iMac and CS2 compatible?

CS2 and to a lesser degree CS3 are not compatible with your iMac.

It is not compatible and is time to bite the bullet and either upgrade CS2, whether you

like it or not or find newer compatible products.

Adobe CS3 and CS4 basically stopped working reliably or not at all once OS X 10.10 Yosemite was introduced.

Adobe CS2 stop working after OS X 10.7 Lion was introduced as CS2 is an even older Adobe CS version.

You have three options.

First,

Subscribe and update to the lastest versions of Adobe CS6.

Yes, ***, but if you absolutely rely on Adobe software, then you have no choice, but to subscribe to Adobe's subscription/"conscription" ransomware, rent-a-software model.

Second,

If you have a new iMac, you will need to purchase an external optical drive to accomplish this next option.

If you want to keep using your Adobe CS2, you can purchase virtualisation software like Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion or the free open sourced virtualisation software Virtual Box, then call Apple directly at 1-800-MYAPPLE and ask for sales and purchase OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard SERVER install disc ($20 U.S.D).

Once you receive this, you launch the virtualisation software, you insert the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard server disc into the external optical and then install OS X Snow Leopard server inside of the virtualusation software.

Once installed, you can startup OS X Snow Leopard Server to boot into the OS from inside the virtualisation software.

Once OS X Snow Leopard Server is up and running, you can reinstall all of your Adobe CS2 apps from disc and run Adobe CS2 in virtualisation mode.

Third option.

Learn new tools and workflow.

Due to the passage of time and technology, there are now completely viable and cheaper alternatives to Adobe graphics software and Adobe subscription ("conscription", "ransomware") model.

In the Photoshop replacement category

Pixelmator ( a much cheaper and very close Photoshop clone that just recently and finally got some cool third party plugins!)

Serif Labs Affinity Photos (version 1.x has already MANY of the advanced feature set that current PS versions have and is a very powerful image editor)

In the Illustrator replaement category

The only direct competitor-Serif Labs Affinity Designer

An Adobe Page layout replacememt is still problematic.

Quark Xpress is ripping off its customer base, too, so this may or may not be a viable page layout replacement, either.

The only other options that I can recommend for cheaper and powerful page layout app options are.

Apple Pages

Swift Publisher

iStudio Publisher

free, open source page layout app Scribus

Good Luck!

Hi Michel,

MichelPM wrote:

Quark Xpress is ripping off its customer base, too, so this may or may not be a viable page layout replacement, either.

Can you explain why you think this please? We see our customers being really happy with the perpetual license model and many InDesign customers switching, so I'd like to know where you get this impression.

Thanks

Matthias

Hi Matthias,

I would love to hear the answer as well. It's unfortunate that on a technical support site some feel a need to interject their personal opinions and biases.

Okay,

While Quark and Xpress hasn't, yet, gone the subscription model, the cost of your page layout software has reach near pre- Adobe subscription pricing at nearly $900 for the full version.

The last version of Xpress that I purchased and use was Xpress 5, for a very long while (upgrade pricing had increased significantly where it was cheaper for me to update my entire Adobe CS versions (not just one page layout app) and get more for my upgrade dollars. For a long time, Quark Xpress was just too expensive for upgrades for me to keep going on the XPress upgrade path.

I am sure I wasn't the only one to ditch Xpress when pricing models started to significantly increase

I haven't been to the Quark site for some time , but just checked in there to see that you guys are now offering new Xpress ugrade pricing the upgrade price is from any older version of Xpress as far back as 3.3.

This is very pleasant to finally see from Quark and the upgrade pricing is that you are offering is pretty decent considering that you can upgrade to the latest version all the way back to from very old Xpress 3.3. When I wanted to upgrade to Quark 7 from 5, if memory serves, at that time, I believe the upgrade pricing for Quark 7 was over $300 for that upgrade..

But for new users to Quark Xpress, the full version pricing model is still very prohibitive for some, IMHO.

But, if you are getting new converts and users , then that's great for Quark's business.

Seeing you are trying to ger older version Xpress users to upgrade to the latest version, I may consdier, perhaps, upgrading from my ancient 5 version at some near future date.

Is Quark trying to bring back former Xpress users with this new upgrade pricing model?

I will need to dig out my old Quark discs and location my registration key from my ancient Xpress version, so if I consider this, I will have what I need to purchase and instal the newest version upgrade.

Users all the way back from Xpress 3.3 can take advantage of this upgrade pricing, too!

Not only pleasant to learn this, but, actually, quite amazing that Quark is doing this!

On these forums, most everybody here states their own opinions constantly.

You're not immune, either.

😉

MichelPM wrote:

On these forums, most everybody here states their own opinions constantly.

Unfortunately Very true.

You're not immune, either.

Correct. I form opinions about some of the posts on here everyday.

😟

Hi Michel,

MichelPM wrote:

Okay,

While Quark and Xpress hasn't, yet, gone the subscription model…

"yet"? ;-) No plans to introduce that. By the way, I do not see Adobe's model as a "subscription" model as with subscriptions you typically keep what you paid for. It's more a "rent" model that they have. Sketch just introduced a true subscription model, you keep your software when you stop paying.

MichelPM wrote:

I
haven't been to the Quark site for some time , but just checked in
there to see that you guys are now offering new Xpress ugrade pricing
the upgrade price is from any older version of Xpress as far back as
3.3.

This is very pleasant to finally see from Quark and the
upgrade pricing is that you are offering is pretty decent considering
that you can upgrade to the latest version all the way back to from very
old Xpress 3.3.

Is Quark trying to bring back former Xpress users with this new upgrade pricing model?

I
will need to dig out my old Quark discs and location my registration
key from my ancient Xpress version, so if I consider this, I will have
what I need to purchase and instal the newest version upgrade.

Users all the way back from Xpress 3.3 can take advantage of this upgrade pricing, too!

Not only pleasant to learn this, but, actually, quite amazing that Quark is doing this!

Great that you like it.

Yes, we introduced that last year with QuarkXPress 2015 and kept that for QX2016 also. Any version from v3 onwards can upgrade. If you find a v1 or v2, we'll do that too.

If you registered your version back then with us, then you do not even need your serial number, as we can find that for you. Would be nice to see you come back!

Here's what QuarkXPress 2016 offers (CreativePro.com article): http://creativepro.com/review-quarkxpress-2016/

Thanks

Matthias