I’d really like to move fully into OS X. At this point, Quark is the last major piece of software that I still have to use OS 9 for. I’m using version 4, and I have a bootleg of 5 that I don’t use much. Is 6 worth the money? Is it stable? Are there great new features? Or is it a total waste? What do you guys think?
Is 6 worth the money?
I really don’t know. I don’t even know how much it costs.
Is it stable?
It works ok for me. I didn’t go to it’s limits yet (only did small one-page-things)
Are there great new features?
Well, you can rotate objects larger than the workarea.
Or is it a total waste? What do you guys think?
I don’t know if it’s worth the money but it is certainly nice not to have to use classic anymore. I don’t have Classic installed on my computer at work anymore.
I haven’t used QuarkXpress except for version 4 in OS9, but I think a lot of people are moving to InDesign since Adobe is much more dedicated to supporting the Mac, and with Creative Suite, it’s very well integrated with Photoshop, Illustrator and GoLive. InDesign also imports Xpress documents fairly well. I’d be surprised if Quark bothers with a version 7.
I have used most versions of Quark over the years and have been using 6 for about 5 months. The type of work I do requires to me to take files that others have created and fix them so they will print. I only bought Quark 6 because I am starting to receive files that were created with it. It is not a very good program (and I love Quark). It does not render fonts correctly on the screen. It will substitute fonts without warning you when postscripting. This is especially bad considering how stable Quark has always been regarding fonts.
While not a Quark problem be aware that there is no ATM for OSX which has forced me to use Suitcase as a manager. Suitcase is the best of a bad lot but it is nowhere near as good as ATM.
The Postscripting/print process has been made unnecessarily hard in Quark 6, you now have to go through about 6 more steps then you did before.
Everyone in the industry who I have spoke with about it, and this includes a Quark rep. agrees that it is not good. I would not recommend it unless you must have it. If Quark doesn’t fix it soon I’m afraid that InDesign may overtake it. And believe me InDesign has it’s’ problems.
I haven’t tested QuarkXPress 6 extensively, but in this designer’s opinion, I think someone who is going a fair degree of page layout work ought to get familiar with Adobe’s InDesign product.