Does anyone use Quark anymore?

shorty83

Well-known member
Does anyone receive files in Quark anymore? I rarely ever do and when I do I convert them to .ai files because I can't stand working in the program. Just wondering if the program is pretty obsolete at this point?
 
We still use it for our some of older backlist titles, and we do work with other publishers who still use it and never switched over to ID.
 
It would seem that more and more printshops are going back to Quark, the new version has some nice features and above all you don´t need to go into Adobe´s wretched cloud thingy.
 
We still use Quark at some of our stations for certain projects. Honestly, I'm not sure why it gets such a bad rap. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, it just doesn't have as many bells and whistles as InDesign, but gets the job done on less complicated projects.
 
I still use it, especially for booklet jobs. I don't have impo software, so I have to do all the impo in the layout. It would take three times as long in InDesign.
 
The last Quark file I got was a couple of years ago . . . don't miss it a bit
 
It would seem that more and more printshops are going back to Quark, the new version has some nice features and above all you don´t need to go into Adobe´s wretched cloud thingy.

Have not seen any indication of that. As much as I do not like Adobes subscription service, I hate Quark more. I have Quark 10 and have opened it a few times just hoping that I missed something and it really is a good program. It feels like it has pretty much remained unchanged since Quark 6 or 7. Indesign is the best page layout app, nothing I have seen comes close to matching it. It just sucks that you have to rent it from Adobe and get nothing out of it if I ever plan on stopping Adobes drain on my wallet.

Have not had a new quark file come in in years, we have had a few old customer files we had to go in Quark to get, but reset everything in Indesign and was done with it.
 
We use Q2!D from Markzware to convert QuarkXPress files into InDesign. It does a decent job. I don't use it on publications though, I am terrified of re-flow.
 
Does anyone receive files in Quark anymore? I rarely ever do and when I do I convert them to .ai files because I can't stand working in the program. Just wondering if the program is pretty obsolete at this point?

Quark is the name of the company. I've never received a file from Quark. Do you mean the program XPress? LOL
 
Quark was king back in the 90's with Pagemaker a worthy competitor, but alas, nowadays there is uncertainty if or why it still exists. I think when Adobe Creative Suite came out it was the beginning of the end for QuarkXpress.
 
Never used it until I changed employers about 15 years ago, only used Quark until InDesign came out, I have never looked back, BUT, I use CS6, I will not "rent" software from Adobe. I know several who did the cloud and wish now they had stuck with CS6.
 
Never used it until I changed employers about 15 years ago, only used Quark until InDesign came out, I have never looked back, BUT, I use CS6, I will not "rent" software from Adobe. I know several who did the cloud and wish now they had stuck with CS6.

I hate renting my software from Adobe, but the product is at least good still. Indesign is much faster compared to CS6, it is a native 64 bit app and it is very noticeable especially when exporting large PDF's.
 
I also will not "rent" software from Adobe. I bought CS6 and it still does everything I need. (but then I'm still using XP on my main production machine, I'm a founder member of the 'If it ain't broke . . ' club.)

I tried the trial ID CC on a W7 laptop - not enough to tempt me, the speed factor couldn't really be compared due to the differing machine specs. Considering upgrading to W7 - yes I know it's obsolete, but XP is even more obsolete and still works fine.

Another designer I know has W10 on a very powerful desktop, but uses it in classic mode - it looks exactly like Windows 3.1.1. but absolutely flies . . .

One of our local litho houses is still using ID CS3 for pre-press with rarely any problems . . .
 
I also will not "rent" software from Adobe. I bought CS6 and it still does everything I need. (but then I'm still using XP on my main production machine, I'm a founder member of the 'If it ain't broke . . ' club.)

I tried the trial ID CC on a W7 laptop - not enough to tempt me, the speed factor couldn't really be compared due to the differing machine specs. Considering upgrading to W7 - yes I know it's obsolete, but XP is even more obsolete and still works fine.

Another designer I know has W10 on a very powerful desktop, but uses it in classic mode - it looks exactly like Windows 3.1.1. but absolutely flies . . .

One of our local litho houses is still using ID CS3 for pre-press with rarely any problems . . .

The main reason I updated to CC was because of indesign becoming a 64 bit app. I was struggling with a large variable job, we don't do a lot of them and just use the built in variable features of indesign. So I was pushing Indesign VD option beyond what it should be used for. With CS6 I could not export this massive PDF, constantly would hang and lock up Indesign. Downloaded the demo of CC and it worked perfectly. At the time it was on my rMBP that had 16 gigs of ram, but indesign I think could only use 3 gigs or something around there. Being able to utilizing my computers power makes life a lot easier. Had very few if any issues with any update of Indesign since moving to CC. If Adobe was not so greedy and would let me keep a copy of Indesign CC from the previous 12 months of rental payments I would probably stop the subscription right now, there are pretty much no improvements coming out that make my life any easier with indesign, illustrator or photoshop.
 
I gave up on Quark when version 9 came out. I still had some customers using Quark, so I kept it updated for them.

Got version 9 and tried to install it. The installer crashed. Tried it again. Crashed again. Tried several time, restarted the computer, did all the song and dance, etc. No luck. Called Quark at least 10 times and emailed at least 20 times over the course of a couple months. Never got a single reply. So I figured if they don't want to support their software, I won't use it any more.
 

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