Cross-Media in QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign --McIlroy

Looking at the Big Boys

In this column I want to look at how the two largest software vendors in our industry, Adobe Systems and Quark Inc., tackle the challenge of cross-media publishing. Their approaches are very different.

First a confession. I have, in the past, consulted to both companies, and the discussion often turned to the subject of cross-media publishing. As I pointed out in my last column, in the mid- to late-1990s I was very much in favor of cross-media and advocated it not only to my clients, but also publicly via Seybold Seminars. I could say now that I was wrong. But I think it's a little more nuanced than that. We didn't have all the information then that we have now. If we did, I think we would have seen the situation more clearly. But first a look at these two competing vendors.