Quark Inc. today announced the release of the QuarkXPress 8.1 updater which is now available to existing QuarkXPress 8 users as a free download from the Quark website. This latest update improves PDF output capabilities and introduces features that make the page layout process even more intuitive and productive. QuarkXPress 8.1 introduces a ‘Native Transparency’ mode for creating PDFs which can offer designers faster and more flexible PDF output support and provide greater control over their PDF workflow process.
Erwin Danis, Premedia Director at Roularta Media Group said in the press release, “We have been collaborating closely with Quark on this release and have been testing QuarkXPress 8.1 in a live production environment. In fact, we are already using it to produce the front covers of all of our 130 magazines and are extremely happy with the results. As both a publisher and a printer, we are in a unique position to understand both sides of the coin and realize the significance of these new improvements. We are extremely impressed with the new native transparency feature, as not only does it improve performance of PDF export, but it gives us the ability to address color management and other processes that may need to be modified in the PDF. Having this greater level of control has had a major impact on our PDF workflow.”
QuarkXPress 8.1 offers fast and flexible PDF output with its new native transparency mode which allows objects to which transparency has been applied within QuarkXPress to remain unflattened in the final PDF output. In addition, QuarkXPress is the only layout application that gives layer-by-layer controls in its output options – useful when you need to send content with multiple variants to an output provider within a single PDF.
“Greater control of transparency in PDF is becoming increasingly important to our users: enabling output providers to control processes like flattening, optional content and color management further downstream through native transparency, and layer support within PDF is a priority for us. The market is demanding more sophisticated PDF output capabilities and this is a major advance in that direction,” commented Dan Logan, Product Manager for QuarkXPress, in the press release.
QuarkXPress 8.1 also addresses outstanding issues reported by customers and introduces a host of improved everyday design features that enable faster and more precise page creation. A new keyboard modifier makes picture drag and drop more precise and predictable. Item Styles and Item Find/Change now fully integrate drop shadows, and users can update Item Styles with a single click to reflect changes they make in the layout. QuarkXPress spell checking is now carried out with a new palette that enables users to save time by more easily adjusting their text as necessary while in the middle of the spell-checking process.
“This release demonstrates that Quark continues to deliver value to our customers by providing them with mid-cycle releases with significant added functionality at no extra cost. Quark continues to lead the way by supporting the latest operating systems and QuarkXPress 8.1 is no exception, as it is both Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 ready. In addition, we continue to provide support for Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X Leopard, Windows XP, and Windows Vista,” said Tim Banister, General Manager for Desktop Technology for Quark, in the press release. “We have introduced extremely useful extra features in addition to the PDF enhancements and, in particular, our new scaling feature will bring added value to many of our customers. The Scale palette enables extremely precise numerical scaling of anything from a single item to an entire layout, so users can now rescale any content with a single click and redeploy it for use in a different print campaign or even online via HTML or Flash (SWF).”
Existing QuarkXPress 8 users can download a free update to QuarkXPress 8.1 from the Quark Web site here. QuarkXPress 8 is available directly from Quark and through Quark Authorized Resellers. An upgrade to QuarkXPress 8 is US$299 and full product can be purchased for $799. Users on QuarkXPress 3, 4 and 5 can also upgrade for the same low price of $299 until September 30. To purchase, visit the Quark Store at www.quark.com/sales/estore.html, or find your nearest authorized Quark reseller at www.quark.com/sales/desktop/resellers.cfm.
In addition to being available for purchase, a free, fully functional 60-day Test Drive version is available for download from 8.quark.com/evaluation.html. Learn more about QuarkXPress 8 here. For a complete list of issues resolved in QuarkXPress 8, visit the Quark Web site here.
Source: Quark Inc.
And the crickets chirped mightily…
QuarkXPress died a long time ago for me. Haven’t upgraded since v6 and I’ll never need to.
Long live Quark 4.
Switched to InDesign CS1 back then and haven’t looked back.
To be honest, I am surprised anybody uses Quark voluntarily anymore.
“Desktop publishing”?? Never heard of it.
Yep, even though those dirtbags came out with the desparate plea of “We’ll even let you upgrade from version 4, 5, 6 or 7 for the same low price”….our printing company has absolutely no interest in upgrading. I think we received one quark file last year – of which we just asked the customer to save it as a PDF instead.
Too little, too late. When Adobe had some promotion that gave away InDesign with a new Mac purchase, I was an upgrade cycle and had to get 6 Macs. I haven’t used Quark since. I don’t even know where my install disks are. Oh well.
Pages works just as well – if not better. I’ve used it for some heavy duty projects and works without fail. Quark… pffft.
A cautionary tale to all software developers: Never, ever take your users, or your status as a segment leader, for granted.
Quark quickly gained dominance in the mid-1980’s as the gold-standard professional desktop publishing / pre-press software platform. For about 10 years, there was no equal.
But Quark took their success for granted, and never used their leading position to move forward. By the mid 1990’s, Quark had squandered their brand-equity with agonizingly slow development cycles, exorbitant upgrade prices, and byzantine anti-piracy schemes. So when Adobe In-Design came along, as immature as it was at the beginning, a huge segment of Quark’s market was chomping at the bit. For them, the pains of early adoption and re-tooling their production workflows was less painful than continuing to deal with a company who’s only apparent interest was milking their customer for money while putting out the least development effort possible. Years later, it’s clear that those hard feelings still exist.
Microsoft is going down the same road as Quark. It’ll take a little longer to see the mass defections from Microsoft products (especially back-office), but it’s already begun to happen. There is much more ill-will toward the Microsoft brand than there is good-will. And those that continue to pay their exorbitant licensing fees are just waiting for a suitable alternative to emerge. Will that be OS X ? Who knows. But when it does appear, another former giant will fall hard and fast.
I LOVE QUARK!!
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@Deus Ex Technica
I wouldn’t say ditching Quark out of spite was immature. It’s just people who needed to get work finished going with what they thought would make their lives easier and they were right.
let’s just hope Adobe doesn’t become (more) like this.
Evidently this one Quark that has lost its charm. It seems quite strange, now.
Good point @Deus Ex Technica. I remember how Quark was screwing their customers over and not letting them have Quark on a work machine and a laptop. Then they shipped all their help desks over to India where you couldn’t even understand them then wanted to overcharge their customers as well so, gee big thing here, all there customers started abandoning them. Now, Adobe is starting the same shit and overcharging their customers and putting out way too expensive upgrade fees. Why is it that a company can’t ever keep doing good business without one day starting to act like they are cock of the walk and screw everyone that doesn’t like it?
By the way, wasn’t Quark that guy that played on Deep Space 9?
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Quark died for me many years ago.
InDesign for me now. I remember trying to get Quark initialized on my computer – this is about 4 years ago, and the quark customer service was so bad – the guy actually yelled at me as I was trying to get his companies software on my machine. I couldn’t understand the serial numbers that he was saying so I asked him to repeat it, and he blew up. Quark sucks…
Adobe is already down the path that Quark took years back. I really hope that Adobe gets knocked down a few notches.
Who gives a flying Quark
Deus Ex:
I was just about to use the MS example myself. Good call.
Quark 8 is acutally pretty decent, but frankly, the two serious publishing outfits I know of use InDesign. The problem with Adobe, however, is that it’s suffering from extreme bloat and when it comes to OS X, it isn’t the fastest. This might have changed over the last year, however. I haven’t tried CS4, only Quark 8.
In any case, Pages has performed admirably with what I’ve thrown at it, so I don’t have to make an Adobe vs. Quark decision just yet.
@ random design veteran
“I wouldn’t say ditching Quark out of spite was immature. It’s just people who needed to get work finished going with what they thought would make their lives easier and they were right.”
You are absolutely correct, and many apologies for my clumsy sentence.
What I meant was that designers were more willing to embrace an immature product (remember InDesign 1.0 didn’t even have a postscript driver! – ha!) rather than continue being abused and ignored by Quark, Inc.
Thanks for giving me the chance to clarify.
@balanced
“Adobe is already down the path that Quark took years back.”
@LTD
“The problem with Adobe, however, is that it’s suffering from extreme bloat”
Yes, I agree that Adobe has lost a lot of focus in the last few years, and is being compared with Microsoft a lot more lately. You can at least forgive them a little given how many sku’s they’re juggling. Quark lost focus with only one product to manage.
@Steve
“Why is it that a company can’t ever keep doing good business without one day starting to act like they are cock of the walk and screw everyone that doesn’t like it?”
Good question. Here’s the answer….
@ Deus Ex:
Very true. Adobe offers an entire suite of applications that more or less work together – it’s a full-featured affair designed to hit all the bases. It’s an impressive package, regardless.
@ LateRegistrant
This geek got your jokes; apparently no one else has.
Too bad that Illustrator is going the way of Quark (getting worse with each iteration, CS4 should never have been released when it decimated type, I immediately went back to CS3) and Photoshop is going the way of Word (getting more bloated in each new version, with features that no one will ever use).
Wait… Have they updated Quark for Mac OS X yet?
Quark is still used by broadsheet and tabloid newspapers for layout; apparently is stall has its advantages there over the Adobe product. Interesting from some comments here that serious layout work can be done with Pages. Perhaps I should give it another look.