Prepress
Quark Enables Hosted Services with Web-based QuarkXPress Server 9
Thursday 21. April 2011 - New Version of QuarkXPress Server Improves Performance and Flexibility by Supporting QuarkXPress 9 and Offering System Integrators Web-based Administration
Quark announced today QuarkXPress Server 9, the new version of Quarks high-performance server for dynamic publishing that is used by systems integrators and application developers. QuarkXPress Server 9 features an entirely Web-based user and administrator interface which allows the server to be accessed from any Web-enabled computer for configuration and management. This, along with complete compatibility with QuarkXPress 9, allows third-party developers to offer powerful, hosted, software as a service (SaaS) solutions such as Web-to-print offerings.
DeskNet Inc. is a leading provider of software solutions for enterprise customer communications for the financial services industry. The software provider uses QuarkXPress Server as an underlying component of ContentWelder, its powerful and easy-to-use platform for client reporting, marketing, and automated compliance workflow. Drew Freeman, Director of Marketing and Product Management at DeskNet, said, “QuarkXPress Servers stability, reliability, and performance have been key in our efforts to deliver a fast and flexible solution for client communications to the worlds most respected financial services companies. We look forward to adopting QuarkXPress Server 9 to offer our clients even more value; especially in regard to further enhancing our cloud-based solution.”
With QuarkXPress Server 9, server administration is now entirely Web-based through a new, easy-to-use interface that enables server administration to be managed remotely. The Web-based user interface also allows users to upload templates and other documents directly, without requiring additional programming or the need for file system access to document pools for managing files.
“Not only is QuarkXPress Server 9 fast and reliable, but it can also open revenue-generating opportunities for system integrators to offer hosted solutions to clients who need to cost-effectively publish graphically-rich, brand-compliant communications,” said PG Bartlett, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Quark. “For example, we see a tremendous opportunity for this solution within the financial services industry for annual reports, fund fact sheets, and related material that not only needs to be attractive, accurate, and brand-compliant, but also timely.”
Key Features of the Web-based User Interface
Administration -> Preferences Menu: Allows users to set the preferences for both QuarkXPress Server and QuarkXPress.
Status Monitor: Allows users to see what each renderer is processing in real time.
Transaction Log: Shows all recent requests sent to the server.
Download Logs: Downloads all the QuarkXPress Server logs, including recent crash reports, to a .zip file which can be e-mailed directly to Quark Enterprise Support when necessary.
Document Pool Tab: Allows users to manage files in the document pool.
New Design-driven Automation Features
QuarkXPress Server 9 also allows systems integrators to incorporate the new designer-driven automation features available in QuarkXPress 9 with their automated publishing solutions while allowing designers to retain control over layouts. The new automation features allow for the creation of:
Bullets, Numbers, and Outlines: Create dynamic ordered and un-ordered lists that are preserved and editable in QuarkXPress
Tables Spanning Across Multiple Pages: Tables anchored in a text flow will automatically divide over multiple pages where there is insufficient space in the current box; users can set repeated header and footer rows; and it supports imported Excel tables (.XLSX)
Callouts: Boxes and groups move automatically with text as determined by the designer; callouts can be positioned relative to the page, spread, text box, paragraph, or character
Conditional Styles: Allows multiple style attributes to be set based on the text content rather than “tagging”; allows designers to automate specific style elements that occur throughout a project
Platform Support
QuarkXPress Server 9 supports an increasing range of environments including:
iOS (Objective-C ARM)
Windows, Windows Mobile, Silverlight (.Net)
Android, cross platform (Java)
Blackberry, Flash (WSDL doc-literal SOAP services)
Mac OS (Cocoa, Objective-C i386)
About QuarkXPress Server 9
QuarkXPress Server fuses the fine typography and graphic capabilities of QuarkXPress with server-based automated publishing. You can integrate QuarkXPress Server with other business systems to:
Generate Flash, Web, and print materials
Produce advertisements, catalogs, direct mail, and other marketing materials
Deliver one-to-one and one-to-many marketing campaigns
Generate Flash, Web, and print versions in multiple formats: SWF (Flash), XML, PDF, PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PostScript, Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML), EPS, JPEG, and PNG