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QuarkXpress has been something of a standard in the publishing business for a long time. Nearly every print media publisher has heard of it, and many a graphic designer has worked with this standard. The primary virtues of QuarkXpress have been a huge user base, solid feature set and the fact that it has remained consistent. Out of all of the many page layout programs on the market, few offer the unobtrusive interface of QuarkXpress, or the relative ease of use that comes with this program. Those two features have made Quark indispensable.
Hotly and quickly moving in on the territory currently occupied by Quark, Adobe InDesign 2 is working overtime in toppling Quark’s dominance of desktops, but it remains to be seen if Adobe can penetrate the market dominated by Quark. What may make Adobe’s struggles more troublesome in toppling this giant is the fact that Quark has finally released a carbonized version of QuarkXpress.
From my colleagues in the field that work with Macs the lack of availability coupled with long delays in a release of Quark that was OS X optimized has lead a few to defect to Adobe. On the feature front side, InDesign has a great deal working for it that make it a contender. So a great deal of anticipation was gathering for this new QuarkXpress.
On the positive side, Quark does get a much need facelift. Having looked more than a bit dated, the new look is welcome relief. The placement of features is alright, but not much has really changed since the last version. In fact, little has changed over the years. While there are some features that are new to version 6, those familiar with version 4 and 5 will not feel out of the loop. In fact, I think Quark makes this consistency from version to version an asset, which it is. So the cosmetic changes and more accessible features are all here.
The one area I thought Quark would have implemented better, or left off entirely, is the rather odd Web capabilities that the program has. In version 5 Quark introduced some rather rudimentary Web page creation tools. The way they were implemented were to put it nicely odd. You could not take your HTML document back into Quark for editing. The rather odd way Web capabilities were worked into the application seemed half considered. Sure, this is a convenience, but I really cannot envision a serious designer wanting this feature. Since Quark is mainly a print application, throwing in this feature set seems to just take up space. In version 6 that same approach to Web integration within the application is just as peculiar. While this does not ruin the application, it is irritating that things were not more fully realized.
Another area that will no doubt frustrate Adobe users is the inability of the program to readily integrate with Adobe products. Plus, if you love PDF support, you will have to consider purchasing Acrobat for the type of file creation most users will want. Again, these are not going to make or break the program, but it would have been nice had greater consideration been given to this area.
As well intended as the crew of Quark can be, their customer support is a bit raw and ready. While I do not like to malign anyone, it does seem odd that the PR department and the support division sent out previews of the application minus codes. It took a few phone calls, none returned, and one email to PR for the issue to be resolved. The fact that no one called me back, well that is just frustrating. From stories told to me by others in the field, frustration with Quark’s support department is not a figment of my imagination. Apparently, they are notorious for weak support. So if you are considering tech support, I strongly suggest you make very sure you understand, and know what you are dealing with, before purchase.
As a side note, I wish that they had beefed up the text editing tools. Believe it or not, a great deal of text editing does take place within Quark. When it comes to text editing and manipulation, I have to say that Quark does what it does extremely well. I just wished that a more muscular approach to text editing was present. I have seen Quark used as a substitute word processor.
Being that Quark is not as well equipped to handle numerous inquiries as other larger companies, one can make allowances. However, if a company wants premium prices for software, then the least one can expect is proficient, efficient support. Sending out preview copies in bulk while omitting serial numbers, and taking days to correct the issue seems to indicate that there are serious problems here that end users should be aware of before purchasing. While I doubt any of this information will detour hard core buyers, let me strongly suggest that you expect delays and some frustration with support. As well intended and as nice as Quark is, and their staff is polite, I never had a rude experience with anyone, I just don’t feel they have support and PR completely together and ready for prime time.
Talk to Kurt in Graphics Unleashed Forums
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