Quark announced today the availability of QuarkXPress® 9.2, the new update to QuarkXPress 9 that is free to all QuarkXPress 9 customers. QuarkXPress 9 is award-winning design software that enables millions of creative professionals to publish across digital devices as well as to print and the Web. Version 9.2 adds new ePUB features, ePUB 3 audio and video support, and more options for App Studio^TM.
 
QuarkXPress 9.2 and ePUB
QuarkXPress 9 introduced the ability for designers to easily export print layouts to ePUB to create traditional e-books. With QuarkXPress 9.2 designers can now, in addition to converting a print layout to ePUB, create a new project specifically for ePUB export. With the new update, it’s now also possible to:

• Add audio, videos, and hyperlinks to an ePUB e-book
• Create new articles, visually crop pictures, and split text components in a reflow article
• Re-order components by dragging-and-dropping within the Reflow Tagging Palette
• Create hierarchical tables of content
• Control the format and resolution of pictures on a global or picture-by-picture basis
• Specify the default story direction for East Asian ePUB e-books

Along with the new ePUB functionality, QuarkXPress 9.2 also supports audio and video for ePUB 3, the new version of the standard that supports rich media. Read more about QuarkXPress 9 and ePUB here: http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/Features/Export_to_ePub.aspx .

QuarkXPress 9.2 and iPad Publishing
A key component of QuarkXPress 9 is App Studio, which offers designers a cost-effective way to create and publish enriched, interactive content to digital devices, such as the iPad. With QuarkXPress 9.2, App Studio templates support iOS 5 Newsstand and meet new Apple guidelines for iCloud storage. In addition to the many enrichment options already available with QuarkXPress 9, QuarkXPress 9.2 and App Studio now include:

• New Play/Pause/Stop/Toggle play actions that allow designers to build buttons that control other media elements such as sound and video
• A Hide Controls option for sound and video that allows designers to make the control bar for a media player invisible
• A Loop option that designers can use to specify that a sound or video element should loop its playback
• Three different pop-up styles: classic, centered, and full-screen that allow users to select full-screen, scrollable, and zoom-able embedded PDF views. This feature also supports other content types available by WebKit on iOS, including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), and RTF documents
• Reduced file sizes for AVE-MAG format issue files exported from QuarkXPress

For more information, please visit: http://www.quark.com/appstudio.

QuarkXPress 9 users can download the 9.2 update for free here:

• Mac: http://www.quark.com/Support/Downloads/Details.aspx?fid=225
• Windows: http://www.quark.com/Support/Downloads/Details.aspx?fid=224 

Special Upgrade Options
Quark is currently offering a special upgrade option that allows all QuarkXPress customers to upgrade to QuarkXPress 9 from any previous version for $299. The upgrade price of $299 is typically applied to upgrades from version 8. To take advantage of the special offer, users must have a valid, registered, and activated serial number for any version of QuarkXPress. Visit http://www.quark.com/promotion to upgrade and for further information.

QuarkXPress 9 Awards
Since its launch QuarkXPress 9 has generated high recognition from industry influencers, including the following awards:

• Macworld UK Best Creative Design Software of the Year
• Macworld UK Grand Prix
• MacUser Publishing Product of the Year
• MacDirectory iWard for Best New Products