Quark announced today that QuarkXPress 9, the newest release of Quark's page-layout and design software, is now available to purchase directly from Quark and through authorized Quark resellers worldwide.

QuarkXPress 9 is built to help designers create content that can be published to digital devices - e-readers, smartphones, and tablets - with one tool, and without coding. Whether a designer needs to publish directly from QuarkXPress to the iPad, create content for an e-book, or reach an expansive audience through the Blio eReader, QuarkXPress 9 can help.

Export to ePUB: QuarkXPress 9 includes an easy option for exporting to ePUB, the free and open e-book standard developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Designers can create traditional text-based e-books and publish to e-bookstores such as Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble NOOK, and Amazon Kindle.
Design for the Blio eReader: The Blio eReader is a free, multi-platform, multi-device application that presents eBooks just like the printed versions, in full-color and with all of the features of the ideal eReader. The Blio eReader for Windows can be downloaded free from www.blio.com and is also being pre-installed on millions of computers and devices running Windows and Android from Toshiba, HP, Dell, and T-Mobile. Support is expected soon for Mac OS X, additional devices that run the Android platform, as well as iOS devices. QuarkXPress 9 is the only page layout software with direct support for the Blio eReader, including the ability to enhance eBooks with interactive elements and a Read Logic feature that separates the print experience from the digital experience.

Publishing to the iPad: In the next 90 days Quark plans to release a free update for existing QuarkXPress 9 users that will include App Studio. With App Studio for QuarkXPress designers will have a dedicated design environment within QuarkXPress 9 for creating content for the iPad. Designers will be able to create customized apps for the iPad, distribute their apps through the Apple App Store, and then publish richly designed, interactive content to the app. QuarkXPress 9 provides familiar tools to easily repurpose existing content or to design content specifically for the iPad that includes video/audio players, slideshows, scrollable regions, Web overlays, pop-up windows, buttons, and hyperlinks.

Design-driven Automation

In addition to its innovative digital publishing capabilities, QuarkXPress 9 includes new features that help automate the design process. The features are instrumental in increasing productivity and alleviating many manual, time-consuming design tasks. They include:

Conditional Styles: Allows multiple style attributes to be set based on the text content rather than "tagging"; allows designers to automate specific style elements that occur throughout a project

Bullets, Numbers, and Outlines: Create dynamic ordered and un-ordered lists that are preserved and editable in QuarkXPress

Callouts: Boxes and groups move automatically with text as determined by the designer; callouts can be positioned relative to the page, spread, text box, paragraph, or character

Story Editor: Provides a word-processor-like view within QuarkXPress, which is most helpful when text within a layout is difficult to read and when reviewing stories that span multiple pages

Cloner: The smartest and most efficient way to clone design elements, Cloner allows designers to copy items or pages to other pages or layouts and can be used to combine layouts or split them apart

Linkster: Enables designers to unlink and relink text boxes that already contain text, to unlink stories spanning multiple pages, and to link or unlink boxes without disrupting existing text

ShapeMaker: A wizard for easily creating or modifying hard-to-draw shapes such as waves, polygons, stars, and spirals, ShapeMaker also allows designers to create unique corner effects

ImageGrid: Allows designers to import and automatically build grids of images with a variety of layout options; also supports image captioning
For a complete list of new features visit http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/.

30-Day Test Drive

While QuarkXPress 9 is available for purchase now, Quark is also offering a free, fully functional, 30-day Test Drive version to users interested in experiencing the new features for digital publishing and design-driven automation. To download the QuarkXPress 9 30-day Test Drive visit: www.quark.com/products/quarkxpress/test_drive.aspx.

Purchase Information

The cost of QuarkXPress 9 is the same as the previous upgrade and full product price of QuarkXPress 8. An upgrade costs $299 and new full product costs $799. To purchase, visit Quark.com, shop through an authorized Quark reseller, or call Quark's sales team.

Additional Resources
To learn more about QuarkXPress 9 or to view online training videos, please visit:

QuarkXPress 9 overview
QuarkXPress 9 training videos
QuarkXPress 9 YouTube channel
Quark eSeminars about QuarkXPress 9
QuarkXPress 9 launch event

System Requirements
QuarkXPress 9 requires Mac OS 10.5.8 (Leopard), Mac OS 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard) or later and a Mac Intel processor with a minimum of 1GB RAM and 2GB hard disk space – or – Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or 3), Windows Vista 1.0, or Windows 7 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 with a minimum of 1GB RAM and 1GB hard disk space.