QuarkXPress 6.5, the Review

A look at the enhancements, the good and the bad of Quark’s layout application

Some people hate it, some people love it, think what you want of it, QuarkXPress is still one of the top layout applications in the market. One of QuarkXPress’ strong points is the ability to deliver files which rarely create problems when printed, though it has a weak point in the same area–its built-in PDF export tool. I found it to create unexpected results in several occasions, sometimes even when creating PDFs through Distiller.

The PSD Import Xtension is a nice addition and so is the Quark Vista Xtension, which allows you to apply filters and adjustments to graphics within QuarkXPress itself. These are probably the two biggest improvements of QuarkXPress 6.5 over the previous versions.

Since version 5 QuarkXPress has web layout capabilities that are improved in version 6.5. Personally I don’t find the web capabilities too attractive as I didn’t hear many people using QuarkXPress in this field. The application has its place in print design and is not a competition in web design.

From version 6 onwards, QuarkXPress documents assume a new concept: They are in fact projects that can contain multiple layouts sharing common style sheets, preferences, H&Js and so on. But let’s have a look at some of the highlights of this program.

Think Multiple Layouts

When opening a document, a designer is used to specifying settings such as page size and orientation, margins, grids and so on that will apply throughout. A new document has to be created to design publications requiring a different page size and orientation, leaving the designer with two files to deal with. QuarkXPress 6 treats this a little differently–when creating a new document you are in actual fact opening a project which can contain multiple layouts. If you are designing an entire identity kit for a client, you can have business card, letterhead, envelope and so on contained in one project. I find this to be a practical approach that can result in time savings.

In QuarkXPress 6.5 documents become projects that can contain multiple layouts

When using multiple layouts in a project, certain specifications are shared throughout:

For print layout
• Application preferences
• Style sheets
• Colours
• Hypehnation and justification
• Lists
• Dashes and stripes

For web layout
• Cascadig menus
• Menus
• Meta tags

Furthermore you can synchronize text amongst layouts.

10% Can Be All You Need

Once applied to a picture, effects can be toggled on and off (enlarged version)

Quark Vista is an excellent Xtension that adds photo editing capabilities to QuarkXPress 6.5. This Xtension is far from making QuarkXPress a fully-fledged photo editing application, but this is not its purpose. It was created with the viewpoint that the average QuarkXPress user utilizes about 10% of his photo editing program’s functions, so why not incorporate those features directly into the layout application? This presents some advantages:

• For those who don’t need the more advanced photo/graphic editing options, there won’t be the need for purchasing of a new program to do the basic functions.
• Even for those who do a lot of advanced editing, being able to do a quick retouch here and there without having to go outside QuarkXPress can save time.
• Designers don’t have to create multiple versions of the same file, because even when edited with QuarkXPress, the original remains untouched.
• You can save actions you performed on an image in presets, so you don’t have to redo the retouching all over again if you don’t like what you did with your image.

The Quark Vista Xtension allows for two sets of edits: image adjustments and filters. It can be accessed from the Picture Effects palette or by right clicking (Windows) or pressing Control + click (Mac OS) on a picture.

No More Flattening… Or Maybe a Little

You can now have your PSDs permed with no worries. Or better still, with the PSD Import Xtension you can import your PSD files into QuarkXPress and you don’t even have to flatten them. There are a number of things that can be done with this Xtension:

Layers can be toggled on and off, transparency settings and blending modes can be modified (enlarged version)

Channels can be manipulated (enlarged version)

You can choose with paths will be used for output and adjust text runaround accordingly (enlarged version)

• It allows QuarkXPress to import PSD files. While it certainly isn’t a new thing for Adobe applications, previous versions of QuarkXPress couldn’t do this.
• Users can switch layers on and off, modifying the look of an image.
• Because PSD files don’t have to be flattened, users don’t need to save more than one version of a file.
• The opacity of layers can be modified and users can also apply blend modes to them without having to switch back to Photoshop.
• Layer masks in the PSD file can be disabled.
• If you want to undo changes made to layers, you can either undo changes to a single layer or to all at once.
• Channels can be toggled on and off like layers, therefore they can be suppressed from output.
• Colour, shade, trapping and solidity of channels can also be modified.
• Users can decide which paths will print and can rename them (the name of the paths will not be changed in the original PSD file).
• Colours in index channels can be converted to spot colours

The PSD Xtension strong point isn’t what it can do with layers, that’s actually the weak part of the Xtension. When put to practice the PSD Import Xtension will flatten the PSD file whenever a layer has some transparency–that includes a file that contains text, any drawing made with brush tools or shapes. That means that the only value of the Xtension in regards to layers shows when creating different versions of the same image on their own layers in Photoshop, which can then be toggled on and off in QuarkXPress, made more or less transparent or can be blended with the layers underneath. The strength of the PSD Import Xtension is in the ability to toggle on and off channels, work with clipping paths and spot colours. Overall the QuarkXPress treatment of PSD files is superior to InDesign CS, but not to InDesign CS 2.

The PSD Xtension is only available to QuarkXPress 6.5 registered users. People owning QuarkXPress 6.0 can upgrade to version 6.1 and 6.5 for free.

Xtending QuarkXPress’ capabilities

A few QuarkXPress Xtensions

QuarkXPress 6.5 can be made more powerful through Xtensions, which are the equivalent of plug-ins in other programs that can expand the capabilities of QuarkXPress. Yet like the program itself they can be very Xpensive. A catalogue for these Xtensions comes with the QuarkXPress box and they can also be downloaded. Xtensions are often made by third party developers.

Summary

QuarkXPress 6.5 has definitely some powerful features and it remains a tool for pros despite its competition. QuarkXPress 6.5 is available both form Mac OS X annd Windows. Mac OS 9 users and earlier have to use QuarkXPress 5 or earlier.

System Requirements

For Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP
• 128MB total RAM
• 190MB available hard disck space for installation

For Mac OS

• Mac OS X 10.3 and later (I have seen it running on 10.2)
• 128MB total RAM
• 230MB available hard disk space for installation

Pros

• Widely supported by printers’ service bureaus.
• Can be used both with Windows and Mac OSX.
• Has basic image editing capabilities.
• Has a thorough Collect for Output option for offset printing, including colour profiles and whether or not the changes made to images with Quark Vista are to be rendered when printed.
• The Passport version has excellent support for multiple languages in one document–after all this is what Passport is made for.
• Ability to create multiple layouts in one QuarkXPress document.
• Can save back to version 5 without any additional updates required (but it can only save down to version 5).
• PSD files can be imported and manipulated within QuarkXPress.
• Working with master pages is quite straight forward compared to InDesign CS.
• Cells in tables can be linked to one another.
• The addition of Multiple Undos and Multiple Redos makes it easier to move back and forth between design stages. These two commands are coveniently placed at the bottom of the document’s window.
• Offers good typographic control.
• Supports layers and allows users to decide which should be suppressed from output.

Cons

• The Measurements palette could give users more control over objects and text than it does currently. For example coordinates of objects are only calculated from their top left, and you can only adjust tracking while kerning and other typographical controls have to be accessed from one of the menus.
• Not many effects can be done on text, aside from the Text to Box option, which doesn’t do a good job on small text and can only be applied one line at the time.
• No preflight functions.
• No imposition tools (without the use of expensive third party Xtensions).
• The Export Layout as PDF option is unpredictable. QuarkXPress 4 files opened in QuarkXPress 6 had problems when exported, while the same files opened in InDesign CS and then exported became well behaved PDFs.
• Very expensive compared to other layout applications.
• While it does support PSD files, QuarkXPress 6.5 has no support for Adobe Illustrator files.
• Transparency effects, drop shadows, glows and other effects are not supported by the PSD Import Xtension. If any of those are present, QuarkXPress will flatten the PSD before it is imported.
• Maybe because of the built-in graphic editing capabilities of QuarkXPress 6.5, there is no quick way to open a picture from QuarkXPress into a graphic editing program. With QuarkXPress 4 users were able to double click on a picture with the Content tool and were given the option to edit it in the application that created it. This function disappeared in version 6.5 and there is no substitute for it. This makes it tedious to switch from QuarkXPress to the graphic editing application, because users have to go outside of Quark, fetch the image they want to edit and then open it. Not all designers only use 10% of the editing abilities of their graphic programs, and they might need to use more advanced features that do not exist in QuarkXPress.

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