QuarkXPress 2019 ships in early summer
QuarkXPress on a Mac
The next edition of Quark’s graphic design and page layout software for creative pros, QuarkXPress 2019 will be available this summer. It is now available on a subscription-based payment plan called QuarkXPress Advantage.
Freedom from code
New features in the release will include Flex Layouts, a new layout space that lets designers create responsive HTML5 web pages in a WYSIWYG environment.
Flex Layouts do not require any HTML or CSS coding skills, so graphic designers can start creating banner ads, landing pages, microsites and other web elements right away.
You can use these tools to bring traditional print layouts online with native HTML5 and CSS3 effects including drop shadows, gradients, vector shapes, video and many other interactive elements.
Quark claims the HTML output from the Flex Layout space is responsive to any device aspect ratio.
The company also claims the HTML5 output from Flex Layouts “complies with emerging web standards, which means graphic designers can create native, app-like experiences for the web directly in QuarkXPress.”
That means your website should perform as well as any hand-coded site, and the output can be uploaded to your servers and hosted, or handed over to web teams for finessing.
New Tables tools
Quark also provides new Tables tools in the form of a new table object model, which provides new styling rules for table, row, column and cell level formatting along with text styling rules.
Designers can apply table styles to any table regardless of whether they are created directly in QuarkXPress or auto-imported a table from Excel. And if changes are made to the source Excel table, the data is updated in QuarkXPress without impacting the table design.
The software also includes predefined table styles, which have all of the formatting options preset or you can build your own. When importing tables from Excel, you can automatically create a table style as part of the import process, the company said.
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Additional features
Quark has provided the following list of other enhancements in its graphics publishing and design workhorse.
Learn more about all the new features in QuarkXPress 2019.
- Professional Image Export
- Complete PDF Accessibility Support
- Performance improvements
- Spring-Loaded Cursor
- 9-Point Reference Grid
- Auto Growing Text Boxes
- Enhanced Paragraph Formatting
- Directional Spine Alignment
- Easy Access to Merge Shapes
- Enhanced Border Formatting Control
- Enhanced Retina Support
QuarkXPress 2019 will be available early this summer.
The company is also introducing QuarkXPress Advantagewhich provides annual upgrades and multiple support options.
QuarkXPress users who aren’t already on QuarkXPress 2018, buying QuarkXPress Advantage will get QuarkXPress 2018 now and QuarkXPress 2019 when it’s available. Equally, designers who already work in QuarkXPress 2018 can purchase a QuarkXPress Advantage plan to get 2019 and will receive early access to the new software. All new purchases of QuarkXPress 2018 also include 12 months access to QuarkXPress Advantage, which includes upgrades to QuarkXPress 2019.
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This subscription business that Quark is introducing is getting suspiciously close to the rental scheme that Adobe has put into place with their Creative Cloud setup. I realize that Quark claims that anyone can continue using their existing version of Quark even if they stop their Advantage subscription (unlike Adobe, which cuts you off from access to your files by turning off your CC applications if you stop paying monthly rent to them), but this looks like the first step towards an Adobe-style rental scheme.
I hope that’s not the case, but I recall that Adobe originally said that they would allow customers to choose between (a) buying perpetual license upgrades or (b) signing onto their (then new) Creative Cloud rental scheme. Very quickly, though, they changed their mind and decided to allow ONLY subscriptions for their software offerings (NOTE: the only variation that Adobe allowed at the time was for their older Creative Suite 6 package to continue to be available for a few more years under a perpetual license….they ultimately killed off that option too). I fear that Quark is headed down that same road.
Only time will tell.
I do not particularly care for Quark’s Advantage program…I would rather just buy a simple perpetual license upgrade as I did last year for their QuarkXPress 2018 offering. But I guess the times they are a’changin and I will have to make a decision soon on what I will do so far as Quark 2019 is concerned.
In the meantime, Affinity just today officially released their new page layout program Publisher. I already have Affinity’s Designer and Photo…I also got hold of Publisher. I am hoping that those will be worthy replacements for Adobe’s troika of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign respectively. But I would really like to be able to hold onto QuarkXPress as well. I’ve supported Quark since Version 3.01 back in the early 90’s. It will be a shame to have to finally leave it behind.
Perhaps Quark will end up also offering a simple perpetual license upgrade after they finally release the new Quark 2019 next month (July). But that probably won’t happen since they will want to steer everyone towards their new Advantage program.
Quark….please don’t succumb to Adobe-itis.
A follow up: today, QuarkXPress 2019 went on sale for real (I.e. not presale). I went to their site and hit the Chat button in order to ask one of their agents there whether there were any buying options that did not include one of their Advantage plans.
Sadly, and as I expected, there are none. The ONLY way to buy QuarkXPress 2019 is to buy it under one of their Advantage plans based on 1-year, 2-year, or 3-year plan periods.
This gives me pause as to whether I will upgrade this time around. As mentioned earlier, I’ve supported QuarkXPress since version 3.01 back in the 1990s. The upgrade streak may end this time around. I will have to give it some further thought and consideration.
I’m afraid that Quark is taking the first step to succumbing to Adobe-itis. Hope I’m wrong.