InDesign is the application of choice now. Quark shot themselves in the foot… people have migrated in their droves & tbh, the Adobe product eclipses Xpress.
I used to teach Quark Xpress and it was truly awesome in it’s day BUT IMHO InDesign leaves Quark in the same way that a Fireblade leaves a Piaggio Scooter!
Add the way you can work with Photoshop and Illustrator and Quark looks about as capable as Pagemaker!
Quark are a pompous company who gave their market away by not listening to their users.
CS3 completely eclipses it. Xpress was always grossely over-priced and as you say pompous as a company. Not only is the integration between other creative software so complete in CS3, but pdf workflows are so much more easily handled, and with most print jobs now being delivered via high-res pdf, Xpress is as good as dead.
and how pompous do you think adobe will get when they monopolise the whole dtp/creative industry?? product updates every year that require/encourage you to upgrade all packages across the cs range – oh wait they’re already doing that, just like quark used to!
we’re still using quark as well as cs2 here. upgrade to cs3 this year. we use quark to bang out heavy text documents mainly coz we all cut our teeth on it and simply work much faster in it. indesign’s ok. it’s not the w@nk fest i was led to believe it was by all the hype etc. but there again i’ve always used illustrator for anything vaguely creative.
cs3 is undoubtably great but all i keep seeing from these cs updates is features i’ll never really use (apart from that multiple place preview thing - quality). and they wanna charge me x amount for the privilege? i’m sticking with cs2 and quark for now the cynical luddite that i am
Criticisms accepted, but as another poster put it… Xpress is now the poor man’s PageMaker… and believe me, I started out on the very first Beta Quark version and was an ardent fan.
However, once you get into the functionality of CS3 you seriously will not want to look back.
Buy your software in the US, I did, and saved thousands, even with import duty. I’d never be tempted to pay Quark’s rediculously inflated prices. Face it, they’re dead in the water… Even for very heavy, text biased monoliths, InDesign still whops Xpress.
For those in the field its tough, I know, keeping up with all the software & OS changes, let alone grasping new ones [Flash/Dream Weaver/ After Effects]… but its a fact of Life, and if you want to survive you have to keep on top, and up-to-date. Its a professional necessity I’m affraid… and besides, anything that makes my life easier in this "Can I have it yesterday’ commercial environment, is a good thing.
Also, and allow me to qualify, I’m a long time professional freelancer in the field, having worked with some major players … & significant printers, and * everyone * is dropping Xpress in their droves. It’s not so much that it’s a bad application… it’s just that, I sense, folk have resented their ‘**** you’ attitude and are now just replying with their consumer power… afteral, Adobe is a Giant, and a very respected one.
