target and quartz graphics is giving us a much better view of our work than everyone else has.this is not necessarily a good thing when your on the phone with a pressman who has a windows box from 1950 and your trying to figure what went awry with your files over the phone.  call me crazy but some companies like all their cereal boxes to look the same color no matter what press they were run on.Quark was not into wasting their time on an os that was going to change drastically every 6 months.
In Design is a great product and i enjoy using it. Quark is a butt ugly creaky old grumpy relic but it talks to my pressmen in their language.I can’t wait to have a look at quark 6.I will use them both.I hope they have done as good a job as adobe and i hope they got rid of this tiffs only thing (native photoshop support is a winner in InDesign)

better late than never

Xpress5 Carbonized?

Well this will most likely be it for me and Quark. I just went to the Quark homepage, checked out the pic they have displayed and all Xpress 6 looks like is a carbonized Xpress 5. If this is the case, Quark just lost another 15 users to InDesign.

Well I agree that Quark shouldn’t have rushed in, with OSX being so young, but it’s up to 10.2.4 now and they still don’t even have a widely released beta. That is neglect of the market.
Quark’s only savior in this mess may prove to be the economic slump. If printing companies and service bureaus had the cash for capital improvements in the form of computers and software, I believe many more would have switched to InDesign.

-Dan

I have heard quite a bit from two camps over the years.  One camp has an open mind about InDesign, and has largely switched, or included the app in their work flow.

The other camp tells me I am crazy if I think that anyone has, or would ever, work with anything but Quark.  Much of that group is still Xpress 3.3.2 or version 4.x.  This camp also has a large contingent of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” personalities, which makes sense considering the way they earn their living.

It will be interesting to see how the market place works this out.

Quark is right

Quark’s waiting is not necessarly a BAD thing. OS X is NOT ready for the high end work that we all do in the Advertising industry when we have to have smooth workflows within the organisation AND with our pre-press and press people. . . Hell there aint no ATM for X and so far Suitcase has not given me the need to switch to OS X at the office. . . thats one of the things that Quark seems to be harping about. . . until X gets jiggy with it, its nothing more than eye candy (which it is unfortunately) and quark isnt about eye candy or being stylish. Its all about getting the work done, intelligently. Still they could release a BETA (not open source) version and then let people get a feel for it. . . works for most other people. Maybe it might make one realise where the importance is. . . pulsing buttons and fancy widgets OR something that WORKS? It would be more damaging to Quark (and Apple) if Quark rushed headlong into the X area with no pants on! that would be embarrasing!

Re: Quark is right

[quote author=“Anonymous”]Quark’s waiting is not necessarly a BAD thing. OS X is NOT ready for the high end work that we all do in the Advertising industry when we have to have smooth workflows within the organisation AND with our pre-press and press people. . . Hell there aint no ATM for X and so far Suitcase has not given me the need to switch to OS X at the office. . . thats one of the things that Quark seems to be harping about. . . until X gets jiggy with it, its nothing more than eye candy (which it is unfortunately) and quark isnt about eye candy or being stylish. Its all about getting the work done, intelligently. Still they could release a BETA (not open source) version and then let people get a feel for it. . . works for most other people. Maybe it might make one realise where the importance is. . . pulsing buttons and fancy widgets OR something that WORKS? It would be more damaging to Quark (and Apple) if Quark rushed headlong into the X area with no pants on! that would be embarrasing!

OS X just eye-candy? You obviously know NOTHING about it. That is almost as much crap as Quark being 2 years behind. This is the most POWERFUL OS Apple has ever developed. Hands down! Just because your peripherals and workflow doesn’t support it doesn’t mean that it only looks good (it does, but works better) and consumers shouldn’t have to wait for developers to get off their butts. How long ago did Quark know this was coming. I remember reading about OS X nearly 5 years ago. Sorry, if Quark was about getting WORK DONE they’d be ready by now!

I think it is a shame that Quark is making users wait to take advantage of OS X. I say if anyone has been thinking of going to InDesign, DO IT. Like another post already said it isn’t trouble free but is a legitimate alternative to Quark. And I am not only saying this because of OS X. I say even if you plan on sticking with OS 9 for a while give InDesign a shot. Being native to OS X is just another incentive. Besides me not liking Quark as a company, I also feel it is inferior to InDesign on any platform. Quark is a crude, still in OS 7.6 app.

[quote author=“Bryan”]
Much of that group is still Xpress 3.3.2 or version 4.x.  This camp also has a large contingent of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” personalities, which makes sense considering the way they earn their living.

I work in the print industry, and yes there are a lot of pre-press and production houses which are still on Quark 4 (don’t know many on 3.32 any more.)  But, there is a disclaimer here.  Many do this for a reason, which is that Quark has a TERRIBLE upgrade record.  New versions always suck and are full of bugs, and are NOT usable in a production environment.  I know a lot of pre-press shops that do not upgrade until the new version has been out for at least one year (which is about now for Quark 5) and there have been a couple of point release upgrades to fix the bugs. 

With the reputation Quark has, I can’t believe they are as strong as they are.  But, when they get it right, it’s right.  I did my first major publication in InDesign this past November, and I’m not sure if I’ll do it again.  Way too many things did not turn out as well as I expected, and on a print job that cost’s 20% of your companies annual revenue that’s a big deal.  I’ve even said I may go back to Quark 4 in classic for a major job, but haven’t decided yet. 

Another disclaimer on that.  The reason I had the problems is because the print shop, who also output the film and plates, was not updated to the newest postscript version and they could not process the PDF’s from InDesign natively.  I had to save them out in Acrobat 4 format, which then does flattening and compression, and that made it suck.  However, even at that I felt like the vector type was very pixelated and looked like crap.

first of all i would change printers before i used a work around like that (did you use the default output resolution settings or bump them up?).but his is just another example of the “downgrade upgrade” that osx has been putting us all through.Im toughing it out and going forward with replacing my hardware and software. but this list of stuff I still can’t do is getting old.
  fortunately the list of stuff i can do is getting longer every day. but I have to say when i do boot up in 9.2.2 and see how zippy and slick that old os runs I wonder why I’m so much the x man. a couple of more months and I’ll have drivers for that 3000 dollar paperweight in the corner.(holding breath)