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Some programs are just essential. For those designing for print work, Quark is still the language of hard copy. As much progress as Adobe Indesign has made in taking territory away from Quark, there are companies that have remained loyal to the program. The reason is understandable.
Over the years Quark has for the most part made evolutionary changes to the program. Employing a very user friendly interface, Quark still remains one of the easier programs in design to master. Relying on long time strengths, a strong user base and intuitive operation, those have been the strongholds for the program.
Sensing competition at their heels from the Adobe juggernaut, and they seem to be more and more successful at dominating the digital design realm, Quark has released a succession of updates, the most noticeable being QuarkXpress 6.5. On the surface little has changed from 6 to the point upgrade. Under the hood, big improvements await.
Some of the big feature updates include the ability to share information across layouts, synchronized texts, more detailed tables that are higher powered, non destructive image effects, and thirty action undo. While some of the features are long overdue in coming, they are here after what seems like a long delay. For professionals on the go concerned about work flow, they are much welcomed.
One of the most anticipated with QuarkXPress has to be the ability of the program to support Photoshop files and Photoshop layers. Via a free plug-in that works with QuarkXPress 6.5 only, the program can import Photoshop files and layers. For the most part the feature works, but some layers will not edit as well as they do in Photoshop. While this feature is a much needed one, it is a bit problematic, but welcome. For the most part you still need to tweak your layers in Photoshop and then export to insure you don't run into the unexpected.
Another issue with QuarkXPress is that it is not great at saving files to lower versions. You can only save files created in 6.5 to 5. For those working with companies that cannot even read version 4, this is a problem that prevents some companies from considering the upgrade.
In the very real world of design I have seen large budget companies that are still on version 3. For those of us on 6 and above, the problems are obvious, and it is an omission that hopefully Quark will address in the soon to be released version 7.
The strengths of Quark have always been a good well considered interface, ease of use and a large established user base. Competition has to a large extent eroded those once thought impervious strengths making the program highly vulnerable to competition.
For those in the design world that must have Quark, this is an upgrade that will increase your workflow, but do keep in mind the program has some noticeable shortcomings, like the incomplete layers support for Photoshop and the missing ability to create drop shadows on the fly.
As much as I like Quark, more so now than before, it still has a few rough spots. On the plus side, it is good to see Quark making up for some lost time and trying to keep the program in line with the needs of designers. For existing users, this is an important upgrade, but much depends on how often you need to save what you create as Quark 3 or 4 files. In terms of ease of use and operation, Quark is the most intuitive to use. With regards to detail of features, it is getting there, more or less. Love it or hate it, at least they are trying to keep the program viable.
Talk to Kurt in Graphics Unleashed Forums
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