Prepress
QuarkXPress 9 Now Available
Wednesday 27. April 2011 - Quark announced today that QuarkXPress 9, the newest release of Quarks page-layout and design software, is now available to purchase directly from Quarkand through authorized Quark resellers worldwide.
QuarkXPress 9 is built to help designers create content that can be published to digital devices e-readers, smartphones, and tablets with one tool, and without coding. Whether a designer needs to publish directly from QuarkXPress to the iPad, create content for an e-book, or reach an expansive audience through the Blio eReader, QuarkXPress 9 can help.
Export to ePUB: QuarkXPress 9 includes an easy option for exporting to ePUB, the free and open e-book standard developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Designers can create traditional text-based e-books and publish to e-bookstores such as Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble NOOK, and Amazon Kindle.
Design for the Blio eReader: The Blio eReader is a free, multi-platform, multi-device application that presents eBooks just like the printed versions, in full color and with all of the features of the ideal eReader. The Blio eReader for Windows can be downloaded free and is also being pre-installed on millions of computers and devices running Windows and Android from Toshiba, HP, Dell, and T-Mobile. Support is expected soon for Mac OS X, additional devices that run the Android platform as well as iOS devices. QuarkXPress 9 is the only page layout software with direct support for the Blio eReader, including the ability to enhance eBooks with interactive elements and a Read Logic feature that separates the print experience from the digital experience.
Publishing to the iPad: In the next 90 days Quark plans to release a free update for existing QuarkXPress 9 users that will include App Studio. With App Studio for QuarkXPress designers will have a dedicated design environment within QuarkXPress 9 for creating content for the iPad. Designers will be able to create customized apps for the iPad, distribute their apps through the Apple App Store, and then publish richly designed, interactive content to the app. QuarkXPress 9 provides familiar tools to easily repurpose existing content or to design content specifically for the iPad that includes video/audio players, slideshows, scrollable regions, Web overlays, pop-up windows, buttons, and hyperlinks.
Design-driven Automation
In addition to its innovative digital publishing capabilities, QuarkXPress 9 includes new features that help automate the design process. The features are instrumental in increasing productivity and alleviating many manual, time-consuming design tasks. They include:
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
Bullets, Numbers, and Outlines: Create dynamic ordered and un-ordered lists that are preserved and editable in QuarkXPress
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
Story Editor: Provides a word-processor-like view within QuarkXPress, which is most helpful when text within a layout is difficult to read and when reviewing stories that span multiple pages
Cloner: The smartest and most efficient way to clone design elements, Cloner allows designers to copy items or pages to other pages or layouts and can be used to combine layouts or split them apart
Linkster: Enables designers to unlink and relink text boxes that already contain text, to unlink stories spanning multiple pages, and to link or unlink boxes without disrupting existing text
ShapeMaker: A wizard for easily creating or modifying hard-to-draw shapes such as waves, polygons, stars, and spirals, ShapeMaker also allows designers to create unique corner effects
ImageGrid: Allows designers to import and automatically build grids of images with a variety of layout options; also supports image captioning
30-Day Test Drive
While QuarkXPress 9 is available for purchase now, Quark is also offering a free, fully functional, 30-day Test Drive version to users interested in experiencing the new features for digital publishing and design-driven automation.
Purchase Information
The cost of QuarkXPress 9 is the same as the previous upgrade and full product price of QuarkXPress 8. An upgrade costs 399,- and new full product costs 1349,-.