Version 3.9.0 of the free App Studio Issue Previewer is now available at the iTunes store. (App Studio Issue Previewer is the iPad app that lets you preview apps you make with App Studio.)

According iTunes, here’s what’s new:

What’s New in Version 3.9.0

New features:
- Predictive searching – search results update as you type
- History navigation buttons – navigate back through the pages you visited
- Ability to show/hide the status bar of the previewer app. This allows users who design fullscreen content to test appropriately using this app

Bug fixes:
- External Video links now open correctly on the iPhone
- Ability to swipe between pages when in accessibility mode
- Bug with logging in and out of the app resolved
- Bug with updated issue notifications resolved
- Minor bugs with bookmarking resolved
- Minor bugs with notes resolved
- Other minor bugs resolved

Responding to requests from users, Quark has added powerful new features to their free DesignPad App for iPad. In addition, a new “Pro” version adds direct PDF output, wireless printing, and Dropbox integration. These new features are in addition to all the previous improvements to the original release.

See their announcement below for details:

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Quark’s DesignPad iPad App Now Offers Even More Design Functionality Plus Direct PDF Output, AirPrint and Dropbox Integration

Users Can Download Version 1.5 for Free and Opt to Unlock the Pro Feature Pack for only $9.99

DENVER, CO – April 4, 2013 – Quark announced today a new update to DesignPad^TM, the app developed to help creative people explore design while giving professional designers a way to concept and start projects from an iPad. The updated version offers all DesignPad users even more of the design and production functionality found in professional layout tools.

With the free update, all users will have access to more design flexibility, more preference options, and more ways to bring their creativity to life. The update includes:

• Box Adjustments: Move, resize, delete and change the order of boxes with new controls
• Shadow Color: Use the color picker to change shadow color from default black
• Text Outlines: Add outlines to text and set color and thickness preferences to outlines
• Blank Document: Opt to remove all boxes in the starting layout with the tap of one button
• Improved Performance and Responsiveness: Control value settings precisely with Smart Sliders and faster layout updates
• Undo/Redo: Revert to the last captured state and redo if desired
• Switch Box Types: Change any box from text to picture or vice-versa
• Precision Image Placement: Nudge and zoom images with touch gestures or using the new Image Placement controls

The free version of DesignPad outputs PNG files and allows users to create QuarkXPress® layouts. However, for $9.99 users can now unlock the Pro Feature Pack, a set of advanced features that provide the type of design, output, and saving functionality that make it possible to start and share professional design projects with colleagues and collaborators. The advanced functionality includes:

• PDF Output: Save and share print-quality PDFs
• Print: Use AirPrint to print layouts using a postscript or inkjet printer
• Dropbox: Save PNG and PDF versions of designs to Dropbox for immediate access anywhere
• Wave Shapes: Automatically create unique wave shapes based on the ShapeMaker functionality in professional layout software QuarkXPress
• No Product Marks: ”Made with Quark DesignPad” text at the bottom of saved and shared images will be removed
• Dynamic Grids: Dynamically adjust boxes and columns within layouts, including header size, caption size, margins and gutters

Download the updated version of DesignPad to explore these updates and to opt into the advanced version: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quark-designpad/id551786067?ls=1&mt=8.

About Quark
Quark’s software enables organizations of all sizes to meet customer demand for engaging, relevant communications when, where, and how they want them. Our solutions combine the power of XML with flexible layout and design to automate the delivery of customer communications to print, Web, and interactive experiences on the latest digital devices. Financial services firms, manufacturers, and governments around the world rely on Quark solutions to elevate customer communications to new levels, reduce time to market, and lower costs.

Version 9.5.1 now creates smaller files, allows embedding of TrueType and OpenType fonts into apps, enhances scrolling options, allows interactivity in anchored boxes, lets you embed additional kinds of media within HTML5 content, and supports Windows 8.

See Quark’s press release below for additional details.

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Free Update Enhances App Studio Support in QuarkXPress 9

DENVER, CO – March 14, 2013 – Quark announced today a new update to QuarkXPress^(R) that is available free of charge to all version 9 users. The update optimizes App Studio^TM for QuarkXPress with improvements made to file size, font compatibility, and interactive features. App Studio is the digital publishing solution that allows designers to create HTML5 apps for iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire and Android devices with the page layout software they already know. The updates to QuarkXPress to enhance app creation with App Studio include:

• Issue file size optimization to create even smaller App Studio  downloads
• Option to embed any TrueType or OpenType font into App Studio layouts
• New horizontal scroll box interactive enrichment
• Scroll support for web views
• The ability to add interactivity to anchored boxes
• New “Open File” action for embedding additional media within HTML5 content

QuarkXPress 9.5.1 also adds Windows 8 support.

Download QuarkXPress 9.5.1 here: http://www.quark.com/Support/Downloads/.

About App Studio
App Studio (www.AppStudio.net) is the next generation digital publishing solution that uses HTML5 to push the bounds of user experience without the high cost and effort associated with custom app development. By combining the market-leading HTML5 technology from the recent acquisition of PressRun with Quark’s existing digital publishing technology, App Studio is the only digital publishing solution that allows users to create branded content apps using QuarkXPress, InDesign, HTML5, and XML. Through a managed cloud environment, designers, authors, and extended teams are able to collaborate to create rich, interactive content that can be delivered across multiple platforms and devices.

About Quark
Quark’s software enables organizations of all sizes to meet customer demand for engaging, relevant communications when, where, and how they want them. Our solutions combine the power of XML with flexible layout and design to automate the delivery of customer communications to print, Web, and interactive experiences on the latest digital devices. Financial services firms, manufacturers, and governments around the world rely on Quark solutions to elevate customer communications to new levels, reduce time to market, and lower costs.

Quark’s App Studio experts are going on a world tour to demonstrate how to use InDesign or QuarkXPress to publish to tablet apps.

The tour begins March 13 — if you’re anywhere near these events, I encourage you to attend. Details are in Quark’s press release below.

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Think Beyond Ink Tour Sheds Light on Tablet Publishing

Series of Global Events Answers Why and How to Publish to Digital Devices, Offers Tips on What to Expect, and Details How to Get Started Quickly

DENVER, CO – February 7, 2013 – Publishing to digital devices is a skill that virtually any designer or content creator can master, yet few know where to begin. To help designers get started creating layouts for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, or Android devices, App Studio^TM presents the Think Beyond Ink Tour. The tour, which features free live events in San Francisco, New York, Hamburg, Paris, and London, will shed light on digital publishing by addressing:

• Why digital is the future of publishing
• The difference between apps and eBooks
• The costs involved in creating and publishing apps
• Why designers need to go beyond static, boring PDFs
• How to create HTML5-based apps from QuarkXPress® and InDesign

The Think Beyond Ink Tour, hosted by App Studio, is a series of free, half-day events that will feature an overview of digital publishing, an introduction to App Studio, and an overview of how to get started quickly. Designers of all levels who are just getting started or who are looking for alternative solutions to digital publishing can register now for the event in their area.

Tour Dates

• March 13, 2013: San Francisco, CA
• March 21, 2013: Hamburg, Germany
• March 27, 2013: Paris, France
• April 2, 2013: New York, NY
• April 10, 2013: London, UK

Learn more and register here: http://content.quark.com/AppStudioTourHome.html

App Studio: Go Digital with QuarkXPress and InDesign

App Studio is the new, cloud-based solution for designing and publishing content-based apps. Its ease-of-use, flexibility, and affordability are unlike any other solution available for digital publishing.

1. Start with QuarkXPress or InDesign: Designers use the tool of their choice to create interactive layouts that can be uploaded directly to App Studio’s cloud environment for easy management.
2. Let HTML5 do the heavy lifting: With App Studio, layouts are automatically converted into an HTML5 format that is optimized for engaging app experiences on iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, and Android devices. With HTML5 at its core App Studio apps enable searchable and selectable text, sharing, tagging, bookmarking, and more.
3. Choose a plan: Designed to offer everyone from the individual and small agencies to large enterprises a path to digital devices, App Studio pricing plans start at $99.95 per month for multi-issue publications.

Get Started Now

Designers can get started with App Studio by creating a free account. With an App Studio account, designers log in through either QuarkXPress or InDesign to start designing and testing digital publications. Users who have created and tested trial publications can convert those publications to live apps by completing the payment process based on the plan of their choice.

For more details visit: www.AppStudio.net

To get started with a free trial visit: http://www.appstudio.net/Platform/Trial.aspx

For examples of App Studio app from around the world visit: http://www.appstudio.net/Clients/

For pricing plans visit: http://www.appstudio.net/Plans/

About App Studio

App Studio (www.AppStudio.net) is the next generation digital publishing solution that uses HTML5 to push the bounds of user experience without the high cost and effort associated with custom app development. By combining the market-leading HTML5 technology from the recent acquisition of PressRun with Quark’s existing digital publishing technology, App Studio is the only digital publishing solution that allows users to create branded content apps using QuarkXPress, InDesign, HTML5, and XML. Through a managed cloud environment, designers, authors, and extended teams are able to collaborate to create rich, interactive content that can be delivered across multiple platforms and devices.

CreativePro.com posted my story that outlines Quark’s history and current direction.

To catch up with the changes and advances at Quark, check it out here!

It also adds a new App Studio Publishing palette for uploading your issue content to the App Studio Publishing Portal (and subsequent export to iPad or Android devices). Click here to read more about the new App Studio, or here for the App Studio guide.

Users of the older App Studio are supported by the new Quark AVE Interactivity palette.

The update is free for users of QuarkXPress 9.

Just 90 days after releasing their free DesignPad app for iPad, Quark has released an update with new features and improvements suggested by users!

Have a look at their press release below for details:

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Free Quark DesignPad App Update Available

DesignPad Now Features Retina Display Support, Save to Photo Library, Post to Facebook, Duplicate Layout, Change Box Shapes, Rotate Box, Add Drop Shadow, Control Line Spacing on Text, and a Choice of More than 100 Fonts

Denver, Colorado – 21/11/2012 – Quark announced today a free update to Quark DesignPadTM, the iPad app for aspiring designers that helps them explore the fundamentals of grid-based design and create professional-looking artwork from a mobile device.

Using simple multi-touch gestures, novice and design hobbyists through to professional designers can use Quark DesignPad to experiment with various pre-defined designs for standard document types such as ads, posters, newsletters and brochures. Within each design users can interactively customize the layouts and then share with friends on Twitter, Facebook, and by email. Concepts designed with Quark DesignPad can even be sent to the user for further development in QuarkXPress® 9.

The update for the Quark DesignPad app is free to download from the App Store. Users are encouraged to share their feedback on forums.quark.com and know the Quark DesignPad development team will consider all serious feature requests.

Gavin Drake, Vice President of Marketing at Quark said, “More than 30,000 people downloaded Quark DesignPad in its first two weeks, topping the app charts in several countries. We’re eager to continue adding to and updating Quark DesignPad to make it the essential app for both aspiring and professional designers. Thank you to all the users and especially those who provided feedback to help shape this version.“

Quark DesignPad updates:

• Added new easy-to-navigate Getting Started Guide within the user interface
• Added Retina interface update
• Added Save to Photo Library
• Added Post to Facebook (iOS 6 Native)
• Added duplicate layout (Save As…)
• Added change any box shape to: beveled rectangle, inset rectangle, rounded rectangle, polygon, star, oval, speech bubble, thought bubble
• Added additional shape controls: change speech/thought bubble angle, change polygon/star orientation relative to content, change star inner radius, toggle corners on rounded rectangle
• Added rotate box and control box angle
• Added drop shadow toggle and special shadow controller
• Added line spacing on text
• Added justified text control (left, center, right, block)
• Added expose full font list, including bolds, italics, lights and condensed (over 100 font choices added)
• Fixed text fields for Layout Sliders
• Fixed interface glitches, including active disabling of non-relevant controls
• Fixed auto-hide of guides on export, with option to show if desired

For more information on Quark DesignPad please visit www.quark.com/products/designpad.

DesignPad can be downloaded for free from the App Store. To download DesignPad’s User Guide, click here.

About Quark
Quark’s software enables organizations of all sizes to meet customer demand for engaging, relevant communications when, where, and how they want them. Our solutions combine the power of XML with flexible layout and design to automate the delivery of customer communications to print, Web, and interactive experiences on the latest digital devices. Financial services firms, manufacturers, and governments around the world rely on Quark solutions to elevate customer communications to new levels, reduce time to market, and lower costs.

Through January 31, 2013, Quark is offering a two-for-one special on QuarkXPress 9. This brings the price of each brand new copy down to $425 or less!

Details are in their press release below:

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Buy One Copy of QuarkXPress 9 and Get One Free

Denver – 19/11/2012 – With the release of QuarkXPress 9.5 and App Studio just days away, now is the perfect time to purchase a copy of QuarkXPress 9. Everyone who purchases a new, full-license copy of QuarkXPress 9 starting today will receive a second license free. The licenses can be upgraded to QuarkXPress 9.5 as soon as it’s available.

QuarkXPress 9 is design software that lets anyone create and publish rich, compelling content for print, the Web, e-readers, tablets and mobile devices with one easy-to-use tool. In addition, QuarkXPress 9.5 includes support for App Studio, the cloud-based HTML5 solution that turns print into interactive tablet experiences.

Buy One, Get One Details
New, full-product licenses of QuarkXPress 9 purchased during the promotional period are eligible for the Buy One, Get One promotion. Upgrades, site and volume licenses, educational, and non-profit licenses are excluded. The additional license of QuarkXPress 9 will be a non-transferable, fully-functional copy provided via download. For details on redeeming the free license as well full terms and conditions, visit http://content.quark.com/2for1-US.html.

For more information about QuarkXPress 9 please visit: http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/.
For more information about App Studio please visit: www.AppStudio.net.

About Quark Software
Quark’s software enables organizations of all sizes to meet customer demand for engaging, relevant communications when, where, and how they want them. Our solutions combine the power of XML with flexible layout and design to automate the delivery of customer communications to print, Web, and interactive experiences on the latest digital devices. Financial services firms, manufacturers, and governments around the world rely on Quark solutions to elevate customer communications to new levels, reduce time to market, and lower costs.

If you’re having trouble using your scanner with Photoshop CS6, you’re definitely not alone! Have a look at my story at Macworld: “Get your scanner to work with Photoshop CS6“.

The problem involves TWAIN, 32-bit code, and the march of time. The solution involves thinking a little bit outside the box. ;-)

Today’s announcement is a perfect example. Their “Quark Publishing Platform” addresses the needs of every modern publisher, maximizing their existing tools and helping them move into the future. Let me explain…

• In most workflows, writers use Microsoft Word. So, Quark made it easy for Word users to not only write and edit stories in the structured, output-agnostic XML format, they also made it easy for authors to preview how their work will look on different devices and media (such as HTML5, iPad apps, iPhones, and websites).
• Authors and editors on-the-go need access to these same tools through a Web browser. Quark’s Web client is robust: it tracks changes and can show them through redlining, and provides styling palettes for style sheets.
• Publishers (both commercial and in-house) have existing infrastructures that must be supported. Quark Publishing Platform is totally modular, and currently supports all the most commonly used Web services and servers. It can connect into content management systems of any kind, and can output to any rendering engine, including QuarkXPress or InDesign.
• Publishers must keep track of where and when stories are used and changed. Quark Publishing Platform keeps track of every chunk of XML, tracking where it’s been published and where it next needs to go.
• Publishers don’t want to work with more solution providers than necessary. Quark offers a one-source solution, unlike any other company.
• Time is of the essence in today’s publishing world, so Quark Publishing Platform can automatically deliver content to mobile devices, websites, workgroups, and so forth, based on the end user’s interests and role in the process.
• Publishers WANT to automate — studies have shown that they can save 50% by automating, and another 15% by converting “linear” activities into “concurrent” activities.

Quark’s chart below best illustrates the vast array of inputs, processes and outputs supported by Quark Publishing Platform (click to enlarge):

For the truly geeky, here’s Quark’s chart of the architecture of the Quark Publishing System (click to enlarge):

So who’s it for? Quark Publishing System is already being used in traditional publishing houses, as well as in the Financial, Government, and Manufacturing sectors. The chart below illustrates its capabilities (click to enlarge):

For more information, check out Quark’s press release below.