Quark has just announced that Quark Xpress 8 is now available for purchase. Is anyone still using Quark? Will anyone who has switched to InDesign really go back?

In the Canadian editorial industry, many big companies have made the switch in the past three years. Some still linger on with dated versions of Quark, mainly because of CopyDesk, or the cost of updating several or even hundreds of workstations. Others are just stubborn, afraid that learning a new software will affect production.

Recently, I worked with a small publishing house, which was still using Quark Xpress 7. Having been working with InDesign for about a year, going back to Quark was a complete nightmare. I watched them struggle with preferences across workstations, waste time on unnecessary clipping paths, use ill-represented colours… And these are good designers who know what they’re doing. They’ve just been working in Quark for 20 years. A designers relationship to Quark is an abusive one— We know Quark loves us, we really do. And when it works, it works and we’re happy. But so often, (almost always in the middle of production), we experience its tragic flaws that ultimately hurt us.

Our creative energy shouldn’t be wasted on managing a software’s shortcomings. Using Quark means we lose valuable design time. And why would I go back to that when InDesign does everything I need to do, exactly how I want it to? Maybe I shouldn’t judge before downloading Quark’s generous 60-day trial version. But to be honest, even if I had the time and inclination t0, it would have to be bloody spectacular. Am I wrong?