Quark strikes back with PDF alliance

Enfocus is an industry-leading provider of PDF creation tools for designers, printers and publishers, boasting over a decade's worth of experience with the industry standard, cross-platform publishing format. Quark has been under siege from its chief competitor Adobe and its competitively priced Creative Suite 2, but hopes with the strategic partnership to offer users an alternative way to get the most out of PDF creation.

Quark already took its first steps towards streamlining PDF workflows when it joined the Ghent PDF workgroup in March, an organisation that counts Enfocus as its founding member. Quark is banking on the partnership to improve the overall PDF experience within its upcoming QuarkXPress 7 release, and is also planning on providing bundled solutions that streamline certified PDF-based workflows.

Quark's senior vice president of software development Jürgen Kurz claims the move is part of his company's effort to address PDF consistency, and nominates Enfocus' technologies as a perfect complement to QuarkXPress. “Quark will continue to work with companies that will help win this battle for the publishing professional,” he says.

Patrick Van Dam from Enfocus Software also claims the move will provide an alternative to Adobe's Acrobat and InDesign software for those involved with PDF creation. “The Quark and Enfocus strategic alliance will benefit designers,” he says, “giving them a very simple and convenient solution for creating flawless, error-free Certified PDF files that output properly.”

In other Quark news, international education and publishing specialist Scholastic has been appointed as the master distributors of Quark products in Australia. GASAA will also be holding a free one-off Quark 6.5 Tips & Tricks seminar in Sydney on July 12, presented by QuarkXPress product market manager Louis Landa, on visit from the US. To register for the event, email events@gasaa.asn.au.