QuarkXPress 7 finally has soft drop shadow support.

 

Adobe's InDesign has been pummeling QuarkXPress with a superior feature set and aggressive pricing. But finally, with QuarkXPress 7, Quark has landed a solid counterpunch directly on the chin of its adversary. Quark has released an update to its flagship page layout app that has several useful new features, many improvements to old features, and raises the bar in the battle for page layout supremacy. QuarkXPress 7 close the features gap with InDesign and, in some cases, include options unique to QuarkXPress.

 

The ability to make objects translucent (opacity control) and to apply soft drop shadows to text and objects are among the most appealing InDesign features that previous versions of QuarkXPress lacked. QuarkXPress 7 has not only implemented both of these features, it has embellished them with options that aren't available in InDesign. For example, you can apply opacity to anything that has color applied to it - box backgrounds, pictures, frames, and even individual characters. When creating drop shadows, you have the option to synchronize the angle of all drop shadows in a spread, to specify a scale and a skew (slant) value, and to wrap text around a shadow. While we're on the topic of transparency features, it's worth noting that unlike InDesign, QuarkXPress 7 does not let you apply blending modes to items.

 

Although QuarkXPress 7 doesn't include much in the way of new typographic features, it how has full support for OpenType fonts (previously, you could access only 256 characters within an OpenType font.) Also new is the Glyphs palette, which lets you choose a font and displays all of its character forms or subsets of characters; you can also save favorites. Typographic improvements include the option to apply ligatures as character attributes, plus cross-platform ligature support.

 

 

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The ability to share specified areas called Composition Zones within a layout among multiple QuarkXPress users is one of the most touted new features in QuarkXPress 7. Think of a Composition Zone as a picture box whose picture is a QuarkXPress layout. Composition Zones open up interesting workflow possibilities; for example, an art director could use composition zones to assign different sections of a magazine to several layout artists. While the art director works on the master layout, the layout artists can simultaneously work on their sections. Whenever a layout artist saves a composition zone, the composition zone is immediately updated in the master layout. Unfortunately, when you create a composition zone, the resulting QuarkXPress file doesn't include a page picture, which means the layout artist who works on it can't see the surrounding page.

 

While it's a relatively simple concept, the implications of Composition Zones are huge, and implementing Composition Zones into a workflow is not trivial. For example, a Composition Zone could contain a layout that, in turn, includes a Composition Zone that contains another layout with an EPS graphic created elsewhere which uses several fonts and spot colors, and so on and so on. In such a scenario, file management could become a nightmare. For workgroups, Composition Zones offer tantalizing possibilities, but we're not convinced this feature will have the impact some are predicting.

 

Job jackets are QuarkXPress 7's answer to the preflight feature in InDesign. A job jacket is an XML file that contains detailed information about a project's anatomy, including such data as colors, style sheets, color management settings, print settings, page size, page count, contact information, and so on. A job jacket surrounds a QuarkXPress file with information used by the various people who interact with the file, from art directors and layout artists on the front end to prepress personnel on the back end. Unlike preflighting, which usually occurs at the end of the design process, a job jacket can be implemented when a project begins, helping ensure that the project stays within predefined parameters during the design process. Designers, be forewarned: Creating and using job jackets is not easy - the feature is aimed at art directors, production managers, and service bureaus. That said, the ability to standardize all aspects of a project from initial creation to final output is extremely useful.

 

 

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Quark has done a nice job of updating the user interface. The most significant improvement is a retooled Measurements palette that obviates the need to open dialog boxes when you need to modify objects. When you move the pointer over the Measurements palette, a row of icons pops up along the top of the palette. Clicking an icon changes the controls displayed in the palette. For example, when you're working on text, you can not only apply character and paragraph formatting, you can also modify tab settings as well as text box settings such as frame, text runaround, and drop shadow. When a picture box is active, you can use the Measurements palette to make almost all of the modifications available in the Modify dialog.

 

Also new is the ability to create palette groups and palette sets. A palette group is a collection of palettes that works like a single palette. You can drag the title bar of a palette group to move it, double-click the title bar to collapse it, or click the close button to hide it. It's easy to add and detach individual palettes from a group, and you can alternately expand or collapse any palette within a group by clicking the arrow next to its name. The Palette Sets feature lets you name and save the position of all open palettes and libraries. For example, you can create a palette set for working with text and another for working with pictures. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to a palette set for quick display.

 

The synchronization concept, introduced in version 6, is expanded to include all text or pictures, formatting, and box attributes. This feature, however, remains hampered by the necessity to synchronize all the text in a box rather than just selected text. Tables are improved in QuarkXPress 7 as well. You can break tables across columns and pages, add synchronized header and footer rows, rotate tables, and make quick selections for easy formatting.

 

The bottom line. If you've remained loyal to QuarkXpress, you now have many more reasons to stick with it. However, it's unlikely that former QuarkXPress users who have jumped ship for InDesign in recent years will feel compelled to switch back. The battle between QuarkXPress and InDesign is forcing both Quark and Adobe to improve their products. It will be interesting to see how Adobe responds to QuarkXPress 7 when InDesign CS3 is released next year. Jab or haymaker?

 

The Measurements palette offers significant improvements.

 

COMPANY: Quark
CONTACT: 800-676-4575, www.quark.com
PRICE: $749, $249 upgrade
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.4 or later
Many new and improved features, enhanced interface. Less expensive that previous versions.
QuarkXPress Passport is required for multilingual hyphenation and spell checking. No blending modes. Steep learning curve for some new features. Performance is occasionally sluggish.