Update your ancient Quark on the cheap
Oh, QuarkXPress. My fondest Mac memories are tied in with you. It was one of the first programs I ever learned on the Mac. It was also the most frustrating piece of design software ever -- guaranteed to crash the computer at least once an hour, and don't even think about using the Auto Backup feature on the early versions. I learned Quark back in version 3.1.1 and cursed its existence through the next decade ... until Quark 7. It did something that it had never done before -- not crash on my Mac. It was a stable piece of software and while definitely not my preferred design software, it doesn't make me want to cry in a corner if I have to use it. Quark Inc. is offering to upgrade any version of QuarkXPress - going back to version 3 - to the latest version (8.0.2) for a single upgrade price of € 399/£ 279/$299.
- So what if you don't have a serial number? Let Quark know. They have a database of serial numbers and will do their best to find the missing serial number so you can upgrade. Same if you never registered your license to begin with. Quark will also accept a fax or scan of the original installation CD, disks, or receipts as proof of purchase.
QuarkXPress 8.0.2 requires OS X 10.4 or higher, G5 PowerPC or Intel processor, 1GB of RAM and 1GB of hard disk space.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Casey said 3:43PM on 4-13-2009
Like you Megan, I learned Quark on 3.1 at a newspaper and ever since 4.5 it has become almost obsolete. With the introduction of inDesign, I very rarely see Quark files very often. I actually enjoyed Quark and wouldn't mind testing the waters again just to see the 'features' - but it will take a lot to sway me back. (especially with the shut down/crashes prior)
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BING0 said 4:00PM on 4-13-2009
Count me as a another Quark 3.0-5.0 former user. Three things to come to mind here....
1-A powerful piece desktop publishing software which I relied upon on a daily basis.
2-Some of the worst software technical support I have encountered over the past 24 years.
3-Extrememly overpriced upgrades.
$299? Nice jesture, but no thanks.
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Spinfusor said 5:04PM on 4-13-2009
My thoughts exactly.
Quark spent way too much time raking in money while releasing nothing but crap. I wouldn't go back to Quark if I could get an upgrade for free.
QuarkXPress 6 holds the distinction of being the only program I've ever used to freeze and corrupt a file while it was being saved.
SubGenius said 9:25PM on 4-13-2009
Tim Gill and Fred Ebrahimi's arrogant management is the root cause. They wouldn't listen to their customers and treated them as a nuisance. Also a great example of what happens when a design and engineering company is run by accountants and marketing.
Microsoft is next.
reallycrazyguy said 4:08PM on 4-13-2009
Please. Somebody, buy our software. Oh, and delete that installation of Indesign while your at it.
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mark said 4:27PM on 4-13-2009
Yeah they must be extremely desperate to get customers. Aldus PageMaker FTW!
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joaquin said 4:31PM on 4-13-2009
$299 for an upgrade is still pretty expensive. $799 for the full version is outrageous IMO. It doesn't seem right to still be charging so much for this software after all these years. (Same goes for Adobe)
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Mike Evangelist said 4:34PM on 4-13-2009
Don't you love the smell of desperation in the morning.
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jp said 5:25PM on 4-13-2009
I'm sorry, but what the hell is the story with the pricing in euro???
$299 US = €223.72
£279 Sterling = €309.90
How can they justify it being 79% more expensive in Euro zone countries?!?!
Absolute extortion of Europeans.
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JaceFace said 5:35PM on 4-13-2009
Pricing for products is rarely based on what other economies pay for the same product. Prices are normally set based on what the manufacturers think that local markets can/will bare.
Hence a PBR costing $1.75 at a crappy bar will cost $100 at Yankee Stadium.
It's not extortion unless they make you purchase it, wouldn't you say?
Also, boo, Quark is lame.
yakov chodosh said 9:35AM on 4-20-2009
Euro includes taxes…
jp said 9:47AM on 4-20-2009
I'm well aware that the euro price includes VAT. So does the Sterling price. There's still a €90 difference in Sterling price versus Euro Price.
If I add 15%, which is the min VAT rate in the EU to the Dollar price it's €257.27. €141 difference between that and that and the Euro price.
It's a joke. No one will buy it. I certainly won't.
Jamus said 5:34PM on 4-13-2009
"... guaranteed to crash the computer at least once an hour,"
Yes, but it does not stop there. For ent/corp licensing customers we have the pleasure of dealing with the lovely "Quark License Administrator" server.
QLA is one of those dripping pieces of code that you just want to see disappear in a hard drive fire and never have to look at it again. It has this lovely habit of randomly deciding to take over the whole computer it is installed on. After months of trying to baby it along, we finally had to bite the bullet and set it up on a machine all by itself. That way it can grab the entire CPU and it hurts nothing but itself.
Competition is great, but Quark is long past its time to go extinct.
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Fred O said 5:35PM on 4-13-2009
I've got 2-3 thousand dollars in old Quark software dating back to 3, 4, 5, and 6. And hundreds of hours in "hold" time to India for "permission" to use their software for Version 6. Reinstalling was the only way to resolve the bi-monthly shut down of Quark. Not to mention the rudeness of their "support" team.
This what happens when you don't have competition for a few years, you start treating your loyal customers like thieves. Indesign changed that, in fact Quark made Indesign a better product because of it.
I'm not spending three hundred dollars for Quark when I can put that towards the next CSS upgrade. If they want me back, the next one would have to be free with a written apology, and I 'm still not sure that I'd install it. Four years later and I'm still mad at them.
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BOK said 6:19PM on 4-13-2009
This is great news.
Not because I want to upgrade, but because I love seeing this rotten company down and nearly out.
Thanks for the memories, Quark.
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falcon5768 said 7:06PM on 4-13-2009
We moved over to InDesign simply because it took years for Quark to get its act together and release a OS X version of their software.
And yes, I actually learned Graphic Design in college using Quark, but used InDesign at a newspaper and even in the early days on InDesign, there was a night and day difference in usability with Quark being practically unusable it crashed so much even doing basic operations.
Sorry 300 is too much for that piece of crap. They had their chance, they WHERE the industry standard, but just like Avid vs Final Cut Pro, Quark squandered their lead in lack of support to Adobe, and it eroded their base to nothing now.
Perfect example how NOT to run a company.
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kompakter said 8:20PM on 4-13-2009
The last gasp of a dying (dead?) company.
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Kit Cowan said 10:00PM on 4-13-2009
desperation in the form of too little too late.
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Joe said 9:35AM on 4-14-2009
A cross-platform upgrade might be more useful here... if you own InDesign, here's a discount for Quark...
I was done with Quark in 1999 when the macs I supported were upgraded to the G4 towers. This was the first time these offices had USB-based Macs, and I had a hell of a time getting Quark installed because it required that damn dongle, and they didn't have a USB version. We had to order converters for every machine.
I left that position a few months later for different reasons, but I'm glad my current employer is all about InDesign.
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cconvile said 10:15AM on 4-14-2009
Still using Quark 7.31 but not by choice.
And in the future I will lead the march to abolish the beast.
Oh, don't be wrong for 20 years it survived us mostly well.
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