MWSF: QuarkXPress 7 to run natively on Intel, Power PC Macs
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 11, 2006 at 4:42am
Quark says the upcoming QuarkXPress 7, the next version of its desktop publishing software, will run natively on both Power PC and Intel-based Macs—and be the first major publishing application. A beta universal binary version that supports both processor architectures will be available by the end of January and the production version will ship later this year.
“We want to be among the first companies to support the Intel-based Macs,” Jurgen Kurz, Quark’s senior vice president of desktop products, told Macsimum News. “This is a major release and we want feedback from our customers.”
Quark announced that beta versions of QuarkXPress 7 for Power PC-based Macs and Windows are now available for public beta testing. Starting today, customers can download a pre-release testing version of the Mac or Windows version of the software at no charge here. Quark is also offering hands-on user training for QuarkXPress 7 at this week’s Macworld Conference & Expo. MWSF attendees can register for a training session here.
Kurz said that over 180 Xtension plug-in makers have already committed to support for QuarkXPress 7. He adds that Apple and Quark have a “good relationship” and continue to work closely together.
The company has previously said it will further its commitment to collaboration and interoperability by building several features of QuarkXPress 7 software on open standards. The upgrade will combine more design features with job-driven workflow capabilities and multi-channel publishing, the company says.
Quark reps say that QuarkXPress 7 will provide faster production, enabling creative and output professionals to define job parameters that provide centralized control and streamline design, layout and production processes. Built on industry-standard JDF, the next version of the document creation software will allow users to set specifications to control a job from start to finish using a Quark Job Jacket that will incorporate detailed workflow and prepress information directly into a QuarkXPress project.
A Quark Job Jacket is a container for all the specifications for a print publishing process. It contains the information about the job itself, contact information, resources required, layout intent, rules, output specifications and more. All the guidelines, rules, and settings for all the processes will be saved in the Quark Job Jacket to prevent errors during the publication’s creation and output processes.
Centralized job jackets will let art directors, marketing managers, and print service providers specify parameters for design, content, production and output. Changes in project specifications will be made to the job jacket and will be automatically updated to all projects that use the job jacket as a resource.
Quark Job Jacket elements in QuarkXPress will be compatible with JDF elements; they can be mapped to JDF elements and vice versa. JDF is an XML-based file format that provides control over and automation of print publishing production and streamlines information exchange between applications and systems.
QuarkXPress 7 will also offer rule-based preflight capabilities to ensure that files are output-ready at any point in the design process, according to Quark. What’s more, the upcoming version will provide instructions that ensure that all the elements needed for production — fonts, colors, images, and more — are automatically embedded with the output file for right-the-first-time, every-time printing with PDF/X compliant output.
QuarkXPress 7 will purportedly be designed to help content creators publish multiple print and Web layouts from the same content with minimum fuss. Users will be able to create multiple document types, sizes, and media; leverage and reuse any content, image or design element; streamline development processes through open standards; and take advantage of one-to-one content personalization.
QuarkXPress 7 will allow creative professionals to design compositions that can be merged with content from different sources and create output to send to presses with minimal prepress production costs. Support for output in Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) will add database publishing features to QuarkXPress 7. In PPML, all the static content, multiple instances of same static content, synchronized content, and master page elements will be recognized as reusable objects, drastically improving throughput time.
Additionally, QuarkXPress 7 will have new and enhanced features to control transparency, images, and colors; and to accurately visualize graphics and work with OpenType fonts. With new transparency features, users will be able to specify the opacity of the elements that make up any items or content in QuarkXPress: text, pictures, blends, boxes, frames, lines, tables, etc. QuarkXPress 7 will provide greater control over transparency by managing opacity levels for any color element of an object rather than on an object-by-object basis. The transparency features will also enable the creation of dynamic, soft drop shadows, as well as the ability to mask pictures with soft edges using alpha channels — including native Photoshop transparency in PSD or TIFF format.
To enhance color management in QuarkXPress, new controls will improve on-screen simulations for soft proofing. For example, users will be able to preview how RGB prints to CMYK on-screen or how CMYK prints in grayscale. Creative professionals will be able to manage their source colors and output specifications within the QuarkXPress software.
Quark says that QuarkXPress 7 will expand its access to special characters through Unicode support, OpenType support, and interface improvements that make it easy to insert special characters without looking up keyboard commands or resorting to third-party software. The release will offer full support for the multitude of characters and typographic features built into OpenType fonts, including special characters and fonts required by different languages.
Quark has also opened the QuarkXPress project by creating QuarkXPress Markup Language (QXML), a DOM schema for QuarkXPress projects. The structure of the QuarkXPress project is defined according to W3C DOM and XPath specifications so that developers can access, update and create QuarkXPress project elements.
DOM makes all the content of a QuarkXPress project available as XML, which allows any application that understands the schema of a QuarkXPress project to access the QuarkXPress data and process it; it’s a live representation of QuarkXPress projects as XML.
mcloki Says:
Wow.
Quark must have remembered how they were scorched last time they took forever to get their product out. I guess humility comes after arrogance. Unfortunately for them I think think the boat has sailed for them. Indesign is currently better than Quark 6.5. The new version 7 is still a beta. So I’ll withhold comment on it till I try out the Beta. I wonder if the Quark DOM will lead to a nicer translation program where Indesign can read Quark 7 page layouts better?
Posted on January 11, 2006
Lachlan Says:
I think both comments above sum it up perfectly - Quark has never recovered from the slow transition it made to OS X ... Perhaps, this new found responsiveness and humility will lead to a better product in future. I have fond memories of early versions of Quark, but currently they are just that - memories.
Posted on January 11, 2006
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Ed Says:
I wonder if this is Quark making up for slacking so long in their Mac OS X transition.
Posted on January 11, 2006