After this week’s news from Quark (here and here) and not really knowing anyone who has upgraded to version 5 (has anyone here?) I thought that I would see what people are using, what they are planning to switch to (if at all) and why. Personally I am very tempted to switch, and am starting to ask the printers that I work with if they will take InDesign files or PDFs.
I have Quark 5 and InDesign 2. I'll NEVER use Quark again for anything!!! InDesign has been easy to learn and very productive. I work in OSX(which I love) and as a designer being able to control type better, actually see sharp, crisp graphics on screen, immediately blows QX out of the water. There are too many advantages to list. Every freelancer/lifelong QX user I bring in, within 2 days is ready to switch.
ID2 - the best for creating PDF's!!!
Drag a Word or Excel document into an ID page and it retains ALL info and NO garbaldygook - fully editable. Just drag it in!!!
I have now produced 3 100+ page catalogs w/ ID2. It is an incredible program. Even reluctant service bureas have been amazed at the clean PDF's it creates.
If you like Illustrator and Photoshop(which works seamlessly with ID2) you'll love it!!!
The above comments are not meant to represent the views of Adobe, Inc. This is not a paid advertisement! : )
On Dec.12.2002 at 01:27 PM> all of our client files are in Quark
ID2 opens and translates QX easssssyyyy!!!!
On Dec.12.2002 at 01:30 PMIndesign. OS X.
I feel no explanation is called for.
-M
On Dec.12.2002 at 01:38 PMmGee is right, just read through that discussion and it's good, go take a look if you haven't yet.
On Dec.12.2002 at 02:29 PMSwitch, even if it will make your life uncomfortable for the short term, if only for the sake of the industry. Think more than one year ahead (unless you have a terminal disease, in which case get out of design pronto).
hhp
On Dec.12.2002 at 02:35 PMThink of it this way Armin. What if all you had ever had was white chocolate - it's not bad, but it ain't chocolate!
On Dec.12.2002 at 02:53 PMWe use it for our catalogs. We're still using OS 9 though. On gigabyte-RAMmed, 1Ghz G4 machines, pages full of images are often slow to redraw and page through, even if 'typical' display performance is selected. Perhaps performance in OS X is better?
Other than this sluggishness, we're happy with the results, and we've honed our PDF workflow and rarely have surprises on our proofs.
So yeah, we're sold on InDesign.
On Dec.12.2002 at 03:18 PM> pages full of images are often slow to redraw and page through
On our Dual Gig G4, 1,024MB RAM - OSX it's quite speedy & we only work in Optimal Display. However, at our printers request, we build the book one page per file. That probably helps with the speediness.
On Dec.12.2002 at 03:34 PMI'm very eager to switch over to InDesign. I actually downloaded the trial version the other day, (prompted by the typographi.ca thread) and was impressed on how well it translated some more complicated Quark files. I agree with Jon @ Veer, redraw is sluggish. On the other hand, seeing a clean image in your layout is refreshing. And Quark keycommands are a nice touch. Our studio hasn't switched over to X yet...But I'm guessing when we do, we'll run InDesign.
On Dec.12.2002 at 03:40 PMI won't bother reiterating the _fact_ that ID is a tears-of-joy-jerking experience after years of punishment from QXP. I haven't managed to dump the behemoth just yet, but my experience with my ID 2.0 demo (and the 1.0 demo for that matter) has been quite conclusive. I'm planning a complete system upgrade within the next few months (all software, some hardware) and the two most exciting prospects for me are Jaguar and the Adobe Design collection... and the lack of Quark-based ingredients!
On Dec.12.2002 at 05:02 PMyou delete comments that direct your users to a related blog? How wack. I visit both equally and wasn't trying to steer your audience away from your site. I was just informing you and your audience that you can discuss at Typographica as well.
On Dec.12.2002 at 05:05 PMMy bad. The comment count that I saw was the same as prior to my post and didn't see my postat the bottom as I expected.
Except my apologies for my last post. ;)
Thanks for fixing my link on my last post.
Peace
mGee
On Dec.12.2002 at 05:07 PM>you delete comments that direct your users to a related blog? How wack
Aw, c'mon, do you think I would do something like that? This is not the Bush administration. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I sound very political.
>Except my apologies for my last post. ;)
No problem. Wait... Except or Accept?
>Thanks for fixing my link on my last post.
No problem.
On Dec.12.2002 at 05:31 PMyou delete comments that direct your users to a related blog? How wack
Yeah, Armin! End the fascism!
Naw, the Vitter would never hide Typographica from Speak Upians. We’re sister blogs, baby.
On Dec.13.2002 at 03:12 AMI could go on and on and on about why you should be on OSX. So so so very very nice. BUT I'm waiting on a firmware update or something because the dual processor seems to hang for no reason whatsoever. Powerbook? No worries there, it runs awesomely on that.
Now. At "work" work we can have indesign or quark. I install both and figured that I'd go with Quark since "work" work is a windows environment. Now after reading up and trying to insert certain file types (that quark wouldn't support) I quickly uninstalled it. Quark that is.
Viva la Adobe!
Vitty, I'll buy you Jaguar for x-mas. What's your address?
On Dec.13.2002 at 10:28 AMI was super stoked on InDesign 1.5 when I tested it out on a simple brochure project last year, but my printer had a really rough time ripping it and on the whole it wound up causing major delays and hassles. I backed off the program then, despite my substantial preference for it over Quark.
Is anyone still having these problems, or is this just a remnant of 1.5? Or does providing PDFs from InDesign solve it?
On Dec.13.2002 at 10:49 AM>Vitty, I'll buy you Jaguar for x-mas. What's your address?
Oh, I couldn't kippy...
On Dec.13.2002 at 11:24 AMCome on. I'm a fricking high roller. Or is it hi-roller?
On Dec.13.2002 at 12:45 PM>Come on. I'm a fricking high roller.
Ok:
123 Fake Street
Springfield... (remember that simpsons episode?
If you are serious:
8 South Michigan Ave
Suite 1316
Chicago, IL 60603
On Dec.13.2002 at 01:13 PMIndy 1.5 was indeed buggy, especially with PDF output - but 2.0 seems much more robust.
hhp
On Dec.13.2002 at 04:33 PMI am student currently at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and we as a school (and like almost all other schools) have dropped quark, and are solely teaching Indesign from here on out. Coming from an Adobe background, I found Indesign simple and very nice to use. It does have some bugs, though I am sure if Quark ever does come out with something for OS X, Adobe will have another update soon. Though everything else that I have read on the new Quark is that it will simply be a OS X version of 5, with little or no new features. Most of the feedback I have read on Indesign is positive and its going the right direction.
Printing wise, after talking with a couple of the leading printers in the bay area. almost all their jobs are still quark, though they support indesign and can work with anything you give them. And they know that Adobe has worked itself into all the schools, so they will encounter more Indesign jobs as these students get into the field.
On Dec.19.2002 at 01:55 AMAs a person who used Quark for 8+ hours a day and now Indesign, all I can say is I miss Quark.
On Aug.05.2003 at 08:59 PM
I was a big supporter of InDesign 1.0 when it came out. I tried to convince everybody at m1 what a cool program it was. Even when it was really slow and buggy. Nobody listened to me. So I decided to stick with Quark since it was/is the standard tool.
Now, I'm really accustomed to Quark. all of our client files are in Quark. I really can't imagine switching right now. The only reason I would change, and this is hypothetical, is whenever I switch to OS X (which I'm avoiding for now) and Quark is still wondering what went wrong with version 5.0 while InDesign has mastered OS X to perfection. I love Adobe products. I hate Quark. So change might just be in the air.
BTW. Quark 5.0 A complete joke. That's what we waited for for 10 years?
On Dec.12.2002 at 01:21 PM