Coming clean

OK so I’ll come clean, I was previously used to using InDesign. So taking its competitor head on, here’s where the differences lie. Opacity is colour based, not object based. Image editing and special effects are non-destructive. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Job Definition Format (JDF) support is built in and are not dependent on additional applications. Support for native Adobe Photoshop files and channels is more complete. There’s also more runaround options, including runaround drop shadows.

At the features level (again compared to InDesign), there’s synchronised text and pictures, database publishing support with Personalised Print Markup Language (PPML), multiple people can work on the same page, auto-add pages for text over flow and the ability to edit kerning and tracking tables.

Get measured

One of the stars of the show now is the “Measurements palette”, which combines the tradition and familiarity of previous versions but adds a small, simple tab bar. When you select a tab (or bring it up using a keyboard shortcut), the tab displays a new set of features. Many of these functions had previously been accessible only through a modify box. With this strategy, Quark has put the equivalent of 11 palettes or modify boxes in one small space.

There’s also superior palette controls so that task-specific palettes provide quick, interactive access to features. But they also take up valuable screen real estate. To maximise the QuarkXPress workspace, users can now create custom palette groups that they can display or hide with a single keyboard command. Users can

expand, collapse and resize each palette within a group based on work habits or specific job requirements.

So what else is new?

Quark is unashamedly open when it says that it knows it is second to market with its transparency feature set. It has built a system that, according to Quark, is more flexible than the competition and opens new doors to creativity and flexibility. With the new transparency features in QuarkXPress 7, users can control the opacity of text, pictures, blends, boxes, frames, lines and tables — anything to which a colour can be assigned. The degree of opacity is adjusted in 0.1% increments from 0% (transparent) to 100% (opaque) and users can control the transparency of boxes, their contents and their frames separately. Artists and designers can also create blends that go from solid to transparent, so that items seem to fade gradually into the background.