The reality of the matter: Quark, InDesign, OS 9 booting
From the perspective of someone who has experience in the printing industry, Quark will not be an easy beast to kill off.
Yes, I have used InDesign (1 and 2). Yes I have used Quark (only v. 4). Yes InDesign is much more intuitive, has a more complete feature set, appeals more to creative designers(in this I am reffering to cutting edge creative design rather a more functional L&D), and yes it has the advantage of running natively on OS X. And yes I believe InDesign is a better program.
BUT, I think you need to remember a few things...
1. The printing and design industry(as is typical of most businesses) is typically slower to adopt new computer technology that isnt either absolutely essential to their particular needs or that wont make them more money. Where I work we only have 2 relatively modern G4s. The rest are G3s, because they still work fine for what we need them to do. And we are still using PageMaker because all of or older work(which we continually update and reprint) is in the PM format. Yes, it can be updated to InDesign form, but that takes valuable time that we often dont have. Jobs fly by at an astounding rate and time is absolutely essential. And besides, budgets are tight all around. Cutting cost is essential to remain the black(this year was the first for us in several years).
2. Compatibility is essential. We still recieve many Quark documents from customers(despite the fact that we all hate to use the program). Print shops cant afford to loose the money that would be lost if they refused to print customers' Quark documents. And I assure you adamently that customers will NOT change their appication to accomadate a print shop, they will simply go somewhere else. Even if InDesign is better, they will stick with what they have because thats what they have always used and dont want to learn a new program(working in IT, I learned quickly that most people just want their computers to work with minimal knowledge). The reality of the matter is that most clients dont want to learn somthing new, or want to spend the money. The majority of them certainly wont take advantage of InDesigns new powerful features. Besides, Quark works just fine for their needs(even older versions), so why switch?
So the fact of the matter is, our hands(and most of the printing industry's hands) are tied. Quark is essential to productivity whether we like it or not. However, I believe this news from Apple about OS 9 booting till June isnt as essential as most are making it seem. If Quark releases an OS X native version of Express by summer then everything will be fine and dandy. Even if Apple didnt allow OS 9 booting, it isnt exactly like the whole industy will update their computers in the 6 month gap(unless Apple does somthing outstanding and releases a computer that is (realistically) able to blow away a Wintel box(speed wise)).
But at any rate, I would be happy if every document I encountered from now on was InDesign in origin. HOWEVER, I still dont want the lackluster Quark to die. If anything, they will continue to keep Adobe innovative and competetive(monopolies rarely feel obligated to improve their products).
Anywho, thats my 2¢. What do you guys think?
Yes, I have used InDesign (1 and 2). Yes I have used Quark (only v. 4). Yes InDesign is much more intuitive, has a more complete feature set, appeals more to creative designers(in this I am reffering to cutting edge creative design rather a more functional L&D), and yes it has the advantage of running natively on OS X. And yes I believe InDesign is a better program.
BUT, I think you need to remember a few things...
1. The printing and design industry(as is typical of most businesses) is typically slower to adopt new computer technology that isnt either absolutely essential to their particular needs or that wont make them more money. Where I work we only have 2 relatively modern G4s. The rest are G3s, because they still work fine for what we need them to do. And we are still using PageMaker because all of or older work(which we continually update and reprint) is in the PM format. Yes, it can be updated to InDesign form, but that takes valuable time that we often dont have. Jobs fly by at an astounding rate and time is absolutely essential. And besides, budgets are tight all around. Cutting cost is essential to remain the black(this year was the first for us in several years).
2. Compatibility is essential. We still recieve many Quark documents from customers(despite the fact that we all hate to use the program). Print shops cant afford to loose the money that would be lost if they refused to print customers' Quark documents. And I assure you adamently that customers will NOT change their appication to accomadate a print shop, they will simply go somewhere else. Even if InDesign is better, they will stick with what they have because thats what they have always used and dont want to learn a new program(working in IT, I learned quickly that most people just want their computers to work with minimal knowledge). The reality of the matter is that most clients dont want to learn somthing new, or want to spend the money. The majority of them certainly wont take advantage of InDesigns new powerful features. Besides, Quark works just fine for their needs(even older versions), so why switch?
So the fact of the matter is, our hands(and most of the printing industry's hands) are tied. Quark is essential to productivity whether we like it or not. However, I believe this news from Apple about OS 9 booting till June isnt as essential as most are making it seem. If Quark releases an OS X native version of Express by summer then everything will be fine and dandy. Even if Apple didnt allow OS 9 booting, it isnt exactly like the whole industy will update their computers in the 6 month gap(unless Apple does somthing outstanding and releases a computer that is (realistically) able to blow away a Wintel box(speed wise)).
But at any rate, I would be happy if every document I encountered from now on was InDesign in origin. HOWEVER, I still dont want the lackluster Quark to die. If anything, they will continue to keep Adobe innovative and competetive(monopolies rarely feel obligated to improve their products).
Anywho, thats my 2¢. What do you guys think?