A new start with Quark

First impressions of QuarkXPress 7

Adrian Bridgwater provides an overview of his thoughts on QuarkXPress 7 and makes mention of some of its major features.

As I have, up until now, previously based my page production software application experience around a product that competes with Quark Express (a product that for the purposes of this piece shall remain nameless) – getting used to a new package seemed a little daunting at first.

It’s a bit like when you switch jobs and you’ve previously been used to using Outlook for your daily e-mail – all of a sudden you go into work on day one of your new job and as part of your “IT induction” the tech support shows you your new notebook proudly loaded up with Lotus notes. Agh! No no, don’t worry says the techie – it’s designed to do the same job. You’ll be fine. It does take a while to get used to new application packages, but if they are designed intuitively and work well, there’s no reason why you can’t be comfortable with a new tool. Hey, you might even be able to become application bi-lingual!

Essentially, Quark says that its latest product (now actually shipping as a version 7.1 enhanced upgrade) is built with the following attributes:

·          Reliability, predictability and consistency.

·          Now shows improved benefits on improving accuracy, quality and productivity.

·          Provides tools that stimulate creativity and work organically.

According to Quark, “Because so many graphic designers have taken on massive production responsibilities, we believe that in addition to adding new creative features, the best way to support the creative process is to free up time and encourage collaboration.”