Freehand and Quark XPress?

[freed]

Do you remember Quark XPress? It was once the leading application for professional desktop publishing, and many big names in magazine and newspaper publishing used Quark throughout their offices.
Then Adobe was able to advance with InDesign as a direct competition. Adobe's tactic to combine InDesign with the Illustrator/Photoshop suite made it a serious competitor which gained more and more followers (not me by the way). Quark lagged behind due to their bad upgrade and support policy and almost disappeared. Since a few years, they have re-invented themselves, and Quark has been regularly updated and affordably priced. Disappointed Adobe users begin to return.
Quark's strongest point is a multi-platform approach. Print, web and now tablet as well as mobile can be designed and transformed easily. Flash and interactive content are highly integrated.
For me, Quark and FreeHand always felt alike. The same intuitive spirit it seems.
Could Quark be(come) interested in FreeHand? Their newest vesion 9 has some design features, but FH would be way ahead.

[Sally]

I learnt Quarkxpress many many years ago but somehow I have been using Indesign recently. I really prefer Quark but I suspect the new version is for Intel Apples which for the time being rules me out.

[FFH Mark]

For me, Quark and FreeHand always felt alike. The same intuitive spirit it seems.
Could Quark be(come) interested in FreeHand? Their newest vesion 9 has some design features, but FH would be way ahead.

QuarkXPress 9 is coming out shortly and I will be trying out the demo, hopefully this week. As a book designer, I use Quark and InDesign about 40-60% depending on the job. I have some book layouts requiring better PDF translation and chapter stitching where ID shines. If Quark could fix that instead of me tediously bringing chapter PDFs into Acrobat, I would use it much more. Indeed it is simpler and feels more in line with FreeHand's UI.

Until the fate of FreeHand is resolved this year, it is only speculation about who or what its future course will be. I will hold my part of this conversation until later on.

[pedrocasilva]

Could Quark be(come) interested in FreeHand? Their newest vesion 9 has some design features, but FH would be way ahead.

If they do I say they should go ahead with a spiritual successor with the same GUI and features rather than having the hassle of asking adobe for it (adobe would never sell it to them unless obliged to; this "if" the law suit comes to fruition and is won)

Meanwhile we're approaching MacOS Lion release date and our workflows are risking getting further compromised.

Anyway, I e-mailed their support a few months ago with the following message:

Suggestion/plea? (is this doable?)

Hi, I was reading a thread on Adobe forums, because I upgraded to snow leopard and my freehand copy isn't working the way it was on leopard. Anyway, I'm sure you guys are familiar with the program/interface and how a lot of designers refuse to move on, which takes me to my point, I was browsing said thread and saw a discussion of who'd be able to step up to fill the void:

"Quark
pro: They have the financial resources, worldwide exposure, and development skills. They learned a HUGE lesson about treating customers badly and now have a new Corporate Management. Pen tools in QuarkXPress are limited and it needs a robust vector application. Both Mac and PC.
con: Treatment of Quark users from 10 years ago still lingers. Quark might remove multi-page feature in FreeHand and/or change it to match QXP's compatibility. Slow development process focusing on version "fixes" rather than a new version every 18 months, like Adobe."

Now, I'm not nuts to suggest you try to buy it off Adobe, I've sadly given hope on that ever happening if not by legal action (that I don't believe will happen/bring results) so seeing how further backed down the wall we are... Could I beg that you consider to make a spiritual freehand sucessor? familiar interface but up to date, running on intel macs from the ground and compatible/supported?

Please, I beg of you; I've been using freehand since 1999 and don't intent on giving it up for illustrator, but I'm running out of options. And like me there's thousands of artists that depend of it for their workflow's.

Sadly never heard back from them, didn't even get an "automatic" response. (The con the guy from aforementioned thread seems like a huge plus, I dread the 18 month=new version Adobe method)

The mail I used was cservice@quark.com


Perhaps they'd be more open to freefreehand organization direct negotiation/trying to figure something out with them speaking on our behalf?

Also this:

-> http://forums.quark.com/p/23845/97098.aspx#97098 (they have forums)

And this:

-> http://forums.quark.com/p/22494/90950.aspx#90950


They really fit well together:

[FFH Mark]

Do you remember Quark XPress? It was once the leading application for professional desktop publishing, and many big names in magazine and newspaper publishing used Quark throughout their offices.
Then Adobe was able to advance with InDesign as a direct competition. Adobe's tactic to combine InDesign with the Illustrator/Photoshop suite made it a serious competitor which gained more and more followers (not me by the way). Quark lagged behind due to their bad upgrade and support policy and almost disappeared. Since a few years, they have re-invented themselves, and Quark has been regularly updated and affordably priced. Disappointed Adobe users begin to return.

There is a very insightful article on the history and possible future of Quark, InDesign, Adobe, etc. that appeared in MacUser this week. As an InDesign and QuarkXPress user, I was impressed reading it . . .
http://www.macuser.co.uk/4910-adobe-vs- ... ing-itself