In Design or Quark Xpress

[western411]

I have worked with both softwares since their original releases. Over time I found Indesign has become my first choice. Since most imposition is PDF based, working with Indesign -an Adobe product- has given us less problems building PDF's. Making a good PDF from Quark can still at times be an issue and add's an extra step. Since many plugs are built around the Adobe products we found more plugins for the Adobe line than Quark and better PDF integration. Adobe is not stupid, we feel they make sure their code fights with Quark when it comes to PDF's. I would have BOTH softwares ready to use. You can always find a version of Quark on ebay if need be. We take native Quark files and build a PDF which we then auto place in a Indesign imposition template for press production. Since many customers like to provide PDF's it's better to have native software available to make a correct PDF than have to fight with a messed supplied PDF.

[photoshopdude]

Hello, I've been in prepress for the last 25 years, and I work in quark and Indesign everyday.
In my opinion Indesign is far superior to Quark.

One of the things I like best about Indesign is the ability to jump back and forth between Photoshop and Illustrator when doing edits, it saves me time and aggravation.

Indesign just has so many features that Quark does not, I like the ink manager, the separations viewer, also the preflight function to name a few things.

Quark used to be king back in the day but I cringe every time we get a job built in Quark, its not terrible but not as sleek as Indesign.

[Happyprinter]

Like Western, we to have used Quark since their release and up til we purchased version 7 when it was released many years ago, we were very happy. Then we installed version 7 and the nightmares started. Printing problems, PDF problems on and on and on. What made us switch to Adobe Indesign finally was Quarks lack of Tech Support. VERY POOR at best. In the old days you could contact Quarks Tech Team and they were very professional and solved all our problems, then, overseas it went and the nightmares began. Hard to figure out problems when #1, you can barely speak the English language, #2 Solving problems while trying to find them in a book and reading from a script every time we called never worked. We finally tried to get in touch with their main headquarters, I believe it was in Cheyenne, WY and still may be, but no one there wanted to tackle the problems and kept passing us onto India or wherever their tech support was then. Bottom line, I was once a very big supporter of Quark but after our experiences with them would never go back unless they develop some earth shaking product that we could not live without and did not require their tech support.

[MacTwidget]

... We finally tried to get in touch with their main headquarters, I believe it was in Cheyenne, WY and still may be,...

They are based in Denver, Colorado.
Also, they were sold to a private equity firm this past August. Platinum Equity in Los Angeles (Beverly Hills).

Due to their sale, I'd be concerned about the viability of QuarkXPress.
Quark rested on its laurels for far too long. They failed to listen to its customers and they stopped innovating and evolving.

I was a Quark user since 1988 and once said that that I would never give it up. I hated InDesign when it was first released, but starting about 5 years ago I gave in to InDesign and haven't looked back.