Is Quark Finally Dead?
October 4th, 2007 - Articles, General Design, Trends
I have been championing InDesign, the Adobe desktop publishing software for a while now. Heres a few reasons why:
- Its easy to use - with a great help section just in case
- Its hotkeys and interface are familiar as they are almost the same as Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
- Its really easy to export PDF’s from it
- You can drag and drop items from Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
- It previews colours and images extremely well
- It gives you superb control over effects and transparency
- Its bundled with the Adobe creative suite and therefore very cost effective
In my view Quark, the traditionalists desk top publishing software, falls flat on its face when confronted with the above. There are many things which Quark just hasn’t been able to keep up with - simple things like an “eye dropper” tool seems to be lacking.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not slating it for the sake of it. I do respect Quark and I use it all the time, o a day to day basis with my full time employer - I just find it lacking compared to InDesign.
Whilst browsing the web one day I came across a site called Quark Vs InDesign. This site deal with all the issues I’ve raised above and is reporting that Quark is at an all time low.
Whilst speaking to a friend who works as a designer for a London based PR agency - he is also in contact with a lot of freelancers which he outsources to - he was supprised to hear I still use Quark in my day job, claiming that most agencies and designers in London have made the switch.
Adobe does seem to be very switched on in regards to InDesign giving loads of reasons to make the switch - and with the new CS3 suite now out it seems that quarks time may finally have come to an end. For some in depth tutorials regarding InDesign CS3 head down to the Adobe Developer Center
So is Quark Finally Dead…
Over to you.
Do your use quark dear reader? Anybody not a fan of InDesign? Is there somehting Quark does that InDesign can’t do? do you want to moan or groan? Leave a comment below…
October 5th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Quark is the biggest piece of crap ever. I have to use it for work sometimes and I cringe every time. InDesign is infinitely better. Adobe should just buy them out and put them out of their misery.
April 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I switched over to InDesign a few years ago and could never go back. It makes my job so much easier.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I just happened to stumble upon this journal and read this article, but never the less… I agree that InDesign is the way of the future but as far as industry standards are concerned, too many companies still use Quark files which can’t easily be converted to InDesign without spending a lot of money. Over time though, every company will want to revamp their graphics a little, and that’s when they’ll switch over to InDesign.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:23 am
@Nick - We disagree that Quark files would be expensive to carry across to Indesign - Unless Quark has changed in the latest version it was always that you could open a Quark file in Indesign but not an Indesign file in Quark! The only expense would be the training of the staff involved but as younger designers are growing up on Indesign this training expense probably won’t be a major issue in the coming years…