Does InDesign produce better quality eBooks than XPress?

[Giambattista M.]

Hello,
My question regards eBook production.
What about the quality of the fixed ePub 3 and Kindle formats created using Adobe InDesign CC compared to Quark XPress 2016 (v. 12).
Are they equivalent?
Does InDesign produce better quality than XPress?
Are there any differences?
I will appreciate any information.

[Geоrge]

Why don't compare with last QuarkXPress?

[Giambattista M.]

Because I use Mac OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks, running on Mac mini late 2009.

Quark XPress 2016 (v.12) is the last version compatible with Mavericks.

[Test Screen Name]

Ebook tech is changing fast, being stuck in the past (system wise) means you'll miss a lot. But neither is really a specialist ebook authoring tool. More a second outlet for people who already use the tool. 

[Giambattista M.]

Many thanks for your reply; I appreciate it. However, if possible, please stick to my question. Is there any quality difference between XPress 2016 and InDesign CC regarding the production of eBooks in fixed ePub 3 and Kindle formats? Thank you.

[BobLevine]

It is highly unlikely that a five year old version of Xpress is going to be better than a new version of InDesign. Additionally, the chances of finding enough users in this community with any recent Xpress experience is nearly zero.

There's a pretty active Quark group on Facebook. You might want to gather some opinions there but the real proof is in the pudding. You can get trials of both applications and make your own judgements.

[rayek.elfin]

I have read that an investment firm acquired Quark last year, and according to users it is all going downhill since then. Their business model changed, and many users have decided to either not upgrade or jump ship.

Anyway, back on topic.

InDesign does a pretty good job with fixed layout epub 3 ebooks. There is no direct Kindle KF8 export, which means that the conversion must be accomplished with Amazon's tools.

Compared to Quark, vanilla InDesign offers less standard interactive objects to play with. Quark has a couple of pre-built objects such as a scrollable zone, or an image gallery component. InDesign offers much more animation control, allows for import of custom CSS, and the multi-state object is rather flexible for a wide variety of interactive behaviour.

You mention that you use Quark 2016? Forget it. Apple introduced changes in their ebook format and requirements in the first quarter of 2019, which breaks functionality/compatibility/validation for epubs created in Quark 2016, as far as I am aware.

Alternatively, consider PubCoder in combination with InDesign, or just use PubCoder standalone. I personally consider PubCoder one of the best FXL epub layout design apps in the market right now. It will happily run on older Macs (Yosemite).

PubCoder exports to FXL epub and XF8 Amazon formats. It will tell you while working on a layout which functionality is compatible with each platform, and also exposes the code (as well has a built-in validator).

In any case InDesign will create FXL epub files that are garantueed to work. Quark 2016 will probably require manual fixing in code after publising.

PS both Quark and InDesign are flawed in their image optimization, and produce image files sizes which are unacceptable (in my opinion). At least in InDesign the epub export options include a very essential option to use your own optimized image.