Comments on: InDesign CS Bible Made In Quark

by: Richardson Stephanie

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:20:10 +0000

It’s just the business and it.s called outsoursing, how I know!

by: Joni

Tue, 28 Dec 2004 23:38:20 +0000

This is just more along the lines of Apple versus Windows, Mac versus PC, Word versus WordPerfect, dogs versus cats, roll the toilet paper from the top versus roll the toilet paper from the bottom, etc., etc., etc., (loosely quoting Yul Brynner in “The King and I”)… But it is a pretty big “Oops!”!!

by: blog of nd

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 09:20:08 +0000

Wonderful irony
Given the long standing intrenchment of Quark in the publishing world, it is hardly surprising, yet deliciously ironic, that the recent Wiley Publishing book Adobe InDesign cs Bible, written by Glenn Gruman was actually originated in Quark!

by: Pariah S. Burke

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 21:24:43 +0000

Nah. It isn’t that surprising.

Look at it this way: Quark 5 is considered by most to be an irrelevant maintenance release. Very, very few serious organizations spent the dough for Quark 5. It simply didn’t provide enough innovation or new utility to justify the investment.

Quark 6 is OS X only and it only saves back to version 5 , which, in a book publishing workflow, requires everyone from the editors to the proofers to the imposers to the RIP stations to be upgraded to Quark 6—or at least 5. Since 5 isn’t typically worth the investment, and 6 requires every station to be upgraded to a new OS—which also means buying new computers (for many) and upgrading all other mission-critical software in the workflow—many companies are electing to remain on Quark 4.1 until their budgets allow them to upgrade the entire workflow, hardware and software.

Besides: Look at Wiley’s books. I’m not knocking them by any means, but they don’t need the features of Quark 6. For what Wiley produces, Quark 4.1 does the job.

Quark 4.1 is still very stable and still very much a part of the publishing industries; most newspapers still run XPress and QPS 4.1, by the way.

by: Samuel John Klein

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 16:44:50 +0000

Wiley’s still using Quark 4?

If you ask me, that’s the real news.

by: Pariah S. Burke

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 10:00:07 +0000

When this story first broke, I contacted the author of Adobe InDesign CS Bible, Galen Gruman, for a comment.

His statement includes a perfectly logical explanation:

Galen Gruman: “The publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has a standard publishing platform, QuarkXPress 4, so it produces all its books on it. I as the author have nothing to do with their platform decisions and it is misleading to insinuate by citing that book’s chapter that it means anything about the relative strengths of either program.”

by: Pariah S. Burke

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 09:53:30 +0000

Actually, it was taken quite seriously by certain interested parties.

I’ll withhold further comment until I receive an official statement (or enough time has passed to safely say that no official comment will be forthcoming).

by: Samuel John Klein

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 04:57:05 +0000

Maybe it looks bad for InDesign for this one. I predict it will blow over.

The e-newsletter “Quark Particles” is a strange little beastie. Tone makes a very big impression on me, and the tone of the newsletter is mild irreverence of a studied sort…so obviously studied that it’s a little embarrasing to read. This makes it a little hard for me to take seriously.

And the fact that Quark maybe thinks that I will take this as some sort of vote of no-confidence in InDesign…well, I find that a little bit insulting.