MACSOLU  Direct Download link (registration required):

http://downloads.quark.com/Details.aspx?fid=146&&mid=2  
(Version 8.12)

STARFISH  RIP QXP  
(Version 8.1)

MACMUSER  Probably the best release of QXP since version 5 running in Classic on OSX. The new interface shows how clunky Adobe's has become and the tools are in many respects better than inDesign's. But best of all, QXP8 is fast. Huge files open almost instantly, the annoying buglets of QXP 7 have been fixed (no autosave bloat). Quark's helplines are excellent.

Anyone using inDesign really must look at QXP to see what they are missing (I use both so have no axe to grind). The 60-day full version try-out is free.

Anyone using QXP6 needs their heads examining. Why on earth don't you upgrade to get superior typesetting and on-screen display, better tools, transparency, page and box baseline grids, faster working… you might as well be back using QXP 3 or 4 in comparison with version 8.

There are a few rough areas waiting for attention: the book pallet needs redesigning, grids are a little clunky to set up, in-line graphics can become unstable (but still far better than inDesign's) but given the choice between working in QXP8 or inDesign, it's QXP every time.  
(Version 8.01)

DLWHITE  As yet, Quark 8 has no font auto-activation.

And Extensis/Suitcase Fusion has no plans to provide a free plug in to make this happen.

If you want to auto-activate fonts in Quark 8, you'll have to pony up the fees for Suitcase Fusion 2, and there's not even a release date for that software yet.

Unconscionable behavior by all parties.

Quark 8 has been out for months. And although Quark has a long history of sketchy customer service, this must be a new low for Extensis.

Is there another professional font manager that supplies font auto-activation with Quark 8?  
(Version 8.01)

JAMUS  Ok, after the 8.01 "update", here is how it breaks down for me:

1. Deducting points for no autoupdater or incremental updates.

2. Deducting MAJOR points for requiring me to create a login with Quark just to download an update to fix bugs/problems in your own software. Attention all companies: please stop doing this! A demo sure, a free XTension sure, but an update? No way. Enjoy that fake login profile now sitting in your database.

3. Adding points for no apparent problems with the install of the update.

4. Deducting points from still relying on a license server for unified volume licenses AND a serial number AND a validation code (thanks for tying up server hardware for that by the way).

5. Adding several points for trying to update the UI some.

6. Deducting points for STILL having quirky PDF exports.

7. Deducting points for almost 1.5GB install. B-L-O-A-T.

Two stars is the best you are getting out of me for this one Quark. You are trying to do better, and I appreciate it, but you just keep missing the target. If this keeps up, 8.x is the last time you will get a purchase from me.  
(Version 8.01)

VICLEN  Do we really care whether someone has "moved 4 production departments to InDesign" or has some other axe to grind? Nope.

Why won't anyone download the 60-day trial, work with it and then post a review? Why live in the past? Judge QuarkXPress 8 on its merits.

I've been using it for three weeks or so. In that time there have been no crashes or unexpected quits - not that I get many problems with v7.

On a dual-processor G5 running Mac OS X 10.4, the screen redraws are much faster than with v7 - my productivity is definitely up irrespective of the new user interface. Being able to just draw a text box and instantly type into it is a no-brainer - should have been there years ago. And no, Adobe didn't 'invent' this for InDesign as it was a standard feature in PageMaker when I used it back in the early 90s.

The new user interface has allowed me to speed up quite considerably courtesy of instant object rotation, live preview of changes, Adobe-style bezier tools and the easy-to-use measurements palette.

Dragging text and graphics to or from any drag-&-drop-enabled app is also a useful addition, probably more so than some others such as being able to use grids on individual text boxes. But the new hanging characters feature and vertical alignment have their place in day-to-day work. It's also nice to see an end to language problems with QXP handling 30+ languages as standard.

Being able to import Illustrator files as well as Photoshop ones has useful and having Flash creation/exporting as standard makes QXP 8 an all-in-one for design: paper, web and presentation.

Yes, I use InDesign too but given the option I'd rather work in QXP and v8 has enough going for it to convince me to upgrade.

Vic Lennard

Cover disc editor, Macworld UK magazine  
(Version 8.0)

PHOTEK  the pricing structure alone is enough to make me NEVER want to use Quark again...

£799 in the UK...??? You can almost buy Adobe CS Standard for that (InDesign, Photoshop, illustrator, Acrobat)

£1068 for West Europe..??? WTF?... What do they have to pay more than me?

$799... in the US..??? Thats just an insult to the rest of the world..... thats the equivalent of £399!!! How do they ship the SAME version of Quark 8 to the UK? Via Mars????

I have moved 4 production departments to InDesign... and Quark are giving me NO reason to turn back. And if I said what I really felt about Quark I would be banned for using offensive language.  
(Version 8.0)

SEMIOTICMONKEY  Well, i don't know you but i'm downloading right now the trial to see what's changed cause the comments below are the same old adagio about Quark out of biz yada yada and nothing to do with the version 8.0.

Have you tried this before comment on it?

It works? It is better than 7.0? And so on. The preferred DTP sport, Quark bashing, is now too old.

Judging by on line reviews and from the version changes it seem it is now offering a bunch of good features.

All i can honestly say, without tried it out, is about its price. Here in Europe it costs 1.300 euros VAT excluded and it is way too much (WTF about Adobe and Quark charging so much we europeans? Protectionism at its worse).

Just for clarity but we are still waiting proper fixes from Adobe for the silly bloated Indesign so stop to glorify it cause it have its flood of faults and quirks not fixed and waiting in line for the next CS4. After that, we will be waiting for the CS5 and so on and on.   
(Version 8.0)

DONMONTALVO  Quark (the company) is on a downward spiral. Over the past few years I have tried in vain to communicate necessary fixes/changes to Quark's development team. Long standing bugs have NOT been fixed. Long standing requests (such as *.plist based preferences which would allow central management via WGM Manifest Editor, ssh defaults push, etc.) which would have put QuarkXPress on par with other PROPERLY WRITTEN applications were ignored.

Quark (the company) has changed hands several times in the past few years. Each change of management brought with it new waves of marketing hype - which in the end turned out to be the same business as usual path.

My colleagues who manage the largest graphics, design, and production environments, including many of the top Fortune100 companies who have internal Mac shops, have been actively migrating to InDesign (which they ALREADY OWN as part of the base Adobe Creative Suite bundle).

I had hoped Quark (the company) would listen, if only to keep QuarkXPress afloat. I loathe companies that rest on their laurels. All that is left of Quark (the company) is a company in trouble pouring money into Marketing, and lacking proper management who can turn things around.

My biggest disappointment is that without QuarkXPress alive and kicking, then Adobe InDesign will not have the competition it needs to keep forging ahead with new ideas while responsibly maintaining the fast, stable and usable interface it has.

Tim Gill should buy Quark (the company) again, if only to preserve the competitive environment.

Don Montalvo, NYC  
(Version 8.0)

KONG  Surprise, surprise: instead of working out QXP's 7.31 longtime standing bugs running under Leopard OS X 10.5 they come up with a newer version of the app, . The german passport version does not allow file names (or the folders they are saved in) to contain "special characters" such as underscores or german language "Umlauts" (ä,ö etc.) The files become corrupted while being auto saved or placed in a auto-created folder with the Umlaut replaced by some other signs. No problem if I create new files but I got a gazillion files that I need to check the names of before I can dare and open them in QXP 7. Customer support says they are is well aware of the problem (have been for months, that is) and will request one – in all earnest – to go back to using QXP 6.5. The guy found it all funny (he repeatedly laughed out while talking about the issue to me) that I didn't like to hear what "support" he had to offer (they might or might not have a solution in the next couple of months)!!! So you shed a bucket of bucks for a faulty application, get no hint of help when you need it and instead of a bugfix you have to pay more money for another upgrade. The app is way clumsier to handle than InDesign and uses forever when saving large files. In addition to that files tend to get bigger and bigger (and I mean huge: a 20 page A5 brochure gets blown up to 600mb) after a couple of savings. "Saving as" can reduce the size but then the game starts all over. Exporting to PDF adds dozens of extra gibberish characters that too often have to be manually removed from the file's name in the finder because the export dialog won't let you do it properly or in reasonable time. Don't worry, be happy: get InDesign!  
(Version 8.0)