QuarkXpress 6.0 (Mac)

The only reason I ever use this product is out of necessity -update an old file made in Quark, etc. I really get the feeling that they want to coast on their earlier successes and collect as much as they can before the inevitable obsolescence brought on by Adobe, which despite their own faults, at least make obvious efforts at improving their product. There are so many reasons InDesign is better than Quark, but to summarize, it just seems much more apparent that InDesign was made by designers who would actually want to use the product. In Quark, simple processes like trying to select one graphic element among many others is a huge pain. Select everything and tediously shift select everything you do not want. InDesign will select the object you are trying for even if it is a few layers below. This is one small example of many intuitive features that InDesign has that Quark does not seem to care about.
Quark cannot even make it easy to export to PDF. I was on the phone for nearly an hour waiting for a real person and then having someone rudely walk me through the process of reconfiguring my printer list, etc. JUST TO PERFORM AN OPERATION THAT SHOULD BE ONE CLICK OF A MENU ITEM.
Quark is going to snooze itself into extinction. Go with InDesign.

Quark Xpress has always been a so-so software for design in general. If you are into editorial and publishing design, well you have no choice but to buy and get used to the software, because unfortunetly, it is the standard. But if you are into other fields of design, say packaging, Quark is a mega pain in the a**. Macromedia Freehand is still the best overall design tool for the way it treats object manipulation and drawing features. For instance, object allignment, text can be converted to paths, images can be replaced from one image format to another, these features cannot be done in Quark. Worst of all, you can not save documents in prior Quark versions (only 5), like all major graphic applications do with their files! Adobe Illustrator is still the best for, well, illustration. Photoshop is the king for photoediting. I don't think editing Photoshop files in Quark is a very good idea, in the end, you'll always go back to Photoshop to do it right. So the features that Quark states as a plus to justify their pricing are really not very practical, like somebody said, who would want to make a website on QuarkXpress??? But the worst is the ridiculous pricing of Quark products. Say you live in Latin America and you have to buy the passport version, Why pay more than $1000 USD if you only need it in spanish?. Should'nt some international versions be cheaper since they are going to be used in countries that have a weaker economy then the US, This leads directly to one thing, software piracy. If own Photoshop, you cant get a competitive upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite for $500 with InDesign included! So I hope one day Quark reconsiders and makes its products more accesible.
-Addendum April 2006:
Version 7 is arround the corner, with a public beta release that shows some improvements, in the wake of InDesign's growing share of followers, we'll see if Quark delivers this time.

Quark USED TO BE the industry standard for layout. They had it cornered. But in the last few years, they've managed to jack it all up. Version 5 barely improved on 4 at all, and then there was a long, long wait for the hallowed version 6, and in the meantime Adobe was sneaking up behind them with InDesign. And a lot of us started using InDesign, and maybe we got a little spoiled. When Quark 6 FINALLY came out, it was already too late for me. I'm a total InDesign convert. We have Quark at work, and I still use it regularly as projects require. But for anything I do on my own, if have a choice, it's an incredibly easy one.

I can run through the usual Xmas list of problems associated with Quark 6 - the problems exporting to PDF, the OpenType font issues, the need for additional Xtensions to do things that InDesign does all by its lonesome, the OSX glitches, the problems collecting all your links, the lack of a functional hi-res preview, the inexplicable crashes...and I really have to say something about that idiot who said Mac is obsolete and Quark can't be bothered to cater to Mac users, and that Quark's font issues are actually Mac's fault! What a total crackhead! Mac IS the design industry! Not only that, he criticizes people for criticizing the fact that you can't use transparency, Photoshop layered files, etc in Quark, on the basis that it often doesn't print properly in Indesign and that you can use layered TIFFs instead of Photoshop in Quark. To that I say that if you have a service provider who actually knows what he's doing, InDesign transparency issues can usually be resolved, and why shouldn't you use a program that supports Photoshop AND layered TIFFs? But anybody in the design industry who refers to "the obsolete Mac system" clearly has his head so far up his own rectal that he's quite beyond hope of redemption.

There's also the fact that Quark's decided to be total Nazis about their licensing - with 6 you originally just got the single licence for one machine. How many people DON'T work on the road on a notebook these days? More evidence that they just aren't keeping up with designers' needs. Eventually they realized they were being stupid and relaxed this a bit - you can now have it on 2 machines - but of course you have to call and wait on hold for 30 minutes before somebody in India reads you a license number longer than the Magna Carta. They just can't afford to be like this anymore! But it's nice for Adobe that they've thought of so many ways to alienate their base.

QUARK is obsolete. If they hadn't waited so long to step up to OSX, people might not have caught on to the fact that InDesign was so much better - but we have now. So Quark and Mr. Brown are going the way of the beta VCR. Don't let the door hit ya!

This program is a complete joke. Quark has basically re-issued Quark 4 (and 5 for that matter) with almost NOTHING new worth mention.
* The very first thing you'll notice is this ridiculous validation scheme. Think you're going to buy software and install it and go to work? Wrong!! You have to be validated first which, if something goes wrong, can take DAYS!
* The multiple undo's would have been a great feature for 1998, even now not everything is undo-able.
* Quark has this wonderful new system of "Projects" and documents. If you ever pick-up an old document to make some changes and then re-save as a new one, the old file name remains with the file because Quark assumes you're just adding a new document to the project...A MAJOR ANNOYANCE! If you do use the project thing as intended (multiple documents and sizes wrapped up into a single file) you still have to collect each individual document seperately! HELLO?! HOW BOUT "COLLECT ALL"??
* The "Export to PDF" feature so rarely works, I don't even bother with it. I still have to "print" to a PDF.
* The "full resolution preview" isn't and frequently causes crashes when trying to change the preview res on a picture.
* All the old stupid annoying things about Quark are faithfully preserved in version 6...
* Still no "update all" feature in the links menu.
* Still no way to select a graphic and tell Quark to re-link to something different.
* Still no key commands to select tools on the tool palette.
* Still limited to 48x48" layouts.
* Still no support for OpenType. If you use OpenType fonts, expect lots of very strange letter spacings, etc.
* Lots of people still use Quark 4. If you need to save down, you must save from Q6 to Q5, then Q5 to Q4. If you're upgrading from 4 to 6, YOU'RE SCREWED! Quark 6 WILL NOT save down to Quark 4!
* Quark brags about all these new features that NOBODY will have a use for. Web pages?! PLEASE! Not even even a half-a** hack web designer would try to create a website in Quark! I tried just for the experience and believe me, it's a joke! 3 words... NO CODE VIEW!! How bout 4 more? NO MEASUREMENT IN PIXELS. These things alone makes Quark a web program not to be taken seriously.
If you're DYING to waste nearly $900, keep your antique Quark 4 or 5 and take that money to Vegas. Better yet, download a free trial of InDesign and see what a REAL page layout program should look like in the year 2004!

As a reporter for a small town newspaper one summer, I found myself laying out pages of the weekly newspaper in my first week. The software was Quark, on OS 9. I had no training, no introduction, just three pages to layout before deadline. After the production manager opened the software and the page template, and left, I was using Quark, albeit not as efficiently or creatively as I was by the end of the summer, but the powerful software was relatively user friendly.

That little newspaper and other publishing shops I know have stayed with OS 9 long after the writers had switched to OS X. The publishers stayed with OS 9 because of Quark. There was no Quark for OS X. In fact, Adobe's InDesign became attractive to Mac-based designers and publishers because of its availability for OS X. QuarkXPress 6 now must compete with InDesign CS, InDesign alone or bundled in Adobe's Creative Suite with Photoshop and other design software. XPress originally came out in 1987, InDesign in 1999. For the publishers who waited for Quark to catch up to OS X, the wait was worth it, but now there is a worthy competitor too.

QuarkXPress 6 uses the familiar interface of earlier versions. Version 6 requires OS 10.2 or higher. This software provides many layout options for creating style sheets, building master pages, importing images, using layers to develop different versions of a layout, including print and web versions and pages of various sizes. The software enables the user to automatically generate indexes, manage color, export layouts to PDF, and design web pages. Cascading menus is a new web capability introduced with XPress 6. Synchronized text is a nice feature as the same text used in multiple places can be revised in one place and automatically changed in the other places. Undo is a more powerful tool in 6 than in earlier version, and images can be viewed in full resolution in 6. Most of the tasks are easy to perform.

Changing printers and exporting to PDF involve some confusion as the Quark Print Dialog Box and the OS X Print Dialog Box are both necessary to accomplish these tasks. XPress 6 lacks the range of fonts available with InDesign. Improvements in the form of extensions are available for download from the Quark website, like the new image-editing QuarkVista Xtension. Extensions for earlier versions need to be replaced with ones specifically for OS X - QuarkXPress 6.

The XPress 6.1 tested for this review will not open with Dvorak keyboard activated. When I click to open, a message appears on screen: "This version of QuarkXPress cannot be used with this keyboard." Since Dvorak was designed in the 1930s as an efficient alternative the standard QWERTY (designed in the 1870s to slow typists down so they would not jam the keys on manual typewriters), since the American National Standards Institute approved Dvorak as the alternate national standard in 1982, since Macs and Windows come with Dvorak as an optional keyboard layout, and since I have been using Dvorak for more than a decade, I was disappointed. I quickly discovered that I could switch to Dvorak with QuarkXPress open. I could use Dvorak keyboard commands and use Dvorak to type, but I remain in fear that some Dvorak keystrokes might not work and may mess up my product at some point. Why else that message? I tried opening XPress using a foreign-language keyboard, Spanish, and that worked, so the Dvorak-prompted message is not simply a "language" restriction, though Quark does sell XPress Passport to expand capabilities in 11 foreign languages.

I have no immediate interest in website design, so I checked other reviews for as assessment of the software's capabilities. David Weiss on the MacDevCenter.com site reported on taking a Project file (called a Document in earlier versions)and duplicating the file using the Layout menu and Duplicate command, selecting Web as the Layout type. He used the File menu, Export command, and HTML destination. He found exporting a multi-page document to HTML provided a challenge in regards to paginating the web document. Using XPress, he preferred creating the HMTL document from scratch, but that is not a practical approach for newspapers and magazines that go online as well as in print.

Reviewer Gene Gable at CreativePro.com identified a big problem for the single-license user: "No way to run XPress on both your work and home machines, even if you never run them concurrently." The reason was Quark's new product activation system that limited the software to one computer, not one at a time. Quark offered for sale a Mobile License to allow the single user to use more than a single computer. Quark heard complaints, like Gable's, and responded. In July 2004 Quark revised its single-user licenses so that users can install XPress on two computers for non-concurrent use of the software. Previous purchasers of the Quark Mobile License can request a credit toward future purchases of Quark products.

Quark provides support online, including a printable 20-page Keyboard Command Guide that lists menu, dialog box, palette, document, item, text, and picture commands. Ericka Kendra's QuarkXPress: Creating Digital Documents, is the text used by Against the Clock to prepare the test for the QuarkXPress Certified Expert Program, and the text is recommended for XPress users from beginning to experienced users. I have not yet seen it.

Prices vary for QuarkXPress 6. Suggested retail price is $1045. The Apple Store (store.apple.com) lists XPress 6 at $799.95. PriceGrabber.com has vendors selling the software from a low of $789.99 to a high of $1050.00. JourneyEd.com is one of many educational vendors offering lower prices for students and faculty; in JourneyEd.com's case the price is $199.98.

As a writer, I want to know which software the publisher of my next book will be using. As a self-employed user, I have to look at InDesign given its price advantage. But I like Quark. XPress 6 is a good product, and it has good competition.