QuarkXpress or InDesign for Desktop Publishing?

Asked by chrismehigan (10

) November 5th, 2009

I am studying a Masters Degree at the moment and part of the course is a module in Desktop Publishing. We are using QuarkXpress at the moment. While I am still in education for the year I have the opportunity to purchase one of these packages at the education rate – substantial discount. However, I can only really afford one of them, so I want to make sure I get the one which will serve me better after college.
My main concerns are: What is the standard program used for Desktop Publishing?
Is there cross compatibility – if I am using QuarkXpress and need to exchange a file or items with another company using InDesign is that possible?
When sending files to the printers do they mostly just take PDFs or is there a preference for particular file types?

Further background – I am based in Ireland, and the type of work I would be doing with the software is mostly PR related (think newsletters, posters, flyers, brochures etc.)

Many thanks for your help.

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2 Answers

I cannot speak as to what’s used more in Europe. In the US, there seems to be a shift happening to InDesign. Files can be converted from Quark to InDesign, but the conversion isn’t exact, as this page explains.

aprilsimnel (30754

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Quark is used by an older generation and is slowly being fazed out. Many publishers are making the switch over to InDesign. Adobe products are the front runners for the industry, so it would be natural for a desktop publishing product by adobe to be the best choice when making a purchase with the future in mind. Our company has both programs and yes, our printers take pdfs, but they also accept eps files (which is preferred ). There is no compatibility issue when sending files to the printer from either program. Problems can sometimes occur when going from program to program. If you plan on doing design work with illustrator/photoshop and then layout in a desktop publishing program it would also be more ideal to use indesign because you could buy the entire package at the educational discount (it is very handy to have all programs). Hope that helps.

Georgia_Printco (139

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