QuarkXPress 8 Announced

Quark has announced QuarkXPress 8, which features a new, intuitive interface; print, Web, and Flash authoring tools; design-driven typography; and global publishing capabilities.

Updates for the new interface include: a Picture Content Tool, allowing users to grab, rotate, and scale images in real-time without typing in numbers or switching from tool to tool; an Item Tool and Text Content Tool, which feature 'smart' behavior to allow for less switching between tools; new Bezier Pen Tools, for drawing illustrations directly in QuarkXPress 8; new buttons for instant access to master pages and exporting to PDF, EPS, SWF, and HTML, as well as new split-view buttons, enhanced contextual menus, and customizable active pasteboards; an enhanced Measurements Palette designed to make more functions easily accessible, including new clickable controls for on-the-fly drop-shadow modification; and improved Drag-and-Drop, allowing the user to drag text and pictures from the desktop, Adobe Bridge, iPhoto, or any other application that supports drag and drop (alternatively, the user can drag content from QuarkXPress to Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word, and other applications for direct editing).

In addition, QuarkXpress 8 includes:

* Designer-driven typography: Offers hanging characters with paragraph-by-paragraph control, multiple and easy-to-use presets, and the freedom for users to create and share their own hanging character settings. It also offers control over baseline grid settings, the ability to apply unique grid settings to individual boxes, and a Grid Styles feature to keep complex documents consistent.

* Design across media: Allows users to synchronize and simultaneously design across print, Web, and Flash. Users can incorporate sound, video, animation, and interactivity into layouts through a built-in, interactive layout tool (previously available as Quark Interactive Designer).

* Global publishing: One global file format supports advanced eastern and western typography for more than 30 languages. American and European users can switch the language of their user interface to fit their needs and all users can open and print a file created in any edition of QuarkXPress 8 without experiencing reflow.

Other QuarkXPress 8 features include native Illustrator file import, WYSIWYG font rendering, advanced guide management, Item Styles to enable simultaneous control of formatting for multiple items, support for importing PDF version 1.7 and earlier, and Ghent PDF Workgroup-(GWG) based Output Styles and GWG-based Job Jackets support.

QUARK
www.quark.com