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See 'Related Links' below on this page for link to the demo version.
QuarkXPress... This is an updater for people who already own QuarkXPress 7. QuarkXPress is powerful design and page layout software with an intuitive, versatile interface that lets you combine superior typography with color and pictures to produce dynamic final output for print and Web delivery. QuarkXPress is widely used by magazines, newspapers, advertising agencies and design firms, marketers, printers, corporate publishers, catalog houses, and book publishers.
Industry experts are calling QuarkXPress 7 one of Quark's most significant upgrades ever. With more than 160 new features and enhancements, QuarkXPress 7 cements Quark's tradition of innovation by enabling a new way of working that focuses on the layout, design, and production environments as a whole rather than as separate processes.
With new features ranging from transparency and Composition Zones to enhanced PDF creation and print output, QuarkXPress 7 combines design freedom, unparalleled collaboration, and support for multi-channel communication in a single software tool.
Version 8.01 features a new interface, built-in web and Flash authoring tools, enhanced typography control, a Picture Content tool(grab, rotate, and scale images in real-time), enhanced Item and Text Content tools, new Bezier Pen tools, native Illustrator file import, drag-and-drop import of text and pictures, and more.
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| QuarkXPress User Reviews (121 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Oct 3 2008 |
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) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Aug 5 2008 |
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. Cover disc editor, Macworld UK magazine
(Version 8.0) | |
| [ 3 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Sep 13 2008 |
DONMONTALVO viclen asked: > Do we really care whether someone has "moved 4 production > departments to InDesign" or has some other axe to grind? Nope. Actually, yes, we do care. Everyone responsible for supporting a production department who works with QuarkXPress DOES CARE about this stuff. I work in a very high profile company responsible for publishing 600+ high quality (and very expensive) fine art cataloges per year. We use QuarkXPress 6.52, never moved to v7 and are not even considering v8. We are moving to InDesign in the coming months. And guess what? We already own it. So does anyone who has Creative Suite. There is NO MONEY TO SPEND. And anyone who has migrate to InDesign knows the level of support you get from Adobe as opposed to Quark is many fold better. I would suggest anyone who is UNSURE if they should migrate should contact Adobe and ask them to send a rep to your company to review your workflow and give you an honest assessment. We did it, and we'll be moving over soon. Don Montalvo, NYC
(Version 8.0) | |
 | Sep 17 2008 |
S_ENGEL I switched to InDesign a few years ago. The reason was that InDesign was state-of-the-art at that time, had better typo-tools, better output etc. Now I use both, ID and XPress, and I'm thinking about switching back to XPress. InDesign (and other ADOBE apps) are bloated with tons of things I never use in my workflow. The support is beneath contempt and their arrogant behaviour towards customers is totally out of the question (does anyone know where Quark's former boss works now?). By the way: Who is willing to pay for an update EVERY year (remember:CS4 is coming soon)? No, ADOBE is not interested in the needs of their customers, they are only interested in money. XPress 8 has a clean interface (looks a bit like Macromedia's GUI), runs fast and has everything I really need for a unobstructed workflow in print.
(Version 8.0) | |
| Oct 3 2008 |
MACMUSER Vic, I couldn't agree more. QXP8 is very much faster than QXP7 – and inDesign come to that but that's nothing difficult to achieve. I have to work in both so have no axe to grind about Quark or Adobe The new QXP8 interface is faster, I've had to convert the book I'm working on back to QXP7 for compatibility with my clients. Working in QXP7 feels like rowing through Roquefort and files open sooooo sloooowly. BUT I am getting very tired of QXP8 continually messing with text flow. I really hope the upgrade (downloading as I type)b sorts that out. The book pallet wont allow the page numbers' column to resize either so that's another glitch I hope they fixed.
(Version 8.01) | |
| Aug 3 2008 |
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) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
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| Sep 23 2008 |
SPECTRAL7 quark sucks .....full stop joke pricing, they are going down IMO. Version 3.11 was teh best layout program at its time, 4.11 was bearable then things went bad...there reign is over, wake up quark or die !
(Version 8.0) | |
| Aug 2 2008 |
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) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Aug 3 2008 |
DONMONTALVO This isn't about bashing QuarkXPress. This is about spreading the word that Quark (the company) is milking Tim Gill's hard work. The bugs and issues we've reported over the years have NOT been resolved. Caching/temp file routine is STILL unmanageable - we've asked for a temp directory pref and never got it so QuarkXPress documents go south in many Xinet/Helix environments ; lack of *.plist mean inability to push defaults commands which is a huge step back in production environments; I can go on...but why bother. The simple fact of the matter is people need to be warned. Do NOT spend money on QuarkXPress until you've done your homework - get in touch with the folks who manage large production environments to get the untainted truth. Call the schools (who are pushing InDesign heavily). Call the recruiters (who have an overage of overpaid QuarkXPress experts, but can't keep up with the demand for InDesign pros. Please...let's not get into a food fight. Just make a few calls and get the truth. And, for the record, if you're looking for work in NYC, you better get up to speed on InDesign. Those production environments that haven't made the switch are quietly working on getting switched over as I type. Don Montalvo, NYC
(Version 8.0) | |
| Aug 5 2008 |
SEMIOTICMONKEY Let me be clear. I'm using Indesign from version 1.0. Yes, from day one on freelance projects (Quark on studio projects). So i know the pros and cons of Indesign versus Quark. I'm simply stating the futility of comments Quark bashing on a new (e revamped) version. These comments give us no real info about the software in the actual state but all the so famous Quark (Devs) problems. You all are right about the Quark (Devs) but now we need to know if and how somethig is changed in Quark (SW). I don't believe is a good choice to have no choice but the Adobe Behemoth that, btw, is full occupied charging you for bug fixes in Indesign (and the all CS) from so much time (Illy crashing all the time anyone? Install Air from Admin account? Acrobat costing the same amount on Win and Mac despite the fact there is a module not bundled with the Mac version, and so on). It is better for us, consumer, to have real competition. ps. the DTP arena is always too monolithic in its choice. Or ID or Quark. Gets a bit of life from the Web world (or the 3D world). There are so many ways to accomplish your homework. The right tool for the job not the one ring to rule them all approach is something DTP is unwilling to learn. Oh, btw i'm not willing to take a software only cause it is in a bundle if (IF) there is something better out there. It costs more? Well, i must consider the ROI not the initial cost for a more mature decision.
(Version 8.0) | |
| Aug 2 2008 |
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) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Aug 1 2008 |
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) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Nov 16 2007 |
MACUPDATE ADMIN 7.31 has been pulled off the Quark website. The download errors you will get if you attempt to download this updater (and you will fail in your attempts) are possibly related to the removal of this software. Rumor has it that there will be a new 7.31 updated posted within a few days.
(Version 7.31) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Nov 14 2007 |
JAMUS Would it actually kill them to not force you to fill out a "please spam me" form just to get an updater to fix their bugs? A free new tool or something similar and I could understand the extra hassle, but for an update? COME ON!
(Version 7.31) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Aug 1 2007 |
REVCO I'm glad Quark is pushing ahead with XPress. The updaters are always welcome. Thanks. I've never been really taken by InDesign. It's always had a "PageMaker" feel to it. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. I hear others are happy with it though. Good for them.
(Version 7.3) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
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| Dec 14 2007 |
PJDODD I agree with most of what has been said about Quark 7 (7.0 to 7.31), especially regarding speed and reliability. I use it sparingly on a dual G5 when work comes in from outside sources and it's painful. We only upgraded to Quark 7 because other silly people had gone that route without looking ahead and/or waiting for a stable release. I'm also not a fan of InDesign CS3. It takes as long to load as Quark 7.31 and has it's own speed issues (loading, saving, flattening artwork). There is also a disturbing problem with Pantone colours reproducing accurately from InDesign, especially using RIPs. I liked the comment that InDesign "feels Pagemaker" and it does. There is a lot to champion for Quark 6.5.2, especially speed and stability. It launches in a few seconds and loads and saves files very quickly. I can still crash it when activating fonts but this is also true of every version of Quark and InDesign - the technology changes but the problems with fonts stay the same.
(Version 7.31) | |
 | Aug 1 2007 |
YOXI Installed 7.3 update, repaired permissions, now Quark qon't start up at all, I don't even get one bounce in the dock.
(Version 7.3) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
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| Aug 2 2007 |
YOXI Not quark's fault, in the end - the result of an archive/install in OSX leaving some of the more 'system' files out of some large apps. Quark gave me a fix for it pretty promptly.
(Version 7.3) | |
| Aug 3 2007 |
SEIKA7 In your Quark folder, go into the folder "For System" and run the QuarkXPress Components installer. If that and a restart doesn't let Quark launch, you may need to update prebindings in the Terminal: sudo update_prebinding -root / -force then type your password when it asks and wait several minutes for it to finish. Don't touch the computer while it's working. | |
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