Several years ago I was a teacher of computer graphic design. The five software packages that the college taught were (in no particular order) Pagemaker, QuarkXpress, Freehand, Illustrator and Photoshop.
While a resident I increased substantially the input of Adobe Acrobat, and added a bundle of prepress elements to the school. But when I tried to introduce Adobe InDesign, I was thwarted. Flash-in-the-pan, I was told. Quark is king and we only teach Pagemaker because of the number of companies still using it. I left not long after that (for unrelated reasons primarily involving $$$).
Recently I considered a brief return to that noble profession of teaching. But one of the drawbacks (for me at least) was the necessity to bring myself back up to speed with QuarkXpress, which I hadn’t used since the last time I tutored graphic design (sometime around 2002). The college had – in time – replaced Pagemaker with InDesign. I knew this and was pleased by their momentous decision.
But imagine my surprise when I learned that the esteemed institution in question was about to drop QuarkXpress! As an InDesign user I couldn’t be happier. But surely there was still a major market share for the venerable Q out there?
Apparently not. The college – who remains among the most popular in its field – must have done its homework, and InDesign is it. In fact, Adobe Creative Suite is it, for Freehand is also for the chop. The new line-up is InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat. Flash and Dreamweaver for the web components. Imagine that!
So for this teacher of young graphic designers, Quark is banished and InDesign is the new ruler!
Filed under: computer graphics, graphic design, illustration | Tagged: adobe, computer graphics, graphic design, illustration, indesign, photoshop, quarkxpress, web design
