Filed under: Software, Productivity
QuarkXPpress 7 released, but not as a Universal
QuarkXPress 7 has hit the streets, but it oddly isn't a Universal Binary (Steve Jobs, if you remember, announced at January's Macworld event that Quark had a beta UB version available). A UB update to version 7 is reportedly going to be made available later this summer (I guess Adobe isn't the only big software house having trouble). This new version brings plenty of new features to the table including enhancements to typography, color management, transparency (apparently it can do such advanced things as color opacity, drop shadows and alpha channels now), non-destructive mask manipulation, revolutionary 'Composition Zones' which let you design once and use anywhere with live updates, as well as improvements to productivity and collaboration, output and digital workflow and much more. Check out Quark's entire new feature list for the full details, as well as Macsimum News with summaries of what all the new features mean to you.Quark is also taking QuarkXPress on tour through seven US cities as well as Toronoto, Canada. Take a look at their schedule for details and registration information.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh said 1:37PM on 5-23-2006
Please, for the love of god (or other deity) will someone buy Quark and put them out of their misery. This is the Quark Xpress we should have seen 5 years ago. They are just way too late to the party, and there really isn't anything I can't do with Adobe & Apple software...
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Billy K said 1:40PM on 5-23-2006
The opacity and drop shadows work pretty well and are mostly non-invasive. The "composition zones" are an absolute train wreck, and no one will ever use that feature. Type rendering has been completely reworked and is much, much improved. In fact, all the new type features are great.
That said, Quark 7 is very, very bloated. We've been testing it since Fall, and I really wish we had switched to InDesign. I can't tell you how buggy the beta was.
Quark is in a death spiral.
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Nathan said 1:44PM on 5-23-2006
It's "Toronto" not "Toronoto"...we're not in Japan :)
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Chewbaca said 1:53PM on 5-23-2006
my agency switched from quark to indesign, and we love it. the transparency is just ok; usually we have our prepress people do the flattening (don't ask me what that actually is). But our designers picked up on it super quick and love it. if you are familiar with illustrator and photoshop, indesign will be a breeze.
sorry quark, we had some great times. 3.3 was a good version for you.
R.I.P. Quark XPress — 1986-2007
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mkl said 2:01PM on 5-23-2006
This is where Apple's bet on intel, compunded by Boot Camp, gets interesting. If Quark and Photoshop don't run faster under OSX than Windows, Apple OS is pretty much over for any business use (not that it had much). If the software cos decide that writing OSX versions is a huge money sink to create slower code, and that Mac owners can run the Windows version, game over.
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matt said 4:36PM on 5-23-2006
Instead of doing all that work to write a feature list, Quark should just say, "It has everything InDesign had 2 versions ago." That would save some time.
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mathie said 4:16AM on 5-24-2006
It turns out that they do have a public beta of a Universal binary:
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/seven/beta.html
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Garrick said 8:20AM on 5-24-2006
Quark who? I switched to InDesign starting with version 2, and I've convinced my entire department to switch with me. I've never looked back at that rude uncaring Quark company.
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