Quark announces alliance with Global Graphics
Quark announces alliance with Global Graphics
In a move that will keep QuarkXPress users scratching their heads--but that will also give yet another boost to the already skyrocketing credibility of PDF vendor Global Graphics--Quark Inc. announced that it will spurn a partnership with Adobe in favor of using the Jaws libraries to render PDFs in QuarkXPress 6.
"Dependable output is one of the hallmarks of QuarkXPress. The PDF format is an important file format for the publishing industry, so with the interests of millions of customers at stake, we need to have the utmost confidence in our technology partners," says Juergen Kurz, Quark's vice president of product management. "We are extremely satisfied with our choice of partners. The Global Graphics Jaws technologies are proven and reliable, and our experience developing with them has been extremely positive. More importantly, they provide the robustness and flexibility we need to build a long-term PDF strategy."
The move will likely help bitter Quark rival Adobe in two ways: First, right or wrong, many XPress users will still feel it necessary to purchase copies of Acrobat and make PDFs with Distiller, and second, odds are the move will erode Quark's market share in the page-layout/content creation space, as the change will be the last straw for many Quark users who have been riding the fence about throwing their copies of XPress into the trash can and switching to InDesign.
For Global Graphics--whose prepress prowess is well-recognized because of its mature, respected Harlequin RIP software--the deal is a coup. Whether or not the move to incorporate the Jaws libraries will prove to be a good move for Quark in the long run, there's no question that Quark's reputation for rigor in testing and careful integration of new features means a trial by fire for its software-development partners.
Global Graphics can count this partnership as another huge victory--no matte what happens with Quark in its quest to own the page-design marketplace.
"We are seeing increasing demand for our Jaws PDF technology from around the world," says Jim Friedah, Global Graphics CEO, "and this joint development is the result of us focusing our strategy on working alongside software developers and vendors, as well as OEMs, to provide technology components and toolkits so that they can integrate competitive features into their own software applications."
Quark hasn't yet announced a price or ship date for QuarkXPress 6.
What was the reaction at Adobe when the announcement was made right before the uncorking of the Acrobat 6 product announcements? That people who need to make PDFs for the content workflow will still need Distiller for some time to come.
"From my Acrobat perspective, I looked at it and I think, 'OK, the challenge on us is to make sure people understand the value of our product'--hopefully, the tools we added to Acrobat Professional should do that," says Gray Knowlton, one of the Acrobat product managers. "Even if you took away the quality of a Distiller PDF--which is, I believe, unmatched in the industry--there's enough in Acrobat 6 Professional that it still extends the value of PDF to Quark users and users of all creative product."
In a move that will keep QuarkXPress users scratching their heads--but that will also give yet another boost to the already skyrocketing credibility of PDF vendor Global Graphics--Quark Inc. announced that it will spurn a partnership with Adobe in favor of using the Jaws libraries to render PDFs in QuarkXPress 6.
"Dependable output is one of the hallmarks of QuarkXPress. The PDF format is an important file format for the publishing industry, so with the interests of millions of customers at stake, we need to have the utmost confidence in our technology partners," says Juergen Kurz, Quark's vice president of product management. "We are extremely satisfied with our choice of partners. The Global Graphics Jaws technologies are proven and reliable, and our experience developing with them has been extremely positive. More importantly, they provide the robustness and flexibility we need to build a long-term PDF strategy."
The move will likely help bitter Quark rival Adobe in two ways: First, right or wrong, many XPress users will still feel it necessary to purchase copies of Acrobat and make PDFs with Distiller, and second, odds are the move will erode Quark's market share in the page-layout/content creation space, as the change will be the last straw for many Quark users who have been riding the fence about throwing their copies of XPress into the trash can and switching to InDesign.
For Global Graphics--whose prepress prowess is well-recognized because of its mature, respected Harlequin RIP software--the deal is a coup. Whether or not the move to incorporate the Jaws libraries will prove to be a good move for Quark in the long run, there's no question that Quark's reputation for rigor in testing and careful integration of new features means a trial by fire for its software-development partners.
Global Graphics can count this partnership as another huge victory--no matte what happens with Quark in its quest to own the page-design marketplace.
"We are seeing increasing demand for our Jaws PDF technology from around the world," says Jim Friedah, Global Graphics CEO, "and this joint development is the result of us focusing our strategy on working alongside software developers and vendors, as well as OEMs, to provide technology components and toolkits so that they can integrate competitive features into their own software applications."
Quark hasn't yet announced a price or ship date for QuarkXPress 6.
What was the reaction at Adobe when the announcement was made right before the uncorking of the Acrobat 6 product announcements? That people who need to make PDFs for the content workflow will still need Distiller for some time to come.
"From my Acrobat perspective, I looked at it and I think, 'OK, the challenge on us is to make sure people understand the value of our product'--hopefully, the tools we added to Acrobat Professional should do that," says Gray Knowlton, one of the Acrobat product managers. "Even if you took away the quality of a Distiller PDF--which is, I believe, unmatched in the industry--there's enough in Acrobat 6 Professional that it still extends the value of PDF to Quark users and users of all creative product."