Quark has announced the next major release of its page layout program, QuarkXPress 2017, due to ship this spring.
Quark claims to have beefed up the image editing capabilities so that most designers should be able to make common changes – non-destructively – without having to switch between programs. This includes cropping, downampling, and altering brightness and contrast as well as editing colours, both on individual images and in batches. Quark has also added a new eyedropper tool to pick and apply effects, plus new shape tools and enhancements to the multicolour gradients, which can now be applied to lines and borders. The typography has also been further improved, including text stroking and text shading. Columns can be split into further columns without the need to create additional boxes. There’s also proportional leading and a new smart text linking feature.
Quark has also listened to its users, implementing the most commonly-requested features, such as the ability to merge text boxes and a list of recent fonts. Quark has also enhanced both its Convert to Native Objects feature and the way it imports Word files.
Naturally the digital publishing side has seen some attention, with improvements to the way print layouts are converted to digital layouts. There’s also the option to create Responsive HTML5 publications for disply on different sized screens and a mostly unlimited option to create Single iOS apps for free, though you’ll still need an Apple developer account.
It’s likely that Quark will share more details of this update as it gets closer to actually releasing it. But it can be pre-ordered now and anyone ordering a copy of the existing QuarkXPress 2016 will be sent a free copy of the new version when it’s available. There’s even an option to upgrade now from QX2015 to QX2016 for half price. Those people already using the 2016 version can pre-order the new one for $179 (approx. £145).
Leave a Reply