Customer Reviews

Quarkxpress 8 for mac/win with int Designer Xpert Tools [Old Version]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been using Quark XPress for 15 years and I wouldn't have a successful graphic design business without it.

These days, designers have a big choice to make between Quark and InDesign. Although I am certainly an Adobe fan and I use Photoshop and Illustrator extensively, Quark will always be my choice for page layout and publication design.

I have used InDesign for short periods of time and it is a great program. I found that most of the features I use in Quark are there if you look for them.

However Quark has been the industry leader in page layout for so many years. It is a very powerful program and worth the price. Quark has better abilities to manage larger and more complex documents than InDesign.

Quark is a program that can be used very simply (for a one page flyer) or for a 500 or more page document. Quark's strength is in its ability to manage document layout. The use of master pages and style sheets is critical to consistency and efficiency in managing a document. The search and replace features are invaluable if used properly. I did a directory job in 1/4 of the time of another designer by using something called Xpress tags and the search and replace feature that allows you to replace text with a style sheet.

I know that InDesign is touted for its ability to work with native Illustrator files and Photoshop PSD files. Quark 8 also allows for a ton of integration from a variety of other programs including drag and drop of native Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash files.

Quark has a great website listing all the integration possibilities (and compares them to InDesign) [...] Obviously it will slant to Quark's advantage since it is their promotional materials.

Quark allows you to create for print or web and has anchors and hyperlinks.

For me, Quark is a typesetter's program since its ability to control type, kerning, tracking, scaling, etc. is very precise.

I also like the ease and variety of tools and the ability to do mathematical equations in the measurements box when positioning objects/items. In other words,if you want to but a tab at 1.25 and your next one exactly .375 from there, you can go to the position box where 1.25 is listed and just put: +.375 and Quark calculates it for you.

I really like the ability to set runarounds and clipping paths to objects thereby wrapping text around objects with a lot of control.

Quark occasionally has issues when working in tables (crashing) but there seems to be a fix listed online. There use to be issues with the drop shadows that Quark creates but I think that has been resolved as well.

I use Quark for Windows and have no issues using it on this platform.

Even after 15 years of use, there are many features I haven't learned to use yet. Not knowing these features does not stop me from using the program effectively, it just proves that Quark is very powerful and diverse.

If you are a MAC user or and InDesign fan, please don't write comments about how much better they are. I'm not trying to say that they are not good. It is just my opinion that I prefer to stay with Quark than to switch to InDesign.

I work on newspapers and bought this because Quark 6 doesn't run under Windows 7. I considered switching to InDesign, and even tried it because it came in the suite with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat. I didn't like InDesign so I bought Quark, which in the past I had found powerful and easy to work in.

I've been using Quark 8 for three months and can now say: What a disappointment! Things I used to do in one step now take three. The "get text" and "get picture" commands have been merged into "Import." When you want to import, EVERYTHING shows. Result: Now you have to sort out the pictures from the text files when you want photos, or sort out photos when you want text. In another words, an added step.

Want to create a frame? The default before was white with item runaround which you could change if you wanted case by case. Upwards of 90 percent time you didn't want to. Now the default is no color and no runaround, meaning that 90 percent of the time you have three steps where you only had one before. You have to draw the frame, then set the color to white and next set the runaround to item. One step became three.

Had there been a way in preferences to change the defaults, this wouldn't matter -- but there is no way to change the defaults, so it does. I suppose it could be done with styles, but that's adding a step also. You have to pick and apply the style.

Photo frames are white, but there is no runaround, so if you put copy on the page with the picture, the copy runs UNDER the picture and is blocked by it. Who would want text to just vanish? Apparently Quark thinks most everyone does. Where before you drew a photo frame in one step, now you need two -- draw the frame and set runaround to item.

Want to edit copy in a frame? Before you just mouse clicked where you wanted to be and got to work. Not any more. Now you have to click off the page to unselect the frame where you were, then click on the box you want to work in to select it, click where you want to be in the frame, and then finally get to work.

Except sometimes it works a different way.

Other times Quark decides you don't really like your project preferences and switches them back to its defaults. I don't know how many times I've had to reset the horizontal measurements preference.

There's no denying that you can do a great deal in Quark if you can put up with all the annoyances, but frankly, I'd say go with InDesign if you're starting out fresh. One factor for sure would be if you use Office 2007/2010. Even Quark 8 does not recognize the "x" formats (.docx and so on) introduced in Office 2007. InDesign CS4 does.

I wavered between two stars and one before settling on two -- but it's a very soft two stars. Only the power of the program saved it from one. This is certainly my last purchase of Quark. Maybe I'll try InDesign again. If worse comes to worse, there's always Publisher!

Quark Xpress 8/8.5 seems to have endless bugs. Just a glance at Quark's website reveals an alarming array of malfunctions and incompatibilities (Mac).

Especially bad is the changing of key commands that Quark is notorious for with each "upgrade" version. Example: to alter a picture box from a fixed corner, including the border rule, used to be a simple one-click step with a command/shift. Now that key command changes the image on all sides from a center point. (The new key command for the fixed corner is just the shift key.) But then you have to CHANGE tools from the picture tool to the item tool to adjust the rule. A sloppy, user-unfriendly change by Quark's programmers.

Overall though, the "improvements" made to Quark 8 are actually negligible. Quark hasn't got an upgrade right since 4.0.

Worst of all though is Quark's abysmal support. You're allowed ONLY 30 days of free support and then it's $49 per call! My Chinese-import kitchen appliances at least provide a one-year warranty.

And inexplicably, Quark support is only available weekdays, and then only IF you can get through to them. Just to get an activation code took me 2 days of attempts via phone. You're put on hold, of course, during which prerecorded messages drone on and on, and if the Calcutta call center doesn't pick up within 15 mins., you're disconnected and have to start over.

Online "chat" is just as bad. You'll get a message advising you of your queue number. My first attempt took over an hour to move from #6 to #4. Then I was disconnected from Mumbai, or wherever, and had to start anew.

This (and the overpricing of upgrades), explains why the publishers I work with all still function with Quark 6 and refuse to upgrade.

Computer Media LLC sold me a "used" copy of Quark then dropped off the planet. I could not install because the disc did not contain an installer icon. They did not respond to any of my many emails.
It seems to me that they sold me a knock off disc with no documentation which is needed to install and register the program. They have no return policy. I put my trust in Amazon but now I realize they can't monitor every seller.
Don't buy from Computer Media LLC

This is a wonderful page layout software, but only if you can actually use it. I am a design consultant on a deadline who has spent over half a day trying to install a working version of QXP8 recently purchased from amazon.com seller, Galactics.

I keep getting an 'Activation file corrupted' message; you're allowed to access the software but in a kind of demo mode where you cannot save your project (found this out the hard way). My numerous attempts to remove and re-install result in the same issue. Quark's Online Support team (when one can get past the long queue of waiting customers) seems to be unable to take you much past the "uninstall, re-install" advice (for Windows Vista users like me) already provided in their very thin "knowledge base". At USD800 returning the software for a partial refund simply will not cut it for me.

Quark should not release another version of this huge (644MB), complex program until they properly resolve this problem.

The product arrived right when I needed it. Everything was right with it. Easy purchase. Note: Quark no longer packages a manual in the box even though there is plenty of room for it.