Quark Publishing System 3 Classic Edition Released

QPS Classic 3 provides full support for QuarkXPress 6 and Mac OS X, along with other performance enhancements.

QPS Classic provides a cross-platform, collaborative tool with simple, status-based workflow and routing capabilities that can be easily adapted to different publishing environments.

It allows multiple users to work on different elements of a QuarkXPress print or Web layout -- including content and page design elements -- simultaneously and in real-time.

Interactive Alerts

With QPS Classic, page creation and production can be distributed to editorial, design, Web and production users. The application provides interactive alerts to keep all users up to date, dramatically reducing production time.

Jurgen Kurz, Quark's senior vice president of product development, said: "QPS Classic 3 combines the workgroup publishing solution with Mac OS X and the new features of QuarkXPress 6. With QPS Classic 3, customers can work with mixed print and Web layouts, synchronized text as well as assign tables as articles and edit them using QuarkCopyDesk."

Kurz added: "Working closely with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) , we have put special focus on ensuring a smooth migration to Mac OS X and have certified QuarkDispatch server on Apple's Xserve G5."

He explained that "Features such as the ability to check in QPS 1 and QPS 2 configuration files to QuarkDispatch 3, and the ability to replicate files from QuarkDispatch 2.2 to QuarkDispatch 3, combined with the flexibility to deploy on Xserve G5s will make the transition for our customers easy and cost effective."

Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, said, "Apple is excited about the release of QPS Classic for Mac OS X and its qualification for the Xserve G5. With QPS Classic 3, Quark has delivered a simple yet powerful desktop publishing platform that works seamlessly with Xserve G5 and further advances the fast and reliable publishing workflow for Mac OS X customers."

Monitoring by Managers

As designers or writers work on a project, QPS Classic 3 allows managers to monitor the status of each piece, avoid bottlenecks and help meet tight production deadlines.

The software provides revision control for various file types, allowing users to see previous versions of QuarkXPress layouts or QuarkCopyDesk articles. QPS Classic provides tight control over file access by defining roles and assigning privileges throughout the workflow.

As the foundation for QPS Classic 3, QuarkXPress 6 allows users to manage projects with mixed print and Web layouts, share colors, share style sheets and synchronize text. It allows tables to be assigned to editors who can enter the appropriate data using QuarkCopyDesk or import data and charts from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Excel -- without losing the formatting from the source document.

QPS Classic 3 supports QuarkXPress layers. Multiple variants of an article can be placed on separate layers to streamline versioned and localized documents.

Several Enhancements

To facilitate comment handling and archiving, users can now print all the notes from a layout as a single document. Notes now feature custom background colors for easier, on-screen viewing. Other enhancements include full support for TCP/IP, a significantly larger file limit, and tools to assist in migrating files and configurations from previous versions of QPS Classic.

QPS Classic 3 is available now. Customers with current Quark maintenance agreements will receive the upgrade at no charge. Specific pricing for new installations is determined on a per-seat basis.