InDesign is a page layout program for print. It is made by Adobe and was created as a response to a number of designers who were using the vector illustration program, Illustrator, to lay out their pages for print instead of the using the seemingly more unweildy Pagemaker or Quark programs. However, Illustrator has it's shortcomings when used for such a purpose (mainly color output issues when dropping a raster/continuous tone image into the layout.) InDesign was developed in response to this problem. It has a great price: Under $200 as compared to upwards of $700 each for the other two.

Quark is the layout program of choice in the FSU Fine Arts department, FAMU's Graphic Design dept. and many other educational programs across the country. For years, Apple and Quark deeply discounted prices for academic use, so many institutions are equipped with it. And because it was the first, larger and older design companies still use Quark. Newer and smaller companies prefer Pagemaker for the same reason that even newer and even smaller companies are choosing InDesign—Cost.

So Quark is an excellant, streamlined tool for learning the principles of page layout (once you learn one, you can figure out the others.) Pagemaker is great for books and other large jobs, and once mastered, has the most responsive and professional toolset. Illustrator should be used for one page documents with heavily manipulated type and no raster imagery (flyers, posters.)