Quark Now Supports Adobe InDesign and InCopy in Their Quark Publishing System

Mon, Oct 27, 2008

Quark Now Supports Adobe InDesign and InCopy in Their Quark Publishing System

Here’s a dramatic turn of events: Quark has announced that their widely-used Quark Publishing System (QPS) will soon support Adobe InDesign and InCopy, making it the only publishing solution that lets users use either QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign as their page layout tool.

What does this mean for design firms, publishers and corporations?

You can use either page layout tool to build projects, or portions of projects, and then combine them.
You can use whichever page layout tool your client requires, and still be able to use the same content in either application.
Just like QuarkXPress users, InDesign and InCopy users can collaborate simultaneously on the same layout, at the component level — story, photo & caption, etc.
One workflow system shows the status of ALL your projects.
One repository for all your assets, available to users of any application.

Who’s going to use it?

I can imagine publishers having staff members using InDesign to design one part of a project or campaign (book jacket, poster, magazine cover, etc.) while others work on the inside pages in QuarkXPress. I can also imagine laying out some publications in InDesign, others in QuarkXPress, while sharing all the content in real time.

Or not… only time will tell.

Other input options:

There are several other ways to input content, including Adobe InCopy, QuarkCopyDesk, a Web browser, and Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word users can even author structured XML in a process similar to using Style Sheets, just by adding Quark’s Xpress Author plug-in.

For lots more information:

Please see our additional stories on QPS:

And of course, Quark’s QPS website.

Availability

Quark announced that they’ll have a pre-release program for the QPS XTensions for Adobe InDesign in “fall 2008″. That would mean sometime before December 21.

In addition, QPS 8 will be released in the fall, along with QuarkCopyDesk 8. These new versions take on all the new features of QuarkXPress 8, in addition to the new features added when QPS received a complete rewrite for version 7.

The InDesign XTensions at first will work only with QPS 8, but Quark says they’ll also have it for QPS 7.

The InDesign XTensions will be cross-platform (Mac and Windows), with the Mac version arriving first. Quark says the Windows version will arrive about three months later.

InDesign and InCopy CS3 will be supported first, then CS4.

The QPS server software will run on both Windows 2008 Server and Mac OS X 10.5.

(To hear me discuss the importance of this announcement, check out the October 27th Creative Pro - Design Tools Weekly podcast.)

Integration, Layout, QuarkXPress 8

This post was written by:

Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7, and the QuarkXPress 7 training at Lynda.com. In addition, Jay writes for several other publications and speaks at industry events.

Contact the author

3 Comments For This Post

Jay Nelson Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 9:22 am

Eileen Mullan wrote a brief but helpful “perspective” article at eContent:

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Breaking-the-Barrier-Improving-Workflow-with-Quark-51292.htm

Jon Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Jay, just one thing, your assertion that QPS is the only publishing system that supports both Quark and InDesign is wildly incorrect, check out sytems from Atex and Saxotech to name just two that have had this support for years!

Please can you correct the wording in your article.

Thanks

Jay Nelson Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm

Well, heck. You got me curious about this, so I posed the question to Quark’s Rainer Heckmann, who along with Joshua Duhl, briefed me on QPS 8. He agreed to allow me to post his reply, which may shed some light on the subject:

“QPS indeed is not the first or the only publishing system that supports QuarkXPress and InDesign. The systems mentioned by Jonathan, Atex and Saxotech (and others) can be used with QuarkXPress and QuarkCopyDesk as well as with InDesign and InCopy. However, those systems are generally used by newspapers and I am not aware of any newspaper that would use QuarkXPress and InDesign within the same editorial workflow (I’m not claiming there are no newspapers using QuarkXPress and InDesign within the same workflow, but I never came across one doing it). The main reason is, newspaper publishing is more or less “industrial production”, and therefore newspapers usually decide to use one or the other page layout application, but not both at the same time.

So, while other systems could be used with QuarkXPress and InDesign in a single workflow, I am pretty sure there are very few (if any) implementations of those systems that use both page layout applications together with their editor’s tools in the same workflow. (In their ad production departments most newspapers have to use QuarkXPress and InDesign, because they get QuarkXPress and InDesign ad files (beside PDF and other formats).)

However, if you compare QPS with its two main competitors, Woodwing Smart Connection Enterprise and vjoon (formerly known as Softcare) K4, then QPS is the first and only publishing system (or, to be more precise, collaborative workflow system) that supports both QuarkXPress with QuarkCopyDesk and InDesign with InCopy in a single workflow.”

So Jon, what do you think of that answer? Does it vindicate my statement, or do you still think I need to rephrase it?

1 Trackbacks For This Post

Jay Nelson Discusses Using InDesign with QPS 8 in the Design Tools Weekly Podcast | Planet Quark Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am

[...] that Quark Publishing System 8 (QPS will support both InDesign and QuarkXPress documents here. In fact, you’ll be able to use and update stories, pictures and other assets within [...]

Jay Nelson Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Eileen Mullan wrote a brief but helpful “perspective” article at eContent:

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Breaking-the-Barrier-Improving-Workflow-with-Quark-51292.htm
Jon Says:
October 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Jay, just one thing, your assertion that QPS is the only publishing system that supports both Quark and InDesign is wildly incorrect, check out sytems from Atex and Saxotech to name just two that have had this support for years!

Please can you correct the wording in your article.

Thanks
Jay Nelson Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Well, heck. You got me curious about this, so I posed the question to Quark’s Rainer Heckmann, who along with Joshua Duhl, briefed me on QPS 8. He agreed to allow me to post his reply, which may shed some light on the subject:

“QPS indeed is not the first or the only publishing system that supports QuarkXPress and InDesign. The systems mentioned by Jonathan, Atex and Saxotech (and others) can be used with QuarkXPress and QuarkCopyDesk as well as with InDesign and InCopy. However, those systems are generally used by newspapers and I am not aware of any newspaper that would use QuarkXPress and InDesign within the same editorial workflow (I’m not claiming there are no newspapers using QuarkXPress and InDesign within the same workflow, but I never came across one doing it). The main reason is, newspaper publishing is more or less “industrial production”, and therefore newspapers usually decide to use one or the other page layout application, but not both at the same time.

So, while other systems could be used with QuarkXPress and InDesign in a single workflow, I am pretty sure there are very few (if any) implementations of those systems that use both page layout applications together with their editor’s tools in the same workflow. (In their ad production departments most newspapers have to use QuarkXPress and InDesign, because they get QuarkXPress and InDesign ad files (beside PDF and other formats).)

However, if you compare QPS with its two main competitors, Woodwing Smart Connection Enterprise and vjoon (formerly known as Softcare) K4, then QPS is the first and only publishing system (or, to be more precise, collaborative workflow system) that supports both QuarkXPress with QuarkCopyDesk and InDesign with InCopy in a single workflow.”

So Jon, what do you think of that answer? Does it vindicate my statement, or do you still think I need to rephrase it?

Jay Nelson Discusses Using InDesign with QPS 8 in the Design Tools Weekly Podcast | Planet Quark Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
[...] that Quark Publishing System 8 (QPS will support both InDesign and QuarkXPress documents here. In fact, you’ll be able to use and update stories, pictures and other assets within [...]

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