Does it ever feel like modern creative software is in a perpetual sprint? Subscriptions, constantly syncing, AI suggestions popping up before you’ve even finished thinking… it’s all about speed, speed, speed.
To be honest, a lot of that is genuinely useful. Faster workflows, smoother interfaces, and instant sharing. These things save time and make your work more accessible but the human hand on the wheel can start to slip away, leaving us a little breathless.
That’s why our recent conversation with Martin Turner, one of QuarkXPress’s most seasoned power users, struck a chord. Martin, is a Chartered Public Relations Practitioner with over 30 years of experience, has worked across everything from healthcare to arts and manufacturing projects through his consultancy, Brand Motor. He’s also authored QuarkXPress training guides trusted by designers worldwide – and he’s been using the software since 1996.
“The confidence that QuarkXPress has been there and looked after its users, that is huge.” Martin said, “it’s a simple statement that lies the heart of what makes QuarkXPress different.”
QuarkXPress isn’t different because it resists change. It’s different because it’s selective about what matters. While the industry often optimizes for speed and surface-level simplicity, QuarkXPress stays focused on depth, structure, and reliability. It has added new capabilities thoughtfully and stayed aligned with the real demands of complex documents rather then every passing trend.
While many modern design tools are optimized for short, digital-first work such as social posts, marketing layouts, and collaborative mock-ups, QuarkXPress has remained dedicated to a different kind of work. Books. Academic journals. Technical manuals. Reports that run hundreds or even thousands of pages.
This is where QuarkXPress still excels.
Our conversation with Martin Turner, reflects on the craft of desktop publishing, his past projects and shares why QuarkXPress has always been the answer.
Built for the Long Run, Not the Quick Win
QuarkXPress, the quiet powerhouse built for the long haul. “QuarkXPress has been trustworthy with my documents… and it doesn’t steal my information,” Martin Turner said, “it’s all about a tool designed for people who care about control, precision, and trust.”
In our conversation with Martin, one theme which kept resurfacing was longevity. Not just how long software lasts, but how well it holds together when documents grow, evolve, and refuse to stay simple.
For one of Martin’s most demanding projects to date, trust mattered deeply for a 180,000-word Dutch translation of the Bible. This was a four-year process involving fifty people dedicated to checking the translation. “What’s the most reliable, the only reliable way to get that absolutely, right?” Martin said. “QuarkXPress.”
The stakes in such a project are genuinely high. As Martin emphasized, “The Bible is the world’s best-selling book, if you make even a single mistake in it, someone will spot it immediately.” With sacred text, there is zero margin for error.
The scope was daunting, 180,000 words, published in three different print editions plus an electronic version. Dutch is not Martin’s first language, which meant every typographic decision had to be precise. QuarkXPress handled the entire project without hesitation, reinforcing something Martin has learnt repeatedly, speed is impressive, but reliability is essential.
Typography Designed for Those Who Care
Another key element Martin mentioned was typography, not as decoration, but as responsibility.
“Another key element in this project was making sure the typography was set exactly right,” Martin told us. “When you’re working with something like the Bible, you’re not just laying out text. You’re stewarding it.”
QuarkXPress, he explained, knows that you care about how words behave across hundreds of pages. It treats text as the foundation of the document, not an afterthought. Deep OpenType controls, Variable Fonts handling, Hanging Punctuation, Baseline Grids, and precise alignment tools are all there, not to show off, but to quietly do their job.
For academic, scientific, and long-form publishing, built-in LaTeX and MathML support, for example, are not flashy features, but practical necessities.
Anyone who has managed equations, footnotes, captions, and references across multiple chapters knows how quickly small inconsistencies can grow into serious problems.
When the Wrong Tool Breaks Everything
As the conversation continued, Martin shared another story that revealed what happens when that kind of power is missing.
A major healthcare provider in Leicestershire was developing a health plan valued at a high value. The document at the center of the project was critical. The content itself was complex, but the real problem lay in the tool being used to manage it.
With the deadline immovable, Martin was brought in to help. He extracted the document, rebuilt it properly in QuarkXPress using structured listing, redlining, and proper document control, and worked evenings to get it over the line. The plan was submitted on time. The funding was secured.
“There was no debate the next year,” Martin said. “They came straight back to me and we started in QuarkXPress.” The lesson was simple and failure would have been a crisis for Leicestershire.
The result is not just efficiency, but confidence. Fewer manual fixes. Fewer surprises. More trust in the document as a living system.
Stability is a Feature, Even If It Isn’t Trendy
Stability is treated as a feature, even if it never trends on social media. Martin described working with documents containing hundreds of pages, dense typography, and high-resolution images without slowdowns or surprises.
“Twenty years ago, you’d be waiting hours for some of this,” he reflected. “Computers are faster now, but even with massive documents, Quark just stays responsive.”
When deadlines are tight and last-minute changes need to ripple cleanly through dozens of chapters, predictability becomes priceless. It may not be glamorous, but it is transformative.
Files That Survive Time
One of QuarkXPress’s most understated strengths is longevity. “You can open a QuarkXPress document from 1996 and work on it,” Martin said. “QuarkXPress is the only desktop publishing software that can still open its files.”
For Martin, this connects to something deeper. He works near a print museum in Belgium that dates to the sixteenth century. Publishing, he believes, is about continuity.
“Our ability to connect with the past matters,” he said. “QuarkXPress has respected that continuity.”
Ownership, Ethics, and Trust
In an era dominated by subscriptions and data harvesting, QuarkXPress’s approach feels almost radical.
QuarkXPress introduced AI carefully, with a clear ethical stance. “QuarkXPress introduced AI done right,” Martin noted. “It doesn’t share your data with anybody.”
For projects that span years, ownership matters. Your tools do not change overnight. Your files remain yours.
“QuarkXPress has been trustworthy with my documents,” Martin said. “Trustworthy in listening. And trustworthy in respecting my work.”
The Road Less Traveled
QuarkXPress has never tried to be everything for everyone. By not chasing every trend, it has carved out a clear identity.
It serves people who care deeply about craft, consistency, and control. For books, academic work, technical manuals, and projects where precision and scale matter, it continues to deliver.
Once you have worked at that level, it becomes very difficult to go back.
