Today Quark announced that QuarkXPress 8, the next major release of their page-layout and design software, is now available to purchase directly from Quark and through Quark Authorized Resellers worldwide.
QuarkXPress 8 delivers superior design power through a new, intuitive interface developed purposefully for the creation of high-end page layout and includes new features such as built-in print, Web and Flash authoring tools, advanced typography control, and global publishing capabilities. QuarkXPress 8 also offers users an enhanced design experience so they can work faster and smarter by quickly and easily accessing the tools they need. The new, intuitive interface delivers updates that allow for more design with fewer clicks. For example:
• Flash and Web Authoring Tools: Without any programming skills, designers and creative professionals can share print content on the Web and in Flash format without purchasing multiple applications or learning code.
• Picture Content Tool: Allows users to grab, rotate, and scale images in real-time without typing in numbers or switching from tool to tool.
• Item Tool and Text Content Tool: Smart behavior within these tools allows for less switching between tools, even for rotation and managing multiple items.
• New Bézier Pen Tools: Draw illustrations directly in QuarkXPress 8 with the redefined Bézier Pen tool.
• Workspace Enhancements: Include new buttons for instant access to master pages and exporting to PDF, EPS, SWF, and HTML— plus new split-view buttons, enhanced contextual menus, and customizable active pasteboards.
• Measurements Palette: Further enhanced to make even more functions easily accessible, including new clickable controls for on-the-fly drop-shadow modification.
• Drag-and-Drop: Drag text and pictures from the desktop, Adobe Bridge, Apple iPhoto, or any other application that supports drag and drop. Alternatively, drag content from QuarkXPress to Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word, and other applications for direct editing.
“We are excited to announce the broad availability of QuarkXPress 8. This new version of our flagship product raises the bar once again for page-layout and design,” said Terry Welty, Senior Vice President of corporate marketing for Quark, in the press release. “QuarkXPress 8 offers users advanced features and functionality and increased productivity while maintaining familiarity for long-time users. I encourage everyone to try QuarkXPress 8 with our 60-day Test Drive version, or visit us at one of our Xperience Design Global Tour stops.”
In addition to being available for purchase, Quark is also now offering a free, fully functional, 60-day Test Drive version to users who are interested in experiencing QuarkXPress’ new user interface, improved typographical control, built-in Flash functionality and much more. Download link for the 60-day Test Drive can be found here.
The Xperience Design Global Tour is now underway and, in total, will span 30 countries and 58 cities across the globe. The upcoming portion of the tour to hit the United States includes Dallas and Milwaukee (Pewaukee). The international tour will visit various cities in the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Chile, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. More info here.
QuarkXPress 8 is now available for purchase directly from Quark and through Quark Authorized Resellers. An upgrade to QuarkXPress 8 from any previous version is US$299 and full product can be purchased for $799. To purchase, visit the Quark Store at www.quark.com/sales/estore.html or find your nearest authorized Quark reseller at www.quark.com/sales/desktop/resellers.cfm.
I passed a Quark once during a teleport.
I’ve been a Quark user for many years. I’ll jump to InDesign when the prepress department people at the printers I frequent tell me they prefer it.
Both printers tell me Quark’s great and that they like my files… no problems with imaging.
They’re just happy I’m not supplying files from a Microsoft product!
18 years in pre-press and I can tell you that you can get horrific files from both XPress and from InDesign. It all depends on the skill or lack of skill of the designer.
Both applications have their share of issues, it is up to the user to learn how the tool works, and what its limitations are, and both have them.
I work at a small print house and have noticed the rapid decline in Quark files we get. 3 or 4 years ago we were getting Quark files on a constant basis. Today, we might get 1 or 2 Quark files a month whereas we get InDesign files daily. That’s been my experience anyway.
nicely put icenoid.
@Spark
“Complacency, greed and zero customer-relations killed Quark long before InDesign came around. It was just that we fleas had no warm body to jump to before Adobe came to the rescue. Even v1 of InDesign, with all its flaws, was a welcome alternative to a Quark-weary industry.”
That’s true — Quark was arrogant, unresponsive and difficult to deal with even in the heyday of Quark 3.x and 4.x. But they could have gained back all they had lost, and more, simply by coming out with a killer OS X version, in a timely fashion.
Instead, they brought us… Quark 5. Released on 1/23/2002, it was a couple of years late, horribly-designed, poorly executed and unstable.
In the meantime, Adobe released non-OS X InDesign 1.0 (1999) and InDesign 1.5 (200)), then introduced the OS X-native InDesign 2.0 to rave reviews on 1/28/2002.
Once people had a chance to compare the clunky and buggy interface of Quark 5 with the clean and beautifully-done InDesign 2, it was all over for Quark.
@icenoid:
Well, yeah, what you’re saying is correct, but Quark has many more issues than InDesign has. I haven’t seen Q8 yet, but compared to prior versions, InDesign is far superior for any sort of transparency/overprint issues and especially with spot colors. And that’s just the beginning, I don’t even want to get started. And the compatibility with the rest of CS3, and the familiar scripting methods. Quark may be “fine” if ID CS3 didn’t exist at all, but in comparison… no comparison.
YYMV
Yep! And there goes my 15 minutes of fame!
@Chris
To be fair, we have to see how good or bad Xpress 8 is. I concur with you as far as Xpress 7 and earlier thou.
Nope, not my experience. Lladnar and icenoid are correct. Depends an awful lot on what your customers and perhaps even more so what your printers and service bureaus want. To the designer-artist, THEY are BOTH the customers. Sure, less so for the service bureau, but even they have an influence.
In this area of New England at least, InDesign doesn’t compare in usage rates among the printers with whom we work (more than 40) or the service bureaus with which we’re familiar (more than 15). Most of them will TAKE InDesign files, but their workflows and supporting software (RIPs, prepress, etc.) are geared for Quark.
As someone else wrote, Quark 7 was a vast improvement. It’s a very stable version and plays nice in a lot of areas where “old Quark” didn’t. InDesign may be the up-and-coming raison d’etre, but things are still pretty balanced out there. And besides, be careful what you wish for with InDesign — Adobe is an even bigger behemoth than Quark, and their CS prices are not exactly “end-user friendly”.
I’ve been doing digital publishing since PageMaker (beta). Loved PageMaker until Quark 2.12 was released. Used Quark until InDesign CS2. IMO InDesign is best in class. I’ll give Quark 8 a look just to keep informed but for me, there’s no going back now. InDesign simply works the best with the rest of the Adobe Suite which is what everyone uses to create print material.
@Eric24601
I have worked at an ad agency for 12 years – we switched to InDesign long and so did all our competition.
@Mac-nugget
To be fair there is no chance our agency will move back to Quark so it does not really matter how many bugs they fixed.
@Designer in Mass
I am surprised to hear you still use service bureaus. All PDF workflows, direct to plate printing and digital photography have eliminated virtually all of the service bureaus that used to exist around our region.
I absolutely abhor Quark Inc. and nothing will EVAR get them back on my machine.
I don’t even know anyone that has used it in over 4 years!
I would quit my 20+ year career as a design Pro rather than go back to them.
Any positive comments here are PURE ASSTROTURF!
Error in download link in the text. Should be
http://8.quark.com/evaluation.html
I still use Quark and consider myself pretty good with it. But maybe I’d feel different if I ever took the timeto learn InDesign.
Which I would feel more like doing if Apple would buy Adobe
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I hate the company Quark for many reasons. Xpress is hated as well. But I wish Quark success if only to be a thorn in Adobe’s side.
If Xpress goes away Adobe will fall asleep at the wheel and we will get minimal updates for premium prices.
I am forced to use Quark 6.5.2…
Our printing house, the largest for digest books in the world – Network Communications in Atlanta, Georgia – won’t let us upgrade to any new version of Quark OR Leopard. So, I’m stuck in Tiger with a several year old Quark program that has a mind of its own.
This is until they ‘test’ it to make sure any part of these ‘new’ programs and OSes don’t crash the rip…
Whatever. I hate Quark.
@THE.MAC.GOD
Your printer shouldn’t be dictating to you what applications to use. It should be the other way around. If we have a customer who wants to use XPress, InDesign, or even that bigger POS…Corel Draw, we take the files and run with what we were given.
A printer who puts up roadblocks like that tends to go out of business not grow.
FWIW I have downloaded the demo of 8 and started to use it. While it doesn’t address all of the issues I had with 7, it is a major improvement. Drag and drop is probably my favorite bit so far and one of my co-workers who is working with it absolutely loves the bezier tools.