![]() ![]() This formidable undertaking required Quark engineers to update more than 500,000 lines of code in addition to writing 350,000 new lines. Quark will be releasing XPress 10.5 with full Yosemite support in early November. For example, while not officially supported on Apple’s recently launched OS X 10.10 Yosemite, based on my initial trials QuarkXPress 10.2.1 appears to run quite well. In most cases, software produced with Cocoa development tools has a distinct and familiar feel to Mac users, as the application will automatically comply with Apple’s human interface guidelines.įrom the developer’s perspective, being Cocoa native ensures the ability to leverage the latest OS X features, maximize performance and fast-track support for new OS X versions. Cocoa is the Application Programming Interface (API) for Apple’s OS X operating system. Then in October 2013 Quark made an ambitious leap forward with the release of XPress 10 (recently updated to 10.2.1), the first version developed as a native Cocoa application. In a nod to the changing publishing landscape, XPress 9 added: ePub and Kindle export App Studio for tablet publishing numerous new layout features like anchored callouts a shape wizard and enhanced bullets/numbering. Additionally, XPress 8 offered in-app image manipulation, built-in Flash authoring, as well as support for Asian fonts. When I reviewed XPress 8 for PrintAction (August 2008) Quark had significantly overhauled its Graphical User Interface (GUI), vastly improving user efficiency while removing workspace clutter. I won’t try to summarize five full upgrade cycles in a few hundred words, but some key enhancements in recent XPress versions are worth mentioning. Now designers seeking to own their workflow are taking a second look at QuarkXPress, and with version 10.2 they will find a stable, capable and fully-featured page layout application. ![]() But for many the draw of Adobe’s Creative Suite seemed to say ‘you can’t go home again’, that is, until the advent of Creative Cloud and Adobe’s software as a service (SaaS) business model. Following iterations empowered the faithful while adding features to entice users to return. During that time InDesign matured into a leading desktop publishing solution while QuarkXPress quietly persevered – after a painful transition to OS X, XPress gradually improved. It’s been more than a decade since I (and many others) made the switch. ![]() At the time, Quark’s dominance of the Mac desktop publishing market was such that Apple Computer actually cited XPress 5 as a factor slowing adoption of OS X within the design community. Like many in the design and prepress community, I resented being denied the benefits of Apple’s new operating system. ![]() After all, launched only days before XPress 5, InDesign 2 was OS X native – something Quark had failed to accomplish with its release. With the release of XPress 5 in January 2002, however, Quark faced a barrage of criticism from its dedicated Mac users. That decision was not made lightly, as I had been a stalwart XPress user since 1988. I threw up my hands in despair and at that moment decided to spend the weekend learning InDesign and rebuilding my job. Three frustrating hours later I still hadn’t managed to squeeze a PDF, or even a usable postscript file, out of the buggy XPress release. After spending a week building a print flyer for a local drugstore chain in QuarkXPress 5, I sat down to export a press-ready PDF. On Friday, November 8th, 2002, I made the switch to Adobe InDesign. After switching to InDesign in 2002, Zac Bolan takes QuarkXPress 10.4 for a test drive to see if you can go home again ![]()
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