New features and some Xpert Tools palettes having been incorporated, QuarkXPress seems ready to start a new life with version 8. The new version certainly looks a lot better and the design workflow is a lot more effective and efficient than QuarkXPress 7. Boxes are no longer required when you want to load a layout with content, although they’re still there when you need them. Drag-and-drop is everywhere, with support for Adobe Bridge and all possible Adobe file formats, including Illustrator, Photoshop, and PDF. 

In some respects, QuarkXPress 8 works more intuitively than InDesign CS3. Designers get more of what they want; for example, Interactive Designer is no longer an option but incorporated in the application so that Flash pages can be made effortlessly without paying extra money. In other areas QuarkXPress 8 hasn’t changed and remains its stubborn complicated self. Job Jackets are still there as complicated as ever, as are Composition Zones, Sharing, and the tedious table creation functionality.

A break with the past certainly is the lack of a Passport version, which means QuarkXPress 8 now is multi-language capable no matter which part of the world you are living. The Xpert Pro Tools that have been incorporated into the main application are focused on guides and grid management and an improved type control overall. For example, “Hanging Characters” --a new feature in QuarkXPress-- can apply to one or more paragraphs, can be linked to stylesheets and supports drop caps.

More Robust Output: Flash and PDF

Grids and guides can be set and saved from an easy to use palette, and various possibilities exist for grids in particular --different baseline settings, view controls, etc). All the type control power spills over into Web layouts and Flash layouts (which are smaller, by the way) as well.

It looks like Quark has been listening to its users and has set them free, supporting creativity better in the process. Except for some areas that still require too much of an engineering attitude from the user, most functionality in QuarkXPress 8 --including its looks and behaviour-- has been improved up to the point that it must be very clear Quark is serious about creativity. In this overview of new features, we have in fact only scratched the surface.

On the output side, much has been done to improve whatever output channel one may choose with much smaller file sizes and better compliance with industry standards as a result. The Job Jackets feature, for example, now includes what is necessary to more easily create Job Jackets that comply with the Ghent WorkGroup specifications.

The combination of creative support and care for output standards as well as its current global strategy make QuarkXPress 8 an essential module of a software suite that is not made up of desktop software components like Adobe’s offering, but rather of a cross-media publishing suite in which QuarkXPress 8 acts as a central hub on the desktop level.