June 12, 2006—May 23 was the official launch date for QuarkXPress 7, the newest iteration of the page layout program. To kick it off, the company hosted an event in New York City that allowed users to get hands-on experience, hear from partner companies on XTensions, and attend seminars on a variety of the new features version 7 offers.

According to Jürgen Kurz, senior vice president, desktop products, "This latest version introduces forward-thinking concepts and capabilities in response to evolving market needs and customer feedback."

In the Zone
The two biggest features Quark added to its flagship product are job jackets and composition zones, both of which the company heavily demonstrated.

According to Mr. Kurz, job jackets are designed to bring the press specifications upstream to the designer. They allow the ability to specify up front a host of parameters a job must meet to pass a pre-preflight.

Composition zones was another feature highlighted. This allows a designer to designate a specific area or an entire project as shared. You can specify who can access the shared files, which are linked in real time to the original project. This means the primary designer can be working on the piece, while an editor writes copy on the page at the same time, for example.

The company noted that in the summer it will release an updated universal version, which will run natively on both the classic Mac OS, as well the new Intel Macs. Anyone who purchases the program before that will receive a free upgrade. The full version of QuarkXPress 7 retails for $749. To upgrade from any previous version 3?6, it will cost $249. The program is available at a wide range of software outlets, as well as online.