Upgrade Also Supports Long Documents
By Stephen Beale
QuarkXPress 4.0 could turn out to be the most dangerous software upgrade in the history of publishing. Designers love to try out the new features in their favorite programs, and this version gives them a host of new drawing capabilities sure to cause some visual mayhem: headlines spinning along curves, text wraps from another dimension, and more. But even those with more prosaic design needs will probably find much to like in this long-awaited upgrade.
It's been four years since Quark (303/894-8888, www.quark.com) last overhauled its crown jewel, a time in which Adobe released two upgrades of archrival PageMaker. Some of the new features in QuarkXPress 4.0, especially those oriented toward creating long documents, bring the program to parity with traditional PageMaker strengths. Others, most notably character style sheets, appear to push QuarkXPress past its competition. Quark has not announced pricing or a release date for the software.
Illustrator XPress
Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand both incorporate many page-layout features. QuarkXPress 4.0 returns the favor by adding Bezier line and curve tools plus many new illustration features. You can read clipping paths in imported EPS and TIFF files, automatically drop white or near-white backgrounds to create your own clipping paths, and use the built-in Bezier tools to edit them. All of these features will make it easier to create complex, irregular text wraps.
You can also run text along a curve, convert text into Bezier shapes, and create complex shapes from intersections of existing ones using eight Merge and Split commands. Some of these features were previously available through QuarkXTensions, but now they are built into the program.
Other new functions let you embed any shape within text, run a single column of text around both sides of an image, and simultaneously resize all items within a group.
Characters in Style
One feature long on the wish lists of QuarkXPress users is character style sheets. Until now, you could apply a style only to an entire paragraph. Character styles can be applied to selected text within a paragraph--such as the subhead in this paragraph--leaving the rest of the text alone.
An enhanced find-and-change function lets you replace paragraph and character styles from a movable palette.
Long-Document Features
One area in which PageMaker has traditionally had a lead on QuarkXPress is long-document production. If you wanted to create an index or table of contents from your QuarkXPress document, you had to purchase a QuarkXTension. Now these features are built into the program, along with a Book feature that lets you create a long document from multiple QuarkXPress files. The upgrade also increases the number of paragraphs you can have in a document.
Printing
An enhanced preview function lets you see how your output is positioned on the paper. You can also print noncontinuous pages and create printer styles that can be saved for reuse. QuarkXPress 4.0 also adds support for Pantone's Hexachrome Hi-Fi printing process, which uses six primary colors instead of the traditional CMYK.
August 1997
page: 30
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Copyright © 1997 Macworld Communications, Inc.
