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Print On-Demand Solutions has just announced that they will be "gracefully terminating" Darwin for QuarkXPress in Q3 this year. The current release of Darwin for QuarkXPress, version 7.3, is the last developed version. While this version will continue to be available for purchase, there will be no further product development.
Darwin was one of the first variable-data QuarkXPress XTensions (plug-ins) on the market, and in May 2005, Creo added support for Adobe InDesign. The decision to drop QuarkXPress doesn't come as a big surprise. With continued InDesign adoption across the desktop publishing (DTP) market, Quark continues to be pushed out of this market and are switching focus on their server platform and opportunities in dynamic publishing automation.
Darwin is not the first VDP software for QuarkXPress and InDesign to let Quark go. XMPie also developed plug-ins for QuarkXPress and InDesign, but decided to discontinue development of their QuarkXPress XTension back in 2004. It's understandable that Print On-Demand Solutions has now also decided not to maintain separate development across InDesign and Quark, particularly as they have recently launched their Web Composition Solution (WCS), built on InDesign Server.
Print On-Demand Solutions are encouraging current Darwin for QuarkXPress users to migrate to Darwin for InDesign, through a free cross-grade program available for a limited time (until Darwin for InDesign v3.0 is released in Q3). This promotion is now available for current Darwin users.
Posted on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 10:14 AM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/109