All it offered in terms of new print power was a belated, and underpowered, ability to handle layers and grid-based tables, the rest of the release focusing on sub-shareware-quality web design tools – an extraordinary misjudgment. Quark had to respond and it did so within days by releasing QuarkXPress 5 – which was truly dreadful. Support for vector-based transparency and soft-edged alpha channels in imported Photoshop PSD images enabled InDesign users to produce more attractive work, which is what a designer’s job is all about. Crucially, this transparency didn’t rely on rasterizing down to bitmaps but was PostScript based, so that wherever possible objects were kept as vectors to ensure pin-sharp image-set output. It looked as if it might go the way of PageMaker and Ventura, but, in January 2002, InDesign 2 was launched and it was a revelation – alongside true cell-based table editing, book handling and XML import and export, InDesign broke entirely new ground by adding support for transparency. After the “Quark-killer” hype subsided, very few users were tempted to jump ship by InDesign’s first release, nor by the 1.5 follow-up in early 2001.

Quarkxpress versions history