PLANET QUARK

by Quark users for Quark users

Author: Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people. Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software. Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark's interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup. Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark's Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

QuarkXPress in the Mac App Store

October 18, 2018January 30, 2019News, QuarkXPress 20181 Comment

 

Today we released QuarkXPress in the Mac App Store. For the very first time.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/quarkxpress-2018-pro/id1404345003?ls=1&mt=12

It’s called QuarkXPress 2018 Pro to illustrate the difference to “QuarkXPress 2018”, which is sold through authorized resellers, the Quark web shop and by Quark directly.

And one the first day Apple already picked QuarkXPress Pro as one of the apps they love:

QuarkXPress 2018 Pro is almost exactly the same as QuarkXPress 2018, there are only a few notable differences:

  • No JavaScript yet. So the JavaScript palette and JavaScript debugger palette are not present. We plan to add this later, we need to “tame” CEF more for the sandbox concept of the Mac App Store.
  • Does not support directly exporting eBooks in the Kindle format. Reason for that is the Sandbox concept of the Mac App Store, QuarkXPress Pro cannot call an external tool, which we use to generate Kindle out of ePub. You can easily solve that yourself, by exporting ePub and either calling KindleGen yourself (a free download from amazon) or just uploading the epub to Amamzon.
  • Cache Cleaner Tool not available. Again, it’s an external tool, so QuarkXPress Pro cannot call it. Probably we should make this available as a separate download and adjust it to the new preference path that QuarkXPress Pro uses.

Edit: JavaScript support was added in 2018 in one of the updates.

And of course there is one big difference: We cannot offer you paid upgrades, as the Mac App Store doesn’t allow that. So though we will provide the same updates and bug fixes as we will for QuarkXPress 2018, once a new major version comes out (2019? 2020?), we cannot offer you a reduced upgrade price. To compensate for that, we offered you a reduced price of just $399 for QuarkXPress Pro.

And to celebrate the entrance of QuarkXPress 2018 Pro in the Mac App Store, for a limited time Quark gives you a $100 rebate off on the Mac App Store price, currently it is available for just $299.

 

Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.

Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

https://twitter.com/HamburQ

Dark Mode coming for QuarkXPress 2018 on Mojave

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018QuarkXPress 2018No Comments

MacOS Mojave (version 10.14) introduces a system wide Dark Mode.

In previous versions of macOS you had the ability to turn the Dock and menu bar dark; with macOS Mojave you get a proper “Dark Mode”. You can change between Light Mode and Dark Mode under “General” in System Preferences.

This changes the appearance of built-in apps including Finder, Safari, iTunes and other apps by Apple as well as third-party apps that use Apple’s user interface controls. Applications that have a richer UI, like QuarkXPress, need additional support to support the Dark Mode everywhere. With the next update in October, QuarkXPress 2018 adds a dark theme on MacOS.

Support for macOS Mojave and “Dark Mode” in QX2018

The QuarkXPress 2018 October Update will add a “dark theme” to seamlessly integrate with Mojave and officially support MacOS 10.14:

You can activate the dark mode in QuarkXPress 2018 by going to “Preferences > Application > Color Theme” and choosing “Dark”.

Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.

Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

https://twitter.com/HamburQ

Sneak preview: “Auto Fit Image” and “Fill Picture Box”

September 6, 2018September 30, 2018QuarkXPress 2018No Comments

Though we haven’t officially announce did it yet, the next update for QuarkXPress 2018 will add support for macOS Mojave and Windows 10 October Update.

The update will be free for everybody using QuarkXPress 2018 and is envisioned to be released in October, around two to three weeks after the release of Mojave.

Besides adding operating support, QuarkXPress 2018 will also add two new features:

  1. Auto fitting
  2. Fill picture box

QuarkXPress has always allowed you to “fit” an image into a picture box. Manually, by hitting a shortcut command (Command+Shift+Option+F). If you don’t hold the option key, the image is stretched (and thus distorted). The latter of course only works, if you haven’t constraint the image to always keep proportions (little chain in measurement palette).

Fill Box

We have heard from many users that – additional to Fit to box – they’d like an additional option: Fill box.

The difference to “fit”, which shows the complete image, is that fill leaves no space around the image, so the box is completely filled. However that means in most cases, that parts of the image are cropped.

QuarkXPress 2018 October Update will add a manual command to fill a box.

Auto Fit

Though fit, stretch, and fill are powerful command, once you change the size of the box, you need to again fit the image or fill the box.

Wouldn’t it be nice if QuarkXPress would do that for you?

And that’s exactly what the QuarkXPress 2018 October Update will do: Auto fit (or fill or stretch) an image, regardless how you size the box.

Of course you can always turn that off again.

Sneak Peak (still secret)

Here’s a short video showing auto-fit:

Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.

Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

https://twitter.com/HamburQ

Create grid-based layouts directly from your iPad

August 29, 2018September 28, 2018NewsNo Comments

Quark has just released the new 2018 version of DesignPad.

Design on the Go with Quark DesignPad

Design on your iPad wherever you are with DesignPad, the iPad app that puts grid-based design control in the palm of your hand. No need to own InDesign or QuarkXPress.

Using an entirely new approach to design, you can quickly experiment with different layouts concepts and create anything such as a poster, postcard, advertisement, invitation, brochure, business card or newsletter right on your iPad — then share it on Twitter, Facebook, by email, print it or – if you have it available – further develop it in QuarkXPress.

With DesignPad you can:

• Create stunning designs in minutes, in a meeting or on the go, directly on your iPad
• Develop concepts interactively and share them instantly with your colleagues, clients and friends
• For ultimate control, turn your DesignPad layout into a completed design by opening it in QuarkXPress* — our award-winning premier professional design and layout software

Pro Feature Pack

Unlock the new Pro Feature Pack and gain access to professional output and new sharing capabilities. Save and share print-quality PDFs or save PNG and PDF versions to DropBox for immediate access anywhere or directly print out your design via the new AirPrint support.

Bring your creativity to life!

https://itunes.apple.com/app/quark-designpad/id551786067?mt=8

Version History

3.0.1

Sep 25, 2018

—Bug fixes

3.0.0

Aug 29, 2018

—Layout Painter
—Snap to Guides
—Line shapes with dash
—Various improvements
—UI Update
—Dropbox Update

2.5.1

Sep 24, 2015

Version 2.5.1 now supports iOS7, iOS8 and iOS9.
This version fixes a problem in which the help window could not be closed and a crash issue.

2.5.0

Aug 26, 2015

Thank you all for your positive feedback. This new version focuses mostly on stability, so that certain crashes that you have reported do not happen anymore. Sorry about that and thanks for your great feedback! Keep it coming.

We also added a couple enhancements that you’ll enjoy:
• Added a new “Copy Item” feature
• “Move Forward” and “Move Backward” buttons now work with ALL items, so any box can be in front or in the back now

2.3.1

Jul 18, 2015

In 2.3.1 we fixed a under iOS 7 that occurred when using the Revert function. For users on iOS 8 there are no changes.

2.3.0

Jul 9, 2015

Due to requests in the reviews we implemented the following features that you asked for:
• Bug fixes
• New item lock feature
• Hides home page banner for Pro Pack owners again (sorry, bug)

2.2.0

May 16, 2015

Added a “Revert” feature which returns you to the home screen without saving your work.

2.1.3

Mar 31, 2015

Fixed an issue that the export popup sometimes wouldn’t open after initial export.

2.1.2

Mar 12, 2015

•Invalid Zoom issue fixed
•On iOS8 all color pickers would not show correctly
•Hidden text editing in landscape mode

2.1.1

Mar 2, 2015

• Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the title bar to obscure a dialog
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented exporting after the first export
• Fixed a bug that prevented setting color attributes for text and shapes
• Now remembers the last Unit of measure you choose
• Few localization bugs fixed

2.1.0

Feb 23, 2015

•Updated for iOS 7-8 (iOS6 no longer supported)
•Fixed Style Sheet bugs
•Improved default styles
•Fixed possible hangs while opening documents

2.0.1

Jan 21, 2014

• Various bug fixes

2.0.0

Jan 16, 2014

• Redesigned for iOS 7
• Support for creating multi-page documents as PDFs and QuarkXPress files
• Save and share designs as images and PDFs directly to Box (in addition to DropBox)
• Collect designs to Dropbox or Box (layout and images)
• Text style sheets
• Text patterns—a new, easy way to format text with multiple styles
• Picture Sketcher tool lets you draw your own images within picture boxes
• RGB Color picker option using sliders or text entry
• New right-angle box shapes
• Text overflow indicator including ‘tap to fit’ feature

1.5.2

May 15, 2013

• Minor bug fixes

1.5.1

May 8, 2013

• Minor bug fixes
• Improved help
• Added retina images

1.5.0

Apr 4, 2013

• PDF output (Pro Feature Pack only)
• Dropbox support (Pro Feature Pack only)
• AirPrint support (Pro Feature Pack only)
• Shadow colors
• New wave shapes for boxes opens up thousands of possibilities (Pro Feature Pack only)
• Blank document button
• Undo/Redo
• Remove watermarks (Pro Feature Pack only)
• Nudge controls for precise placement
• Slider stabilization technology
• Dynamic grids that let you change grid parameters on live documents (fluid layouts) (Pro Feature Pack only)
• Ability to remove all unwanted boxes
• Ability to move boxes off the grid and reset them
• Improved performance
• Improved image placement
• Better text controls including stroked text

1.1.0

Nov 21, 2012

• Fixed: Bug where users couldn’t type in text fields for Layout Sliders
• Fixed: Some interface glitches, including active disabling of non-relavant controls
• Fixed: Auto-hide of guides on export, with option to show if desired
• Added: Guide for beginners through interface with animated arrows
• 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 rect, inset rect, rounded rect, 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: Control box angle
• Added: Drop shadow toggle and special shadow controller
• Added: Line spacing on text
• Added: Justified text control
• Added: Expose full font list, including bolds, italics, lights and condensed (Well OVER 100 font choices added)

1.0

Aug 20, 2012

Initial Version

Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.

Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

https://twitter.com/HamburQ

Hyphenation Strictness Levels help you to create better looking designs

August 9, 2018August 20, 2018QuarkXPress 2018, TypographyNo Comments

Automatic hyphenation is an important tool to help you make text, especially in narrow columns, look good.

History

QuarkXPress has always featured an automatic hyphenation engine. In the early days it was improved frequently. Since Version 6.5, QuarkXPress uses technology provided by Dieckmann, which is seen as the best hyphenation engine available to-date.

“Extended 2” (in preferences) is the Dieckmann-based method.

Importance

The importance of automatic hyphenation is determined by two main factors: Language and amount of text.

Language; some languages have shorter words, whereas others have longer words, especially languages where words are compounded. English tends to use rather short words (with the exceptions, e.g. scientific articles). German words tend to be rather long, as they are being compounded. A good example is “Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung” (motor vehicle liability insurance), which is even frequently used. In average, French has a bit shorter words than German; whereas Italian, Greek and Turkish words are typically even a bit longer.

And of course the amount of text has an effect: If you just have one sentence or one paragraph, you can hyphenate by hand. If you have several pages or even hundreds of spreads, you probably want an automatism to do this for you, ideally without having to check every instance.

What is hyphenation strictness in QuarkXPress?

QuarkXPress offers many parameter to fine-tune hyphenation, which can be found in the “Edit > H&Js” menu.

New in QX2018 is the “Strictness Level“. When you open a document last saved in QuarkXPress 7, 8, 9, 10, 2015, 2016 or 2017, then the “As 2017 and earlier” field will be enabled for H&J.

Strictness levels are defined like this:

1 – Hyphenate compounds words only, so maybe the best for titles and headlines.
2 – A few more hyphenations than level 1.
3 – Hyphenate where it still looks good, probably the best level to start with.
4 – Hyphenate many words but not where it might look strange.
5 – Hyphenate everywhere, where grammatically correct, best for very narrow columns.

QuarkXPress doesn’t offer pre-defined H&Js for the five levels above, so please create your own ones (or change the existing ones) based on your personal choice and aesthetic.

Example

On the left, you see English text with strictness level 4 (default in QuarkXPress 2018 for ‘Standard” H&J).

One the right, you see the same text with strictness level 3.

Showing a hpyhenation example of English text with strictness level 4 in QuarkXPress 2018
English text with strictness level 4
Standard hyphenation with level 3
English text with strictness level 3

Available for many Languages

Strictness levels in QuarkXPress 2018 are available for all languages where QuarkXPress offers hyphenation.

QuarkXPress 2018 offers hyphenation for the following languages:

  • Bulgarian
  • Catalan
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English (British)
  • English (US)
  • Estonian
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • German (Reformed)
  • German (Swiss)
  • German (Swiss Reformed)
  • Greek
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Italian
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian
  • Norwegian (Bokmal)
  • Norwegian (Nynorsk)
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • Portuguese (European)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian

Two-minute Demo Video

Here’s a 2 min video demoing how to create and apply strictness levels:

Quote by a QuarkXPress user

»The new hyphenation levels further enhance QX’s already outstanding hyphenation correctness, which we have seen for years«, says Thomas Schuerger, editor and co-responsible for layout with German trade magazines like bauMAGAZIN and bauSICHERHEIT.  

»We have already used a combination of the long existing H&J flexibility with the new hyphenation strictness levels of QX2018 in several magazine productions. For perfect looking (small) text columns in form of not strange hyphenations either, nor large empty spaces between words in justified text, one would have to learn that the H&J minimum syllable length (›before‹ and ›after‹ setting) might have to be reduced compared with common practice up to QX2017.

The hyphenation strictness levels on their own will ensure a correct and mostly good visual hyphenation, which should not be ›broken‹ with a more traditional attempt of preventing ugly hyphenations with a larger syllable minimum length. At least for German, with its often very long compound words. Otherwise it is just like math with now two involving multiplication factors, where there only used to be one«, says Schuerger, who has been working with QuarkXPress for more than two decades. He and his colleague Brigitte Weixler also use the new hyphenation level 1 for unjustified text in German as well for unjustified picture captions.

»Level 1 reduces vastly the importance of H&J’s ›auto hyphenation‹ settings for unjustified picture captions – and saves a lot of time to eliminate ›sloppy‹ looking hyphenations on prominent visual parts of a magazine page. «

– Thomas Schuerger of Weixler-Schuerger.

Matthias Guenther

Both an engineer and a layout artist, Matthias bridges the gap between technology and people.

Before joining Quark, Matthias pioneered print, Web, and multimedia products for multiple German publishing companies. Since 1997 he has played a central role in shaping Quark’s desktop and enterprise software.
Starting 2003 Matthias has focused on Quark’s interactive and digital publishing solutions. He is an active participant in design and publishing communities and represents Quark in the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Since February 2014 Matthias heads Quark’s Desktop Publishing business unit and is therefore responsible for QuarkXPress.

https://twitter.com/HamburQ

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Recent News

  • Since October 18, 2018, QuarkXPress is available in the Mac App Store. It's called "QuarkXPress 2018 Pro". Read about the differences to QuarkXPress and what features it offers.Read more
  • QuarkXPress 2018 October Update adds a "dark theme" on MacOS to seamlessly integrate with Mojave's Dark Mode.Read more
  • Quark Software announced on September 17th a new software bundle offer that will save designers Read more
  • The (free) QuarkXPress 2018 October Update will add Mojave support and adds an "auto fit image" feature. Additionally you can "fill", so fill a box with an image. Both can be done manually (command key) or automatically, so even when you resize the box.Read more
  • Design on your iPad wherever you are with DesignPad, the iPad app that puts grid-based design control in the palm of your hand. No need to own InDesign or QuarkXPress. New 2018 version available now!Read more
  • Automatic hyphenation is an important tool to help you make text look good. See how QuarkXPress 2018 can help you create even better hyphenation with the new strictness level. Of course available for many languages, like Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and more.Read more
  • Due to popular demand, the first update for QuarkXPress 2018 adds back the font sub menus on MacOS. The free update further adds new JavaScript methods and further improves stability, quality and performance.Read more

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