[Dogma]

Originally posted by MikeM33:
Adobe has had the edge in terms of Photo editing applications like Photoshop and Vector Rendering app's like Illustrator, but they missed the damn boat on page layout/typesetting/printing applications.

THAT IS ALL

MikeM

Yeah, but this is all about your opinion. I dislike Quark cos it's been sitting twiddling it's thumbs for years. I always used Quark, why, I had no other reasonable alternative. It's kinda like the WIndows of the print world - you gotta use it, no matter what.

I'm not saying it doesn't do what it says on the tin, I'm not even saying it does anything particularly badly. I'm just saying that in my honest opinion, I don't like it. Can I put my finger on it? Probably not. I just happen to want things to be "better" and not just compatible.

Case in point - I loved Soundjam - even bought a license. Laughed when Apple brought out itunes, but played around with it and thought - Wow, this rules!
Clarisworks/Appleworks - Back in the day where Clarisworks was OEM'd on most machines, I couldn't see past using the simplistic and user friendly program. Until I tried MS Word, which i was loathe to admit, I was very impressed. (which is not to say it's the best designed program, it just does so much more than anything else)
Photoshop - Hmm, ain't it a sweet little program. I love it. Difeerent to Xpress in that it has no real limits to what you can do. However, for a time, I was seduced into xRes - a beautiful program witch was a pretty flawless PS reproduction, except you could work on low res files, and then render them large res, perfect for printwork. I was unhappy that one died, though not so sad anymore because processor speed etc has negated the need for that feature.

InDesign is nice, not perfect, but nice. Quark still does the job, obvious through the hundreds of thousands of publications printed each week from it. But do you like it? I don't like it, but i still use it occasionally.

(Quark 6 can't save as version 4 files? That'll stop a lot of people from upgrading still. that was the problem with version 5.)

[godzookie2k]

Originally posted by Dogma:
(Quark 6 can't save as version 4 files? That'll stop a lot of people from upgrading still. that was the problem with version 5.)

I don't know why people buhdonk about that. Never, in all its existance, has QuarkXpress been able to save down more than one version number. never. So why is it an issue now?

But whatever, this is an endless loop of a debate. Anyone ever try this application?
http://www.softmagic.com/eng/product.html

I meant to check it out last night but never got around to it. Anyone else?

[Dogma]

Originally posted by godzookie2k:
I don't know why people buhdonk about that. Never, in all its existance, has QuarkXpress been able to save down more than one version number. never. So why is it an issue now?

But whatever, this is an endless loop of a debate. Anyone ever try this application?
http://www.softmagic.com/eng/product.html

I meant to check it out last night but never got around to it. Anyone else?

I'll have a go, looks interesting. As for the versions, it's always been an issue, just that in the grand scale of things, only companies that did their printing inhouse and could guarantee Quark 5 on all their machines, did the 5 upgrade go the smoothest. It's amazing the amount of people still using version 4 just because of the cost of ugrading and the compatibility stuff. It basically means that until the printers adopt Quark 6 across the board, designers are more or less stuck with 4. (I won't even go into PDF's)

A lot of print bureaus hate the idea of upgrading their outdated machinery, let alone software. It's not positive, but it's true.

Personally, I know the printers I prefer because they are good at doing this stuff, but some companies have "deals" with certain bureaus and insist it's done through them - a kind of "old boys club" kinda thing.

Bleedin management...

[OwlBoy]

My. God.

Now we are on OS X, but still with Quark 4

-Owl

[godzookie2k]

Quark 4 is love.

[khufuu]

Originally posted by OwlBoy:
QuarkExpress really is a shitty application!


I was just introduced to it today, and man this thing is Cria System 7.0.

wow, I am so gonna avoid this and go with Indesign.

-Owl

I find it amazing that after just one day you know enough about a product to judge it as a piece of crap.

[keywest]

Just my 2 cents. I work in a busy production environment every day, and have used Quark since at least the early 1990s, right around the time of the original Mac II release.

Among other projects, I currently produce a 28-32 page newspaper every other week for a client in Quark 5, in Classic running under OS X on a dual 867.

No problems. Ever. I have had this client for 9 months now, and the entire process has been smooth. I layout the entire pub at my studio, then transfer the document and files to the clients system, a 400mhz.G4 running sys 9.

I only posted this because of the two issues I read above. One was responses from people who actually use Quark in a serious production environment. The other was the issue of Quark stability under Classic and OS X.

My experience is that a good clean install, a system that is kept clean and regularly taken care of will do more for a stable Quark under 10 than anything else. I am sure I will upgrade to 6, but for now I produce 100-200 pages a month of 4 color ouput in Quark in Classic with no problems.