Quark Inc. of Denver, Colo., is mostly known for its desktop publishing software brand QuarkXPress, which was first released in 1987. The company has expanded further in the Content Automation space with the acquisition of New York-based Docurated late last year.
But for 2018, the main focus for Quark will be on the upcoming launch of QuarkXPress. According to Veronika Spaet, the desktop channel partner manager for Quark, the new version of QuarkXPress will be made available on May 16 and will feature OpenType enhancements, colour fonts support, hyphenation strictness, built-in JavaScript support, it can create Android Apps, HTML 5 export, and digital preview improvements.
Spaet told EChannelNews that the company has already started its roll out by preparing the market and channel with pre-order offerings for existing customers to get the product before general availability.
There is also a competitive upgrade option for channel partners to target InDesign customers.
“The opportunities for channel partners with Quark is any partner that is working with us will benefit from personal support from the team. It’s important to me to highlight this value because we take care of the channel’s demands,” she said.
In terms of margins, Quark is offering up to 15 per cent margins on the full version of Quark. “Partners will make money with us,” she added.
The target for Quark is the creative space and Spaet said this area is getting saturated with offers that draw customers into a subscription model. Quark offers software licenses and Spaet believes it’s important to offer two ways for channel partners to sell product.
Quark is also targeting markets such as education, government, and charities.
Customer choice is also an important factor for Quark. Spaet does not believe customers should be forced to choose one product over the other.
“We are fighting for the same market segment, but at the end of the day it is choice of the customer and it does not have to be either or. It can be an additional option and sometimes that is the best fit for the customer. So, whenever InDesign is sold; QuarkXPress could be sold as well,” Spaet said.
One of the decisions Quark has made is not to follow in the footsteps of Adobe by offering a suite. The company wants to go in-depth with its core product QuarkXPress instead of trying to scale into more workflows.
