Quark 8 being announced

[mattbeals]

Does anyone really care that Quark 8 is announced? They've already done so much damage to their reputation... It's basically too little, too late. It's not that InDesign is "such a better program" but rather that Quark has just had its collective head up its arse for too long. Like ever since Tim Gill left.... But someone has to keep Adobe honest. Maybe the guys on the (open source) Scribus team will be the ones to keep Adobe honest when Quark finally gives up the ghost. Hell Scribus makes a direct PDF export and has for quite a while!

At any rate, I'm sure after this my last friend in Quark won't be returning my calls...

[Joe]

Luckily for Quark, Adobe is coming back to the pack of two.

I'd love to see an open source program give them a run for their money though.

[MacTwidget]

If Quark 8 is still utilizing the PDF engine from Global Graphics, I would highly doubt that they are able to generate unflattened PDFs. Global Graphics (aka: producer of the Harlequin RIP) seems to always be 2 or 3 generations behind as they are reverse engineering the Adobe PDF engine.

The last version of Quark I could tolerate is QX6 (I totally bypassed QX5). Quark 7 is a dog and in the 2 years I've had it in my prepress department, maybe 2% of our customers have used it.

I was the staunchest Quark supporter until "the very end" as I have been around since the dawn of DTP, but I have finally thrown in the towel as far as Quark is concerned – R.I.P. Quark.

[Colorblind]

Matt Beals wrote "Does anyone really care that Quark 8 is announced"

As a matter of fact, I do. Just as I do for any new release regarding any software or new technology in the Graphic Arts. That's what this forum is all about, learning and sharing information. Doesn't mean I'm a Quark fan though and I'm truly not impressed with what's being announced. But one thing I know is that monopoly is only good for the company who holds it.

[leetaylor]

Quark 8 Hmm....... It will still look the same as Quark 3!!

Until Quark can export clean, un-flattened PDF's how can it ever be taken seriously again?!!

The only reservation I have is that Adobe seem to be quickly getting a monopoly on the graphic arts industry - until the last 5 or so years Quark was always the program they couldn't oust!

I think I speak for most of us guys when I say since the day I first opened InDesign I haven't looked back?!!

[kaiserwilhelm]

Amen brother.....er, except for ID 1 - that was a piece of crap. 1.5 got better.
I remember the first time I opened an ID 1.5 job that was linked to 300+ psd files.
I thought my evening was going to be spent converting and flattening in Photoshop. Then,
I went to the web.
Quark 8 - if I can't get an unflattened PDF then I will be advising my clients that they finally make the move to
INDD. Already had two of our larger firms go there.

[Bobmorli]

I'm guessing flattened pdfs will be introduced in Quark 18 or something. Even though Quark is still a supported program here, hardly any customer delivers their artwork in Quark (besides some Germans who must really love their quark 4).

Indesign is a great program but also has it's shortcomings. Prefer it way over quark though.

[FasterMD]

Great, now I have to spend more money on a piece of software for my one client who still refuses to switch to InDesign.

Quark needs to surrender and vanish.

[kansasquaker]

So does anybody think this will be the death of Quark? Realistically, nobody went back to Quark when they released 7. Now that the remaining Quark hold outs have to pony up another 300 bucks - perhaps they'll finally bite the bullet and buy InDesign. God willing . . .

[almaink]

I just checked out Globals web page and found just what I expected. The latest version of JAWs seems to support transparency!
Quack must be either cheap to buy it, or to stupid to know it's needed, or their variety of transparency won't export to PDF.
Check out Globals Developer web page here-
http://www.globalgraphics.com/products/edoc/specs.html