DENVER - April 3, 2003 - Quark Inc. today disclosed the key features for the forthcoming QuarkXPress 6 software. Used by millions of publishing professionals around the world to improve efficiency, QuarkXPress software dramatically improves productivity, saves time, and lowers costs. The new features in QuarkXPress 6 will continue to drive production efficiencies in the face of tight budgets and increasingly tight deadlines. Save time and increase accuracy with new options for a more flexible workflow An innovative feature called "layout spaces" will let QuarkXPress 6 users become more productive by sharing attributes and information in complex projects. A QuarkXPress 6 project can contain a collection of layouts that might include print pages, Web pages, or different versions of either, in varying sizes and orientations. Style sheets, colors, hyphenation settings, and lists can be shared among layouts. The new Synchronized Text feature lets users share content between layouts in a QuarkXPress 6 project. When synchronized text is edited in one place, corresponding text elsewhere in the project will be changed simultaneously. Enhanced output capabilities Underscoring Quark's commitment to supporting standards and delivering the highest quality output, QuarkXPress 6 offers several output improvements for print-optimized layouts. PDF creation technology has been incorporated into QuarkXPress 6, allowing users to output PDF files directly from QuarkXPress without having to purchase a license for third-party software. With new support for the DeviceN color space, QuarkXPress 6 allows users to output blends, multi-inks, colorized TIFF images, and other items as composite color while retaining spot color information suitable for in-RIP separations. Publishers can now retain spot colors in PDF files, for example. QuarkXPress 6 allows for optimum color when outputting to a PostScript composite color device thanks to the new As Is color space feature, which lets print and prepress staff control how color space conversions occur. A convenient Layers tab in the Print dialog box provides a single point of control for outputting specific layers, which greatly simplifies printing multiple document versions. The Layers tab also provides a display of inks used, which can help control costs. More time for creativity with easier-to-use Tables QuarkXPress 6 broadens the range of table creation functionality to include the ability to control the flow of content by linking text cells within a table, linking tables to each other, or linking a table cell to a text box. Tables can have transparent cells and gridlines for placement over graphic elements, and tabbing order can be defined. QuarkXPress 6 tables can also be converted into a group of boxes that can be moved, rotated, and reshaped independently. New opportunities for content re-use The many improvements to the QuarkXPress Web features make it even easier for publishers to create Web designs and re-use print content on the Web. Print layouts can be converted to Web layouts in a matter of mouse clicks, or designers can create new Web designs using the familiar QuarkXPress tools and interface. A variety of enhancements to rollovers, menus, hyperlinks, font family management, form control creation, and preview and export controls make Web page implementation with QuarkXPress 6 faster and more convenient than ever. QuarkXPress 6 also includes a more intuitive way to tag content as XML. Users can create XML documents without first having to create an XML document type definition (DTD), and new color coding makes it easier for users to identify tagged content. The upgrade also uses the industry-standard Xerces engine to parse XML, which provides more robust XML support and enhanced error handling. More convenient user experience Quark has also reorganized some menus for easier use, and included more useful commands in the context menus to facilitate rapid work, all without compromising the product’s familiar and easy-to-use interface. QuarkXPress 6 lets users work faster and more confidently thanks to its enhanced undo feature, which supports multiple undo/redo capability and an expanded list of undoable actions. QuarkXPress 6 also provides full-resolution preview of on-screen images, so designers can now scale or magnify images with minimal pixelation and position page elements more precisely. Operating system support QuarkXPress 6 is designed to run in the native Mac OS X and Windows XP environments and conforms to the new user interfaces of both operating systems. QuarkXPress 6 will run on Mac OS X (version 10.2 or higher), Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Pricing and availability Quark has not yet announced pricing or an anticipated ship date for QuarkXPress 6.