Quark to target InDesign with QuarkXPress 6.5, 7.0

[AppleInsider]

With Adobe hot on its heels, Quark is pouring additional resources into the development of QuarkXPress and will soon begin firing off updates to the world's leading page layout software at a more rapid pace, AppleInsider has learned.

The Adobe Effect

The company is currently preparing for the release of QuarkXPress 6.5 and is expected to follow up with a completely overhauled QuarkXPress 7.0 in early 2005. Additionally, sources report that the company is actively shopping around for an advertising agency for the first time in its corporate history.

So what has inspired Denver-based Quark to accelerate its efforts and increase engineering by over 33 percent in the last year? One of the major motives, insiders say, has been rival Adobe's startling competitiveness in the desktop publishing field, led by the success of its InDesign product.

Unwilling to accept the competition blindly, Quark will ease into its battle plan with a revision to QuarkXPress 6.0 that will ship this summer. Although it had originally intended to release the update as version 6.2, sources say that an extensive list of new enhancements may prompt the company to market the software as QuarkXPress 6.5.

QuarkXPress 6.2 (6.5)

The new version will introduce Quark's integrated online Font Store, which will enable users to quickly purchase fonts that are missing from documents obtained from third parties or via the internet. As part of the store launch, the company will be giving away $1000 worth of fonts to lucky license holders.

QuarkXPress 6.5 will also include Citrix Server support and an integrated QuarkVista image editor that provides non-destructive image filters, allowing the user to change filter parameters at any time without losing image data or quality. Tables will gain rotate, auto-page grow, header and footer enhancements, while the application's XML implementation will acquire roundtrip support and shed the need to retag on export.

Other features of the new version include "XT aware" styles that allow the user to set bleed and OPI settings on print styles. Meanwhile, the update will also include support for guides on pasteboards and master pages and reveal path information in the "Edit Original" function on Windows PCs.

Sources also said that the update would integrate with a new "iMuse" online image store and Creo's "Tokens" peer-to-peer file sharing software, but offered few details. Earlier in the week Creo's announced that Quark had joined its Networked Graphic Production initiative that is devoted to increasing efficiency in the print production cycle through automation, integration, and cross-vendor interoperability by utilizing the CIP4 JDF standard.

The most welcome feature might be the addition of dual-machine licensing, allowing the user to install the software both at the office and at home.

Quark is expected to release the update both online and in retail box form.

QuarkXPress 7.0

In early 2005, Quark will follow up with an official release of QuarkXPress 7.0. Although sources have been mum on the complete feature set, the software will reportedly include a very "InDesign-like interface" and a completely rewritten PDF engine.

About Quark

Since January, when Quark named Kamar Aulakh its new CEO, the company has revitalized its QuarkAlliance sales consultancy program; focused on standards and on participating in industry groups; offered a heavily discounted education pricing model; and allied with Hewlett Packard to bring variable printing workflows into the mainstream.

Quark released the current version of QuarkXPress (6.1) for Mac OS X in February as a free upgrade to registered owners of QuarkXPress 6.0.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[rok]

wow. whaddya know? as soon as quark deep-sixed that raving lunatic gill as ceo (the mac is DEAD i tell ya! what? they're 90% of our market?!? well,t he mac is alive and thriving and we love them! *psst! what's steve's cell number???"), suddenly it seems like quark is making some CORRECT decisions. but it would appear to be too little, too late. and they have some serious bad blood to reconcile over all the buggy updates and byzantine feature-bloat (has anyone used quark to make a web site yet? i mean, REALLY?)...

[Zapchud]

Looks like competition is finally benefitting DTP users. And I who's still stuck on QXP 4.1.

[othello]

quark are devil-spawn

[klownhaus]

Thank the lord. But I agree, it may be a a little too late. My company already has plans to "upgrade" from Quark to InDesign. I dont know exactly how I feel since I have been using Quark for so dag gum long, and the last time (it was a long time ago, I am sure things have changed) that I used InDesign it game me a headache on how crummy I though it was. I now have been demo'ing InDesign for a while and I must say it is a damn good program. I will be curious just how fast Quark will be able to get these updates out, and if they will make them a competitor again. I just dont know if I am ready to give up my Quark for my personal use.

[fahlman]

Will QuackXPress (oops, I've shown my preference) ever be able to import native Illustrator and Photoshop files in to picture boxes? Untill then, too bad for them.

[musicdirector]

Quark has a difficult task ahead. I abandonded my 30+ Site License back in version 4.x. We moved to InDesign 2, and now are using CS. My artists are all happy and my tech support hours are down considerably.
To get me to look at the new Quark, they would have to give me a free upgrade for my 30+ users to 6.5 and have a product that is integrated with the Adobe Apps, imports Indesign CS AND Quark 4 without any major hitches, and has something that makes it essential to print (not web) design.
Sorry Charlie, I don't think they can do that.

[curiousuburb]

Maybe by Quark 9 they'll finally have things like multiple undo.

[snooty1972]

Originally posted by curiousuburb
Maybe by Quark 9 they'll finally have things like multiple undo.

QuarkXPress already has multiple undos! If you guys are going to whinge, at least get your facts right.

[Leonis]

I thought Quack the company was dead a few months ago

No matter how fancy the new version of XPress will be if there's no direct import of Illustrator and Photoshop files there will still be a huge workflow / productivity block

[curiousuburb]

Originally posted by snooty1972
QuarkXPress already has multiple undos! If you guys are going to whinge, at least get your facts right.

For instance, after all these years, QuarkXPress 6 now gives us multiple undos. But there are still many features that are not undoable, like moving a guide, drawing a starburst, or making a change to a master page.
Actually, it's worse: Most undoable actions in XPress also stop you from undoing any previous actions.
So much for multiple undo.
Conversely, not only is everything undoable in InDesign, but even if you crash (let's face it, all software crashes sooner or later), InDesign protects your document -- even unsaved documents -- and you lose hardly any work.

from this shootout between Quark 6 and InDesign CS

[fahlman]

Originally posted by curiousuburb
from this shootout between Quark 6 and InDesign CS

Time to update my bookmarks. I had bookmarked his previous shootout between QuarkXPress 6 and InDesign 2. Thanks for the link.

[dfiler]

Quark is going to improve their product?

Time to check the weather report in hell...

[snooty1972]

Originally posted by curiousuburb
from this shootout between Quark 6 and InDesign CS

David Blatner (author of the shootout) is undoubtadly one of the world's experts on DTP packages. However, as he has also been on Adobe's payroll for some time now, it's difficult to read his articles as unbiased journalism. I have seen a 130 page independent shootout and the result was pretty much honours even.

I'm interested to see how Quark is going to react to Adobe InDesign starting to make some inroads (about time after 5 years). I have a sneaking suspician that QuarkXPress is going to improve significantly over the next 12 to 18 months and then things get really interesting. Hopefully the winners in this will be the customers though.

[JimDreamworx]

Maybe they will include the ability to Save As... to version 4 files, instead of saying (with a straight face) that I can buy a Markzware XTension to do this.

Hell, even MS Office products save down!

[amarone]

Originally posted by JimDreamworx
Maybe they will include the ability to Save As... to version 4 files, instead of saying (with a straight face) that I can buy a Markzware XTension to do this.

Hell, even MS Office products save down!

Still better than InDesign CS which doesn't let you save as ID2!

I love IDCS but Quark is still faster, a lot. And Quark 6 isn't bad as all you guys tell. It creates even better PDFs as ID. I use both and both have its good and bad sides.

[cpenzone]

Quark is just awful. It can't make PDFs and it doesn't even compete with Indesign. I never create anything new in Quark. I only work in it when forced to deal with legacy files...

[rok]

Originally posted by amarone
Still better than InDesign CS which doesn't let you save as ID2!

I love IDCS but Quark is still faster, a lot. And Quark 6 isn't bad as all you guys tell. It creates even better PDFs as ID. I use both and both have its good and bad sides.

not that you asked, but my biggest personal beef with quark in general has to be that, for the money per seat they have always charged (and even worse for passport, if you developed anything in multi-languages), their support was always terrible, for the longest time, costly, there was always one huge bug per release that my studio had to learn to live with, the installers would swap out perfectly good extensions with legacy ones that would wreak havoc unless you knew to look for it, etc., etc., etc. basically, i could install a machine from the ground up with dozens of apps in an afternoon and have everything running fine, and then everything would get blown to the four winds as soon as i installed QuarkXPress.

i mean, i am flabbergasted that they have actually come out with such a lower-priced educational license fee.

[snooty1972]

Originally posted by rok
not that you asked, but my biggest personal beef with quark in general has to be that, for the money per seat they have always charged (and even worse for passport, if you developed anything in multi-languages), their support was always terrible, for the longest time, costly, there was always one huge bug per release that my studio had to learn to live with, the installers would swap out perfectly good extensions with legacy ones that would wreak havoc unless you knew to look for it, etc., etc., etc. basically, i could install a machine from the ground up with dozens of apps in an afternoon and have everything running fine, and then everything would get blown to the four winds as soon as i installed QuarkXPress.

i mean, i am flabbergasted that they have actually come out with such a lower-priced educational license fee.

In Quark's defence, the company does always work to resolve bugs. Remember QuarkXPress 4.01, 4.02. 4.03, 4.04, 4.1, 4.11. Not many companies take the time or the huge development cost to ensure they get software to this level of quality in fact most software companies don't need to because their software is not so mission critical. MS Office has bugs al over the place and always has had but we live with them because it isn't mission critical. With DTP software its different because it's the funnel that everything goes through including poorly produced image files from other applications.

I welcome the fact that Quark is producing a 6.5 version because it says they are serious about making sure their software works. Hell Adobe even tried to charge its customers to upgrade from InDesign 1.0 to 1.5 when 1.0 was unusable!

Let's hope that the dirt cheap educational pricing, 6.5 and dual activation are all just the start of the kind of changes we all want to see from Quark.