In a blog post from June of 2008 about QuarkXPress 8 I asked, "Will You Upgrade or Switch?" The sentiment and the actual words, "Quark is Dead" came up more than once. Whether or not Quark is actually dead, the conversation is still alive. As an email outlining QuarkXPress 8.1 features and video links lands in my inbox (8.quark.com) readers Richard and Philip add their thoughts on QuarkXPress to that earlier blog. In part:
"If we were asked today for a recommendation as to whether to use Quark 8 or InDesign the recommendation would be without question to go with InDesign. The slowness of layering content boxes would be enough to determine the choice." Read Richard's full comments (#49).
"Quark is Dead. If your a graphic designer and still use Quark, then I bet you do 90% of your work in photoshop and just do the layout in quark... that is so 1999." Read Philip's full comments (#50).
A 60-day test drive of QuarkXPress 8.1 is available for download.
Macworld Review: "QuarkXPress 8.1 is an essential upgrade for users of version 8."
Quark is far from dead, they are reinventing themselves with some serious challenges against their competition.
Looking at all the companies out there that have legacy that have to repurpose content and for all the companies now focused on productivity the Quark is a clear winner.
I’m always amazed that the same people who have referred to Microsoft as the evil empire for years have no problem with Adobe becoming the monopoly for design software. I hope Quark survives – competition is good for everybody.
Quark dead? No. Less users. Yes.
However I see many still using QuarkXPress and happily. Some say old habits die hard, but if you monitor Tweets which mention “Quark” you’ll see your fair share of devote users (and yes, your bashers too!):
Quark on Twitter Alert
Ever since Quark purchased mTropolis, showing how evil, conivving and ruthless they could be, I’ve been happy to watch them fall into decline and epically fail. I am so happy to see where they are now – with less people than the group they destroyed when they dismantled mFactory. It’s their turn to die a miserable and nameless death! Goodbye Quark, and good riddance!
Great thnkinig! That really breaks the mold!
Years ago I purchased an opened version of quark on ebay for the church that I was attending and doing some design work for. When I tried to put the license in the churches name, they tried to make get the pastor to sign some bs letter promising not to discriminate against gays! Hey, I know that some Christians can be hateful, but you cannot assume that all are and this was highly discriminatory! I had to register in it my name to get the license. I am sure that adobe would not have put me through this!
Good riddance too bad rubbish. Theres only so many times you can get kicked in the teeth without eventually walking away