QuarkXpress 5.0

QuarkXPress 5.0 streamlines print, Web, and PDF workflows by importing and exporting documents in dozens of file formats, including HTML and PDF, as well as XML format. The software's new tables tool sports typographic and image controls that create graphically rich tables in no time. QuarkXPress 5.0 also adds a new layers tool that isolates items within documents, letting you manage hundreds of document variants and making it an ideal tool for separating multiple design elements within a document.

With version 5.0, the QuarkXPress design environment gets Web savvy. Add drop-down lists, rollovers, hyperlinks, image maps, and metatags to your Web page designs. The product's powerful XTensions interface lets developers enhance QuarkXPress to meet the needs of unique publishing workflows, while its new License Administrator benefits publishers with multiple-seat installations by helping larger organizations share the use of a smaller number of licenses.

My personal experience with Quark goes back to 1993, when I started a home-based advertising agency specializing in Yellow Page advertising. Quark was the first program I loaded on my then-formidable Macintosh Centris 610 (which nowadays sits on a couple of cement blocks out in the yard). I had never touched a computer in my life before then, but I felt an instant rapport with Quark, whose logical interface brilliantly exemplified the "your computer is your desktop" metaphor. (I might add, before starting my business, I had been a "paste-up artist" for nearly ten years, working with X-acto knives, layout boards, art wax, etc. It was easy for me to make a seamless transition from these tactile tools to Quark's virtual workspace.) To those who find Quark "non-intuitive," "non-user friendly," "frustrating" and "difficult," I politely suggest, perhaps you are in the wrong business. I've found Quark to be the polar opposite of these pejoratives.

For ten years now, Quark has been my primary program AND my favorite one. No exaggeration: I could not have survived the text-intensive world of the Yellow Pages without Quark's peerless typographical capabilities. I use Quark not only for my bread-and-butter YP work, but for virtually every print need imaginable: forms, labels, brochures, newsletters, calendars, greeting cards - you name it. For business correspondence and for creative or leisure writing (including all my Amazon reviews), Quark is also my chosen collaborator. After ten years, we're inseparable.

Sure, Quark has its quirks - I defy you to name an application that doesn't. (For instance, whenever I collapse a window in Illustrator, my G-4 freezes. I've never been able to figure that one out.) Considering the myriad of GREAT things about Quark, I prefer to think of its occasional lapses as the entertaining skulduggery of cyber-gremlins, no doubt playing pool with all those ones and zeroes. I never get bent out of shape over Quark's idiosyncrasies, because these, too, shall pass with a little sweet-talk, patience and tinkering.

I will never throw Quark over for Adobe InDesign for several reasons. One, I am too fond of and too loyal to Quark ever to betray my trust in the product. Two, I have nothing but admiration for the maverick Quark company, which has steadfastly resisted encroachments on its territory. And three, I have enough Adobe products already, thank you very much. I like them well enough, but I will not put any more money in the coffers of a humongous company that enjoys quite enough dominance already and has no business trying to rope and tie my favorite maverick.

It's important for desktop publishers and other professionals to have choices that don't include Adobe in their titles. For me, the only choice is QuarkXPress.


Simply the Best   July 8, 2003
 18 out of 20 found this review helpful

I've been working for a print shop for around three years now, and have been doing computer aided design work for about 7 years now and I must say that Quark is simply the best in desktop publishing software there is, well worth the extra money over PageMaker, InDesign, and the very very sad Publisher.

Sure, Quark isn't quite as friendly as PageMaker, but there is a reason for that. Quark works on logic as opposed to trying to be "friendly". Quark was obviously designed by people who were actually layout artists before the days of computerized design, and it shows. The layout looks exactly like what you would see on an old mock-up.

Granted this means you have to know a bit about layout and design, but you get much better results, and the pre press department at the printer will love you if you use Quark correctly. PageMaker and InDesign are clunky and a bit obnoxious to deal with.

Our shops usual response to someone asking what program to use it "Find someone to design it for you in Quark". It's not a tool for someone to run out and buy if they don't know what they are doing, but it's deffinately the tool to use for professional results.