by Peter Cohen, MacCentral  

Quark Inc. on Tuesday released Quark Publishing System 3 Classic Edition, or QPS Classic 3. It's the newest release of Quark's professional publishing and editorial workflow software, compatible with QuarkXPress 6 and Mac OS X. QPS Classic 3 enables users to manage projects with mixed print and Web layouts, sharing style sheets and synchronizing text.

Editors can enter table data using QuarkCopyDesk or import data and charts from Microsoft Excel, retaining the source document's formatting in the process. QPS Classic 3 supports QuarkXpress layers, and multiple variants of an article can be placed on separate layers. Users can print all notes from a layout as a single document, and notes now feature custom background colors to simplify on-screen viewing. QPS Classic 3 also includes full support for TCP/IP, has a significantly larger file limit, and sports new tools to assist in file and configuration migration from previous QPS releases.

QuarkCopyDesk -- the text-editing software provided as part of QPS 3 Classic -- sports various enhancements including transparent text boxes; editorial users have access to kerning, leading, font size and type features without requiring a full version of QuarkXPress present. QuarkCopyDesk 3 runs on Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.2.2, according to Quark -- in order to "assist in the migration of existing QPS Classic sites to Mac OS X." Also worthy of note, QPS 3 Classic's QuarkDispatch 3 software has been certified to run on Apple Xserve G5 systems.

QPS Classic 3 is sold on a per-seat basis; companies interested in obtaining a QPS 3 Classic installation are encouraged to get in touch with a sales representative or an authorized system integrator. Customers with current Quark maintenance agreements will get the upgrade at no charge.