QuarkXPress 2017 expands layout tech, brings non-destructive image editing
Quark on Wednesday launched QuarkXPress 2017, the latest edition of its design and publishing suite for the Mac, with a heavy focus on publishing for multiple platforms including iOS.
"Adaptive" layout conversion in the new software lets users duplicate a layout and automatically resize its elements, even when changing aspect ratios. Along the same lines, people can export multiple layouts as a single HTML5 package, for instance incorporating iPhone and iPad versions.
The new layout functions also let users churn out as many individual iOS apps as they want without any extra fees, though developers must have their own webservers and domains.
Some other upgrades include non-destructive, Photoshop-style image editing -- with adjustments like levels, curves, and gamma correction -- and improved conversion of third-party files into native QuarkXPress objects. Specifically, converted files can be saved to disk and linked to a QuarkXPress layout while preserving details like resolution and color profile.
QuarkXPress 2017 is normally $849 new, but many discounts are available. Owners of previous versions from 3 through 2015 can upgrade for $399 for instance, while 2016 owners can pay just $185. Educational prices can be as low as $79.
Users of "alternative graphic design software" from companies like Adobe, Corel, and Microsoft can switch for $399.
"Adaptive" layout conversion in the new software lets users duplicate a layout and automatically resize its elements, even when changing aspect ratios. Along the same lines, people can export multiple layouts as a single HTML5 package, for instance incorporating iPhone and iPad versions.
The new layout functions also let users churn out as many individual iOS apps as they want without any extra fees, though developers must have their own webservers and domains.
Some other upgrades include non-destructive, Photoshop-style image editing -- with adjustments like levels, curves, and gamma correction -- and improved conversion of third-party files into native QuarkXPress objects. Specifically, converted files can be saved to disk and linked to a QuarkXPress layout while preserving details like resolution and color profile.
QuarkXPress 2017 is normally $849 new, but many discounts are available. Owners of previous versions from 3 through 2015 can upgrade for $399 for instance, while 2016 owners can pay just $185. Educational prices can be as low as $79.
Users of "alternative graphic design software" from companies like Adobe, Corel, and Microsoft can switch for $399.
Comments
The only reason to go back to Quark is if the Space Alien is still there when you hit CMND-OPT-SHFT-K.
Then a few years later Adobe came out with InDesign, many of us who felt betrayed by Quark's statements and total arrogance quickly gave InDesign a chance. It was surprisingly better especially in the image layering and color management areas. InDesign aped Quark's UI to ease the transition.
Prior to the release of InDesign, Adobe did widespread demos to gather user input to helped them make decisions. Adobe had miserably failed with Pagemaker, a program they acquired from Aldus. I remember during one of those sessions Adobe had planned to make InDesign support multiple page sizes in a document, but many objected and the feature was removed. It was brought back about 10 years later.
I personally prefer Quark's layout tools. I also dislike Adobe's products, but most of my recent interaction has been with Lightroom, which I can't stand.
But what ultimately killed Quark was they found a way to stop pirating. A generation of kids, broke-ass artists and starving free-lancers stopped using it and switched to easily pirate-able CS2. When those kids grew up and freelancers finally made some coin or got jobs - they weren't going to invest in QXP 5 at the time (worst piece of crap ever written.)
Quark always did a few things a lot better than inDesign and is a lot more intuitive (linking text boxes across multiple pages, image resizing inside box)... but QXP 5... wow. It wouldn't even run on a fully loaded G5 (top of the line at the time).
inDesign is a giant turd. I got so frustrated with it, I started using Illustrator and haven't looked back (image resizing inside box hello???). I haven't worked on very large publications since, so i've been ok with it. If I was still putting 50 page rags together, I guess I'd have to bite the bullet somewhere.
InDesign is buggy and crashes a lot? I've been using it since version 3 and it never ever has crashed on my system.
I really used to love Quark in some ways it's still beter then InDesign. I don't like subscription based sofware. Today i was visiting the Adobe website what a mess for a company that delivers software for designers. Adobe have srewed up many things Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are still relevant but i don't like their other stuff.
This just started happening with the latest version of CC. Before it was rock solid.
The buggy part is that I lose the cursor and it defaults to the text cursor or the direct selection tool no matter which tool I'm using. Another annoyance is the eyedropper style function stops working correctly and instead of copying and applying the style of the text it outlines it with a the foreground color. I have to completely quit inDesign to get it back. Another text issue is when working on really large documents, small text blocks will sometimes show a solid black background, but only visually, not really. You have to zoom way in and select the text to get the background to go away. I have dozens of other complaints but I've said enough for now.
Just for the record, I use the Trash Mac Pro for Photoshop and Illustrator, so Im not all old school all the time
I am still running 5.5 and only 4 GB. Don't need the new stuff they add.