A few weeks ago [1] Quark VS InDesign.com told you Quark was set to announce a brand new product and predicted what that new product might be—a Flash editor utilizing the familiar QuarkXPress environment.

Today Quark released Quark Interactive Designer (QID), an add-on module for QuarkXPress 7. With QID, designers may design media-rich Adobe Flash documents, including animation, sound, and interactivity, all while working in the same familiar QuarkXPress 7 environment, with the same tools and palettes. Similar to creating Web and print layouts in current XPress project documents, QID adds a Flash layout. Documents may be output to print, Web, and SWF formats all at once.

Originally created by FutureSplash, Corp., the Flash (formerly Splash) Web-based vector art and animation format has thrived since its initial debut in 1996. Snatched up by Macromedia to replace its designer unfriendly and commercially shaky Director multimedia system, Flash underwent constant evolution and change in the last ten years. Now, Flash SWF files are not just for Website decoration. Nearly every class of consumer display device now handles—or is based upon—Flash. From the Web, Flash jumped to PDAs, media center PCs, Point of Sale Systems, kiosks, digital signage, and cellular phones. In the latter especially Flash’s small file size and crisp vector-based artwork and text combine with animation to deliver advertising and user interfaces.

During all this evolution, Macromedia added flavored JavaScript (known at various times as ActionScript and FlashScript), retained a frame-based instead of time-based animation tracking system, limited Flash’s support for complimentary applications from competing companies (most notably Adobe’s Illustrator), and generally repeated the same mistakes with Flash they had made with Director. Flash became so feature rich and powerful, with a user interface built to be friendly to programmers rather than creatives, that graphic designers found it increasingly difficult to learn and work with Flash despite its growing importance even for traditionally print based studios.

Quark Interactive Designer is not being billed as a replacement for the Flash application, which was bought by Adobe in 2005 as part of a wholesale acquisition of Macromedia. It won’t build SWF forms or fully interactive, database-driven kiosks. Wisely, Quark is leaving those jobs to Flash and to programmers. Instead, QID adds to XPress only the tools typically required by creative and production designers in emerging cross-media workflows.

Features of Quark Interactive Designer

According to the documentation, QID offers the following features:

• Design for Flash output intuitively
  Export projects in SWF (Flash) file format. You can design for Flash output intuitively and precisely without writing a single line of code or being tied to timelines.
• Design simultaneously for multiple channels
  Create print, Web, and interactive layouts within the same project. The same designer in the same project can create the flyer, the Web site, and the Flash ad.
• Interact with layouts easily
  Bring layouts to life without having to master timelines, ActionScript functions, or other complex features.
• Work within QuarkXPress 7
  Use the familiar design and layout tools in QuarkXPress 7 for print, including transparency, Composition Zones, and in-the-layout image editing.
• Choose a predefined action
  Assign predefined actions to objects. You can choose from a list of over 100 predefined actions, such as page transitions, button clicks, and features for playing media files and building menus. You are not required to program for every action.
• Dedicate features for buttons, animations, and embedded movies
  Place buttons, animations, and embedded movies inside a QuarkXPress project. You can make sure your interactive elements within the final creation match the original concept.
• Collaborate on projects
  Enable collaboration on projects by employing the Composition Zones feature in QuarkXPress 7. Quark Interactive Designer is the only Flash-creation application with built-in collaboration features.
• Construct interactive buttons
  Create buttons with built-in design behaviors. For example, the built-in features define how a button displays when you click it down. With Quark Interactive Designer, it’s easy to create self-contained buttons you can share. These buttons work similarly to library items, but they stay editable.
• Integrate HTML with SWF
  Design and integrate Flash and HTML content in an Interactive layout using the Composition Zones technology inside a Web page (HTML). You can use the synchronized content without first exporting it as a SWF file and then re-importing. One or more Quark Interactive Designer users can design the HTML page and its embedded SWF file in the same application using the Quark Composition Zones technology. At export, the complete page is ready to post with a single click.
• Support scripting and expressions
  Provide simple, palette-based scripting and expressions support. You can rapidly build interactivity and more sophisticated expressions.
• Support media files
  Embed or link out of QuickTime movies, audio files, and Flash video (FLV) files. Quark Interactive Designer can call files in response to user input or the outcome of rules built into the layout.
• Animate objects with ease
  Enable designers to animate an object simply by drawing a path on screen or incorporating a predefined animation. Quark Interactive Designer includes Animation objects that allow you to build reusable animations with frame-by-frame control. You can also draw a path on the screen to animate an object.
• Leverage true interactivity
  Build interactive buttons and menus enabled through keyboard commands, and user input. This true interactivity allows you to control interactive designs.
• Ensure portability
  Export files as SWF Flash files or standalone Projector applications for Mac OS or Windows. Multiple export formats for cross-platform production ensure that the exported files are viewable by the intended audience.

Availability and System Requirements

As of today, Quark Interactive Designer is available for purchase at an introductory price of $99 USD. After April 1, 2007 Quark will sell the product for $199. Shrewdly, Quark is giving QID away free to qualified educational institutions, teachers, and students.

A time-limited evaluation version may be [2] downloaded from Quark’s Website. QID runs on both Mac OS X (PowerPC and Intel-based) and Windows, and requires a valid installation of QuarkXPress 7.02, which is a free update to registered users of XPress 7.