Quark offers details on QuarkXPress 6

Quark Inc. today offered a peek at some new features that will be available in its long-awaited QuarkXPress 6 software package. Quark is widely considered to be the last major holdout to bring their application to Mac OS X.

Among the changes Quark revealed today are:

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, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

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.

Quark Corporate Communications Manager, Glen Turpin told MacCentral today that members of ServicePlus will receive a free upgrade to QuarkXPress 6, as will some customers who received a special “upgrade to 5, receive 6 free” offer, but otherwise QuarkXPress 6 will be a paid upgrade. Pricing for the upgrade has not been announced by the company.

Apple announced last fall that beginning in 2003 all new systems would only boot into Mac OS X. However, Noting the absence of QuarkXPress software for Mac OS X, Apple late last year said it would make available certain models of its product line that would still boot into Mac OS 9.

“To accommodate a minority of our pro customers still running Mac OS 9 applications such as QuarkXPress, Apple will continue to offer a 1.25 GHz dual processor Power Mac that will boot into Mac OS 9,” Apple said in a statement given to MacCentral at the time.

Quark offered no release date for the applicatioin.

Updated: Added information about which customers will receive a free upgrade.