Quark Inc. has released a demo version of QuarkXPress 6, the company’s flagship desktop publishing software.
QuarkXPress 6 for Macintosh is Quark’s latest version of its page layout software, now, for the first time, running natively in Mac OS X. Quark’s long absence from Mac OS X had been blamed by some as one significant reason why many creative companies haven’t yet migrated to the new operating system; it’s also been cited as a reason why some creative professionals have discarded QuarkXPress in favor of competitor Adobe InDesign.
Quark and Apple announced that QuarkXPress 6 would ship in mid-June at a jointly-held event at Apple’s Cupertino campus that Apple VP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller called “the rekindling of the relationship” between the two companies.
The new version of QuarkXPress features project files, “synchronized text” that lets users share content between layouts in a project; full-resolution preview mode; multiple undo and much more.
Quark bills the demo as “a full working copy” of QuarkXPress with limitations — output has “QuarkXPress Demo” printed on it, for example and printouts are limited to five pages. Mac demos can only print to a PostScript printer, and commands including Save, Save As, Save Page as EPS, New > Library and Collect for Output have all been disabled. Web documents are watermarked with “QuarkXPress Demo” as well, and the Export HTML function is disabled.
Downloading the demo requires users to first fill out a “survey” that requires them to enter name, address, and asks some optional demographic information. The demo download itself measures about 103MB. Alternately, bandwidth-limited users can order a CD-ROM with the demo on it by calling Quark customer service at 800.676.4575.