“Users of the InDesign layout software who are disgruntled by Adobe’s move to sell its software solely through subscriptions might be interested in a promotion from rival Quark that just arrived,” Stephen Shankland reports for CNET.
“The Denver-based company announced Wednesday that those who buy or upgrade to its QuarkXPress 9 software will get a free upgrade to QuarkXPress 10,” Shankland reports. “‘Until June 30, 2013 anyone who purchases or upgrades to QuarkXPress 9 from any previous version will receive version 10 for free. After June 30, 2013 only QuarkXPress 8 users will be eligible to upgrade to QuarkXPress 9 for a free upgrade to QuarkXPress 10,’ the company said.”
Shankland reports, “Unlike Adobe, the company will continue selling the software with perpetual licenses, meaning that people can continue to use a purchased version indefinitely. In retail channels, QuarkXPress costs about $890 [$844.99 @ MacMall] for a full version and $370 [$347.99 @ MacMall] for an upgrade.”
Read more in the full article here.
Too bad the one company most design pro’s hate more than Adobe is Quark.
NOT exactly.
Okay Corel, then Quark : )
Bet u don’t know why u “hate” Quark. Prefer Quark 2 Adobe thieves and their anti-Apple attitude.
Too bad the one company most design pro’s hate more than Adobe is Quark.
I’m not convinced you’re the truth. “Too bad” for whom? Your customers?
I used both apps for a living and both work equally well, especially if you were serious enough to pay for the Quark/Adobe education and tech support to make it all work synergistically with your customers and vendors alike, and what I find interesting is, no other pagination products comes to “truth’s” mind.
In other words, on Planet Truth there is only one choice, Either Or.
Adobe/Quark Pepsi/Coke Truth/Lie Apple/Microsoft ad nauseam…
Big fish eat little fish and the Truth is smeared all over the front page. So, all that matters are patents on process and Quark & Adobe are gearing up for the battle for the Kingdom of the Desktop; paginating breaking news [you read it here first] in real-time, on the front-end. I’ve done it, and so has everyone who has ever used Macintosh to produce the daily newspaper.
The consumer is becoming very sophisticated at gleaning copious amounts of data, much of it being sequestered and repurposed, if not archived, just because they can, and they’re going to need help, lest these people start behaving like Aaron Swartz.
Enter Adobe or Quark or AdSpeed, the usual suspects, who will read this idea/meme and begin a course correction to empower its members to harness any and all servers online, to compile, coordinate, and compose every bit of information that crosses their eyes.
Pagination isn’t just for the desktop publishing arena anymore. It’s just code, nay its their code, their way and I say it doesn’t always have to be either or, it can be used for something entirely different.
I’ve used these systems for the express purpose of obtaining what I need in a timely manner; now people pay me for the process of “instant-on information” at their finger tips because they have to know the Truth.
This person posing as the Truth is struggling with misinformation.
Nice diatribe. Since you seem hung-up on my screen name, let’s discuss yours: Getting a little long in the tooth aren’t you G4? I mean really PPC in this day and age? How is 10.5 working for ya? Seems antiquated..
Seriously though, I wasn’t talking out my ass. I have supported clients in DOZENS of design shops. Had formal and informal conversations with HUNDREDS of designers, and none of them love Quark. Most lamented the fact that they had to struggle along with it just because some client of theirs, or printer they used demanded Quark.
They hated the way Quark treated the OS X migration. They hated the pricing, the silly dongles, the condescending tech support. And most of those same shops started migrating away fro it, leaving an old workstation or two for accessing old projects. 99% of those who dumped it, replaced it with Adobe.
Both companies have a habit of dragging feet on their product update cycles, Both have abandoned perfectly good products and forced upgrades. both charge insane amounts of money for software, both have draconian DRM. Both have outsourced, painful support.
Adobe is still needed, Quark has no compelling story in 2013. Most of those same clients would love someone to come along and disrupt Adobe, they would love nothing more than to cut the cord to Adobe.
For someone who talks a lot, you say little.
QuirkDpressd: the WORST design app in the history of the world.
I started in the industry with Aldus Pages Maker.
Then years later, Quark became the software all the film houses used. Most software is regional, in British Columbia Freehand ruled over Illustrator, yet the reverse was true in Ontario. InDesign came BUNDLED with Illustrator and Photoshop and Acrobat; the pricing of CS made inDesign almost a free – it became the application of choice only by marketing – later over the years Indesign really improved and took a stronger presence.
Adobe has decided to offer subscriptions to what rent its software… a bad move in my option. However, I never hated Quark. And this offer is extremely bold and honestly the application is very strong.
Never made the move to ID, largely because the existing publishing client base wanted their legacy QX files to continue in use.
Nowadays, QX has vastly improved as a company, and – surprise – I’ll stick with it after Adobe’s recent decisions.
Have to add that QX’s footprint is nice and small, which makes it ideal for laptops etc.
I don’t see how this upstart Quark thinks it’s going to steal any market share from Adobe, even with all this subscription madness.
Now an established competitor like Pixelmator may have a good opportunity. But Quark? You’re going to have to prove yourself first.
A rather poor attempt at sarcasm, dis. (You ARE trying to be sarcastic, right? If not . . . Wow.)
Sorry, it’s just that in the professional design world, Quark is a name I literally haven’t heard in a decade.
(And this is coming from a guy who build his career in v3.32).
Naive! Quark has been around for at least 15 years and possibly longer. Have used Quark in the 90s and it was excellent. Where have you been?
No, the question is “WHERE HAS QUARK BEEN!”
I have been in prepress for 20 years and Quark 3.31 was the last good version. 98% of our jobs come as InDesign or PDFs from Word, Publisher etc. Quark shot themselves in the foot by not making an OS X version quick enough and by their pain in the butt activation system. Just say no to Quark and Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
And the $1000+ price tag.
Quark’s price was a hard pill to swallow, but worth it for an agency or design firm. But for a young designer starting out? It was just too much.
You had to buy Photoshop & Illustrator anyway, so it was $1200 to Adobe for the full suite, or $1000 to Adobe for image & illustration, PLUS $1000 to Quark for layout.
The switch to OS X was a nice trigger, but it was almost inevitable.
We submit all our artwork in Word. We make our logos in WordArt. The clipart collection in Word is awesome, never had a job we couldn’t satisfy using that.
Anyone can create awesome artwork these days, we don’t need professionals anymore.
Funniest thing I’ve read in ages!!
You’re designs must be the best, I’ll send all my clients to you then.
Good luck to all of them who try Quark XPress again. Cluttered interface, ages behind InDesign, half of the feature set, thousands of flaws. A mess from A to Z if you are a pro user.
YES I was a user since version 3.1 and moved to InDesign CS with great happiness. And YES I always tried the XPress versions every time just to see where they are. Last version I tried was XPress 9.5.1, what a byte trash.
Do I sound too retro if I say I wish there was an OSX version of Pagemaker? Or Ready-Set-Go? InDesign is just huge overkill for me…
I once thought Pages would take low end layout by storm once it matured. But years without an update has dashed those hopes.
Lately I’ve been looking at iStudio Publisher. $18 in the app store. I just haven’t taken the time to try it out.
yea, no offense but the last quark i used was 5. piece of sh**
Quark has been treating their customers like shit for years. Today Apple is doing the same thing to their customers.
Zzzzz ….
Don’t force me to live through this war again. Been there done that.
QuarkXPress is good. It was the standard many years ago.