Quark has upgraded its desktop publishing software with more than 50 enhancements designed to boost its print and cross-media capabilities.
One of the most significant changes of QuarkXPress 10 is a switch from the Carbon programming environment to a native Cocoa app, which the company describes as the "pre-eminent application environment for Apple's OS X".
Other enhancements include support for HiDPI and Retina displays; a new graphics engine, Xenon, which features "native understanding" of all industry standard image file formats; dynamic rendering of PDFs; and adaptive resolution that enables real-time image processing "to deliver designers the most appropriate onscreen resolution with maximum performance".
Chief technology officer Dave White said the software's application environment, architecture, user interface and graphics engine had been "thoroughly modernise[d]".
[Related: Quark acquires Mobile IQ]
"We’re excited not only for this release, but also for the foundation that has been put in place for future QuarkXPress features," he said.
The software’s user interface has also been overhauled and now features "next-generation" palettes, with new shortcut keys to simplify the user experience. Other changes include a one-click full-screen view and enhanced multiscreen functionality.
Building on the package's cross-media credentials, this latest version continues support for ePub and HTML5 authoring tools for App Studio and can now also create colour vector QR codes directly within QuarkXPress.
System requirements for QuarkXPress 10 are Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) as well as Microsoft Windows 7 and 8. According to media reports, it will only be able to open 'legacy formats' going back to QuarkXpress 7.
QuarkXPress 10 will begin shipping in mid-to-late August.
[LinkedIn: What great cross-media jobs have you done?]
This article originally appeared at printweek.com
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