Tired of Quark, Classic, switching, etc.

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timemachine

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I'm about to buy Adobe Creative Suite, the whole deal, so I can dump OS 9 and just work easily in 10.3.3. I'm still using Quark 4 in Classic... man, I hate it... but I've been waiting to upgrade or switch until I could get a feel for what's going on in the industry. I'm getting the feeling that more and more designers are switching to InDesign, rather than upgrading to Quark's latest version for X. (And what a deal CS is if you buy the whole package, yes?)

Anything I should know about before I switch? Should I be worried about printshops supporting InDesign CS?

Are my old Quark files going to import into InDesign, or should I keep Classic and Quark4 available on my computer (please say no).

Thanks
 
timemachine said:
I'm about to buy Adobe Creative Suite, the whole deal, so I can dump OS 9 and just work easily in 10.3.3. I'm still using Quark 4 in Classic... man, I hate it... but I've been waiting to upgrade or switch until I could get a feel for what's going on in the industry. I'm getting the feeling that more and more designers are switching to InDesign, rather than upgrading to Quark's latest version for X. (And what a deal CS is if you buy the whole package, yes?)

Anything I should know about before I switch? Should I be worried about printshops supporting InDesign CS?

Are my old Quark files going to import into InDesign, or should I keep Classic and Quark4 available on my computer (please say no).

Thanks
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I know how you feel man!

I have ditched Quark, because they have lost the plot, and support for them is dire.

You have done a good move by moving to Adobe CS, and you won't regret it; I didn't.

My main concern when moving over was the Print Shop situation. Sorry to say, you might have to keep you Quark and Classic, unless you find a Print Shop in your area that can handle InDesign CS files.

As for importing, I have had a little trouble, so now I always start from stratch. As a rule of thumb, the more complex the Quark file (ie the more complex features) the harder it is to import.

But over time, you do use Quark less, and now I hardly use it at all. In fact, I don't even have it install on my machine.

Don't kid yourself, there is a period of adjustment, around two months, but after that, like me, you will not be using Quark at all.

Hope that you find InDesign a breeze to us, I did... :)
 
Don't worry about a thing. Creative Suite is great, and InDesign is a joy to use compared to Quark. You also have nothing to worry about concerning final artwork supply as you can supply PDF's or EPS's out of InDesign 3.0 & Acrobat 6.0.
 
The best thing about InDesign is that you can save your files as pdfs (I believe) so no worries about the files being printable! Just watch out for transparencies and layering options, they can be problematic when you try to squeeze them down to pdfs.

I use Quark in Classic as well and have no plans to upgrade. Quark is the Goliath and it's about to be taken WAY down to the ground by InDesign, namely because of it's horrible service and slow upgrades. What did it take, seven years, to upgrade Quark 3?! :) Something like that. And don't even get me started on Quarks 5 and 6. Sucky.

:)
 
Most major printshops probably have InDesign, since quite a few of those are on Adobe's print partner program or whatever they call it. If not, you have quite a few options for direct export of PDFs from inside InDesign and also Acrobat 6 Pro if you go with the premium suite, not to mention an EPS option.

I've had no problems so far with files designed in ID CS getting printed from small to large companies, be it 4cl presses or webb printing. Most likely you'll just have to talk to someone there and get the specs they need, but for most the PDF X-1a and PDF X-3 presets within ID should work just fine.

I trashed Classic and Quark 4 back when ID2 became available...that was a while ago.
 
I'm currently a student in Graphic Design at a major community college in Oregon. When I started two years ago we were using Quark 4.11 Passport; this year the department upgraded to QX5. But InDesign has made such strides up to the CS releases that the department has shifted to ID and by next year QX will no longer live on any of the PowerMacs.

I'm fortunate enough to have Quark 5, ID2, and IDCS (a/k/a ID3) on my personal PowerMac (educational discount...w00t!). ID2 was looking good, IDCS has so many more improvements; a new context-sensitive palette that works like Quark's measurement palette, all CS apps accept each other's files straight (no convesions of .psds to .tifs then pulling in, superior handling of Illustrator files). The interfaces are tightly integrated...if you've seen the PS 'face, then you already have a clue in ID. And do you remember how badly imported graphics looked in QX? ID has three prerformance display settings, and high quality is crystal clear. Nothing like Quark!

Also, you will love Version Cue. Brilliant so far.

You'll also find that, more and more, workflows are becoming PDF-oriented. A local prepress house here in Portland, Revere Graphics, accepts QX and ID files but is urging thier customers to adopt ID.

Day's soon to come when QX holdouts will switch. I don't know anyone who wants to use QX again after getting a taste of ID.

Sam Klein, Portland OR
 
Howdy,
I work in a small quick print establishment in Chicago & love InDesign 3.0. Quark lost me when v5 wasn't OSX native. InDesign WILL open Quark 4 files no problem, but some strange things do happen.
1> linked graphics may not print properly (or at all) they either need to be placed again into the layout or in the print dialogue, select "Print non-printing object"
2> it refuses to open quark 5 or 6 files. They didn't write it that way
But,
You can place native AI files, native PSD files, so no more export to TIF or EPS! I really enjoy that because in my experience the native files are smaller even if Indesign files are sometimes 10x the size(a 80K Quark file becomes an 800K InDesign file)

I've been using InDesign to convert layouts from Quark to cut down on my "Classic" time in the future. You do still need Classic & Quark to open the Quark file natively & spot check compare the layouts in the different programs)

-Sean
 
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