A company executive challenges the notion that Adobe has won the desktop publishing war and suggests that the Adobe-Macromedia merger gives Quark a good opportunity.
Quark Inc. has not specified when it plans to release Version 7 of its venerable QuarkXPress desktop publishing program, but company officials revealed several new features of the upcoming iteration at this week's AIIM On Demand conference.
Quark executives also are taking on the widespread notion that Adobe Systems Inc. has won the long-running desktop publishing war with its Creative Suite 2.
Hans Hartman, desktop product marketing manager at Quark, said that the new Job Jacket specifications container in Version 7 follows the metaphor of an old-style job ticket.
A Quark Job Jacket "is like the folder that would stay with a graphic-design job as it's passed around from one person to another. It includes everything—printing instructions, contact names, costs of the job, resources, color management settings, number of pages—in a JDF [job definition file]," Hartman said.
Click here to read about the challenge that Adobe's CS2 presents for Quark.
According to Hartman, a Job Jacket can automate a host of areas within a given job's scope, such as the type of printer used, the print-output specifications and the color specifications, reducing potential errors. Users then can make sure a project adheres to the Job Jacket's parameters throughout its development, not just at the final flight-checking stage.
Meanwhile, Quark's embrace of XML-based PPML (personalized print markup language) in Version 7 will allow users to customize content on the fly and print effectively, allowing them to create on-demand content more efficiently than in the past, Hartman said.
"PPML is an emerging standard that is promoted by PODi [Print On Demand Initiative]. We are an executive member of this standards body, which we joined because we think going forward, there will be widespread adoption of it," said Hartman.
"PPML keeps repetitive objects cached on the printer, where they can later be merged with the rest of the content. It serves as a template data source, allowing for different iterations of [a document's] pages. If you are creating a customized real estate brochure for 1,500 people, you can now create a single XPress file instead of having to create 1,500 different pages because the XML data [from the PPML file] is merged into the document," said Hartman.
No, Quark, I don't want to see Adobe cry like a baby. Click here to read a guest commentary.
Response to Quark's latest announcement was muted, at best.
Chuck Weger, president of Elara Systems and the originator of the "preflight" concept, said that while he has QuarkXPress versions 3, 4 and 6 on his laptop for the occasional client file, he has migrated completely to Adobe's InDesign. Moreover, Weger said that he has not paid much attention to Quark's announcements over the past year.
"The sad thing for Quark is that most of my friends who are consultants [or] trainers have done the same. I can't offhand think of anyone—other than friends who work for Quark—who can address the new features of Version 7," Weger said.
In the 30 years he has been programming, Weger said he has never seen a software company treat its loyal customers the way Quark has over the last decade. "It looks like they're finally changing, but I worry that it's too late," he said.
Next Page: Quark executive challenges notion that Adobe has won the war.
Executives at Quark have acknowledged the company's reputation, and under the leadership of CEO Kamar Aulakh, the company has worked to improve customer service.
In a recent interview, Quark Senior Vice President of Marketing Susan Friedman said, "Quark in the past has been entirely and completely focused on product development. This came out of a legacy of development focus that came at the expense of focus in other areas—at expense of our customers.
"In the past, someone could have said we were arrogant, but we have made a lot of changes and demonstrated that we can change. Now we're getting closer to the company that we want to be. We need to keep demonstrating this."
As for the notion that Adobe has won the desktop publishing war, Friedman said, "That's the perception Adobe is trying to create, and I think previously, before the last year, they invested more in getting the message out than we did. Competition is good. That's why we have such a remarkable solution in Quark 7. I have no doubt in my mind that Quark 7 will be the answer to that."
Click here to Andreas Pfeiffer's take on the DTP marketplace.
For his part, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox said that adding workflow capabilities to QuarkXPress makes sense, particularly considering Adobe already has taken such an approach.
"Workflow capabilities [facilitate] the production of documents where many different people—editors, copy editors, photo researchers and graphic artists—participate in the design and pagination process. More importantly, these capabilities can assure more accountability for changes, accuracy in production and consistency throughout a layout, whether single-spread or across a publication," Wilcox said.
Despite his pessimism over Quark's present state, Weger said that he would hate to see Quark go away and wishes the company the best of luck.
"That would just leave Adobe as the Microsoft of the publishing industry. Although I'm sure my friends at Adobe would be happy about that, we've seen what happens to innovation when you have a one-supplier industry, and it isn't pretty," Weger said.
Quark's Friedman predicted that Adobe's purchase of Macromedia Inc. will be a good thing for Quark. "I think they're going to be very distracted over next year or so. It's not a done deal yet. It will be very distracting for both companies. I think, and we have learned this, that customers really do not want to see any company have a monopoly over the solutions that they need.
"We will not be distracted. We will continue to be flexible, to change to be focused equally on product development and customer service. Actually, this is good for us."
Asked if Quark is for sale, Friedman said, "Absolutely not," but added, "We have to be prepared to handle any sort of direction we might need to go into." She said the company is more open to partnering than it has been in the past.
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