The IT Enquirer, a leading graphics industry website, has just released the results of an in-depth report comparing Flash capabilities in QuarkXPress 8 and InDesign CS4. The report examines the different approaches taken by both companies to interactive Flash file design and development and provides a detailed comparison of both products, rating them on their Flash support.
The report states that Quark and Adobe take a fundamentally different approach to Flash support. Quark’s philosophy appears to be to enable designers to do as much of the Flash work as possible with their existing tools and without needing to be developers, by integrating Flash design tools directly into QuarkXPress 8. In contrast, Adobe’s philosophy appears to be to encourage users to do most of the interactive Flash work in a separate application i.e. Adobe Flash. Adobe divides the effort of creating Flash content between two types of users: layout designers and Flash developers and offers two ‘modes’ of support.
The author tests and rates both products in regards to their Flash functionality, with QuarkXPress 8 winning overall with a score of 101 against Adobe InDesign CS4’s 64. The comparison between the two products shows that QuarkXPress 8 enables layout designers to go further in offering multi-media design without having to learn Flash, while InDesign adds Flash capabilities as an add-on and not as an extra way for its designers to offer services beyond print publication layout.
“QuarkXPress 8’s Flash capabilities are in many cases much easier to learn than the same features in the Flash environment. Quark goes a further distance at supporting a layout design firm’s business by enabling them to offer more to their customers with less effort, training and cost, while Adobe at least expects the same design business to invest in some Flash development training,” said Erik Vlietinck, IT Enquirer.
The report concludes that despite surface resemblances in their ability to create content for the Flash platform, InDesign CS4 only supports basic Flash communications projects such as emagazines, where QuarkXPress 8 goes well beyond that.
The Executive Summary can be found at: https://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/1664/; visitors can download the full report by registering for free.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on February 11, 2009
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