Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The technology of ePublishing and eBook readers — and the market for their content — is swiftly accelerating , and report indicate that ebooks for mobile twist are already in high need . If you are a publisher who need to get in on the action , QuarkXPress 9.1is a great choice for create content for this spiritualist .
QuarkXPress 9.1 , the recent reading of Quark ’s desktop publishing program , now offer up the power to design and create eBooks and eZines for the Apple iPad . That ’s in addition to the upgrade of its traditional layout and publishing cock , and its raw authoring capability for theBlioReader .
Macworld hasextensively detail the fresh capabilitiesin the desktop publishing tool , which were immediately available upon launch of the program . The Blio Reader , whileavailable for the iPad and the iPhone , still does not bunk on the Mac . Because of the limited scale of the desktop print enhancements , this review concentrates in great part on the most wide - ranging , indeed radical betterment of Quark XPress 9.1 — App Studio .
When creating an ePublication, you can design a vertical and horizontal version. QuarkXPress allows you to display both versions next to each other, copy elements from one layout to the other, and keep them in sync.
WhileQuark released version 9 in February , it was not until September that it releasedApp Studioas part of the 9.1 raise . Thus , Macworld wait to review the app until all constituent were released to the public .
In addition , because of the complexity of developing in App Studio ( reinforced by the fact that Quark schedule a Boot Camp devoted to learn people how to use it ) , we decided to try out the product by produce a unfeigned working app ( one that will be for sales agreement in the App Store ) so as to offer readers a literal - world valuation of how well QuarkXPress 9.1 in general , and App Studio in special , lives up to its claims .
When creating an ePublication , you’re able to design a vertical and horizontal interpretation . QuarkXPress allows you to display both version next to each other , copy elements from one layout to the other , and keep them in sync .
The Scroll Box lets you display a separate layout. Here it was used for a timeline. Users can swipe their fingers to scroll the story up or down.
Why ePublish?
There are two compelling elements to ePublishing : The business simulation is appealing , and designing for an synergistic medium such as Apple ’s iOS twist is just pure fun . First , you design your app ( bookstore or newsstand ) and then produce content ( books or periodical ) .
In the past tense , the only ego - publication option for generator would have been a photographic print - on - demand publisher . For a 40 - page full - colouration rule book , for example , the terminal publication would be about $ 10 retail with a 10 percent profit gross profit . The same book expel as an eBook costs , say $ 1.99 to the reader , but the author is still left with $ 1.40 after Apple ’s 30 percent cut . So in hypothesis , it looks like with ePublishing the author would break even sooner , peculiarly since there likely would be more interested emptor for the lower - priced eBook .
The Scroll Box have you exhibit a freestanding layout . Here it was used for a timeline . Users can snarf their finger to scroll the story up or down .
You can link part of a page to a website. This can be used to link, for example, to Amazon.com, where readers can buy your book.
Designing your bookstore
QuarkXPress 9.1 features a software module called App Studio Factory , which offers several option . you may select between a bookstore , several kiosks , and a individual - item app . These differ in terms of functionality and design customizability , so it ’s important to choose sagely . With the standard bookstore for lesson , you’re able to change the background and the navigational constituent , but you ca n’t add new buttons or functionality . To do that , you need to buy a permit for the framework — which costs several thousand dollars . Thus , it is probably interesting only for big companies .
For the most part , the supplied templates should be sufficient , and with a petty Photoshop employment they can look quite distinctive . alas , you do n’t have access to the Photoshop data file for the uncommitted template . After customize your bookstore or kiosk app , which you ’d likely do only once , you ask to create the literal publication in QuarkXPress .
One summit : If you desire to customise your bookstore , you could create the elements in Photoshop and save them as a PNG file cabinet . Then , drag them onto the objects that you want to exchange in the App Studio Factory .
It is possible to create slideshows, including complex ones, with thumbnails.
you may link part of a Thomas Nelson Page to a website . This can be used to link up , for example , to Amazon.com , where lector can buy your book .
Designing books or magazines
When make your first book or magazine issuance , there are two option : either convert an subsist print layout or create an App Studio layout from scratch . The first option offers limited features and you wind up with something that closely resemble a PDF file . The reader would later voyage the page by swiping up or down to turn pages , and left and correct to switch between chapters or articles . Readers can also zoom in and out , and you’re able to bring various interactive elements , including slideshows , movies , buttons , sounds , and hypertext markup language via a new palette .
It ’s more interesting however to create an App Studio exit because it set aside even more interactivity . In the New Project dialogue you’re able to presently select only iPad as a data formatting , but in the future you will be able to export to iPhone or Android , Quark says . After setting up your papers in the App Studio format , you will remark that the document is displayed in both a vertical and horizontal layout simultaneously . Since iPad drug user can circumvolve their machine , the layout take to account for that , have in mind you must lay out your pages twice . This is extra work , but it ’s the fun part because you really get to try out with your aim and even create two completely different versions of your publication .
To make thing prosperous , you’re able to imitate elements from one layout to the other using the “ imitate to other layout ” command , which keeps depicted object particular in sync . you could style them independently , but the subject matter of a text edition or image boxwood is mechanically update .
After selecting a type of bookstore or kiosk you can customize it.
What is genuinely new are the synergistic elements . add together button , audio , TV , or hypertext markup language pageboy is straightforward . Select a moving picture box and flick on the element in the App Studio pallette for further option . clitoris , for example , can have several impute actions like Go to Web , Go to Page , Show Pop - Up , Show Fullscreen , and Change Content Index ( which changes the content of another item on the varlet ) .
When selecting a ikon box and assign a picture to it , you also have various selection . The epitome can simply fill the cover when reach and you may add a caption displayed in a gray boxful over the image . Or you’re able to assign a Pan & Zoom Effect , which will whizz the persona in or out , like the Ken Burns effect .
It is potential to make slideshows , including complex ones , with thumbnail .
The Callout Settings offer pretty much everything you could ask for.
These effect make the conception process both more interesting and more challenging . Most mark fashion designer are concerned with arranging elements on a page , but with this culture medium , you have to consider the whole process and the interactive substance abuser experience as a way to enhance storytelling .
This would ask a whole new style of creating that story and gathering the elements for it — more like script a movie . I am remind ofBlender , a cadmium - ROM magazine on pop - culture that did this geezerhood ago using Macromedia Director . With QuarkXPress however , the same appendage is unseamed and much promiscuous .
Slideshows are another design element in which you but choose a impression box and either practice a Simple Slideshow or one with thumbnails . you could find the placement of the thumbnail ( top , bottom , left , right ) and then choose whether to display images or complete layouts . QuarkXPress can create several layouts in one written document ( call a Project ) which is also the basis for the Scroll Box , a raw design feature article .
Conditional Styles can automate some of the formatting for you by setting up some rules.
When placing a pic corner on the layout , you’re able to designate it as the container for another layout . The new layout will show up as a wiretap at the top of your document window . Whatever you create in this linked layout will expose in the scrollbox in your independent layout . Later , when you export the cartridge or account book for preview , you will be able to swipe the layout in the scrollbox up and down or result and correct with your finger . Besides calculate coolheaded , it is a peachy way of hide drawn-out school text in a small quad .
In the eBook I designed for this labor — master key of their Trade : Print designer — I used this feature of speech for a timeline of the account of desktop publication . alternatively of take up several page , which readers would have to skip through if they were not concerned , it now makes for a nice little information boxwood . But there is one more thing : it is possible to place markers in the scrollbox layout to touch off changes in other elements .
For good example , I could place markers at the yr stop of my timeline and have them change a characterization in the main layout when the scroll layout achieve a certain level . Or I might have a video or a sound mechanically start play . I even might connect automatically to a web site , which might also be a rootage of receipts for eBook publishers . ( In my eBook , I provided a link to the Amazon.com internet site for further reading on Neville Brody and David Carson using my affiliate code . This shows the financial potential for publishing house in certain cases . )
One of the many shapes you can created with ShapeMaker.
After you have created your first book or issue , you could preview it on your iPad or in the plan ’s iOS Simulator before publishing it to the iTunes store .
Setting up with Studio Portal and iTunes
Though publish to Apple ’s App Store sound like a simple project , it is in reality the most challenging facet of this whole military operation . Not because it is particularly hard , but because there are quite a few steps involved and plenty of forms to fill out . Let ’s say it ’s about as much sport as occupy out your tax reappearance .
After selecting a case of bookstore or cubicle you’re able to customise it .
Assuming you want to publish to iTunes , I powerfully recommend that you get an Apple Developer ID first . Even though you’re able to preview the book or magazine issue in the iOS Simulator , you will need the Apple Developer ID anyway , so get that part over with before you head to Quark’sApp Studio website . After registering , you first create your assemblage , which could be a planned bookstore with several books , or a newsstand with several issue of one or more magazines .
make the collection first lets you attribute this accumulation to your App , which you congeal up in the App Specification . Unless you created a single publication app ( in which case Apple will do the hosting within the app ) , you must upload your file ( in .zave format ) to your own server . Then export your publishing from QuarkXPress with Layout ( in .ave data format ) , and apply FTP to upload it . at long last , fill out the info in the Publishing section of the website , download your App Certificate from the Quark App Studio website , and spell it into the App Studio Factory .
Then , penetrate on the Export to Simulator push button to preview your work in the iOS Simulator ( which you had to download and install beforehand from the Apple Developer web site ) .
Tweaking your own ePublication in the Simulator or on your iPad is gratify . Note that you could get to this point without spending any money at all : you do n’t even need an Apple Developer ID to try out your app . Only if you want to cash in in on your creation would you need to buy covering and publication license from Quark . After entering the codes in the App Studio Factory , you may then resign your publication to the iTunes entrepot and foresee your newfangled media imperium .
What’s new for print designers?
The major attraction of QuarkXPress 9.1 is its push into the ePublishing market via App Studio . Besides being able-bodied to create iPad Apps , you’re able to also export to ePUB and Blio . ePUB is a complimentary , undecided eBook banner design for reflowable depicted object . That mean textbook and image reflow in much the same personal manner as on a Web page , adjusting to the available CRT screen space .
The Callout preferences extend pretty much everything you could need for . Blio on the other hand is a free e - reader program by Ray Kurzweil , a major inventor well - known in the electronic euphony field of operations who , among other things , has developed some extraordinary keyboard and taste-tester .
The Blio eastward - reviewer come with text - to - speech consolidation and other features that make it an interesting publishing program .
But with all the nidus on ePublishing , you might ask whether QuarkXPress has something new for mark designers . The short solution is : it does , but it wo n’t necessarily rock your world . Some of the novel feature are great , but some have been uncommitted on other political platform for a retentive prison term .
For example , Quark now features Conditional Styles — standardised to InDesign ’s Nested Styles — which permit you mechanically style content found on styling rule . Conditional styles act upon elegantly as long as your textbook has a regular anatomical structure . Setting up Conditional Styles is dim-witted enough : You just launch the palette and lay out up the status , such as “ Apply style XYZ up to the first two Book , then use another style format , ” or something similar .
Another new feature of speech is the ability to create and maintain bulleted lists , numbered lists , and outlines . So if you had an outline that used papistical numeral , regular numbers , and slug , all you would have to do is define those styles and use them from a pop - up list . Then you ’d use the Indent buttons in the Measurement palette to change the different lineation levels so your schoolbook will always have the proper style .
Most designers will appreciate Quark ’s new anchored boxes and groups . In previous interlingual rendition , QuarkXPress was able to anchor a simple image frame within the text of a textbox . Now it is possible to ground an full group of element and have this group flow pretty much anywhere you want — inside the school text frame or outdoors . you could position a callout relative to the page or spread , or proportional to the position of the callout mainstay itself . Quark did a nice job of implementing this feature ( which has been in FrameMaker for over 20 age ) .
Conditional Styles can automate some of the formatting for you by setting up some rules .
Really, really new features
Quark does have a few brand new , innovative characteristic too . Cloner is a public-service corporation that will imitate pages or groups of items to other pages , layouts , or undertaking . you could even break up a multi - page layout into multiple unmarried - varlet layouts .
Another not bad feature article is the ability to unlink and relink textbook boxes without overflow . unremarkably , when you unlink two school text boxes , the text vanish from the 2d one while the first text box shows a crimson lame . We have grown so wonted to this doings that we almost deliberate this normal — but it is n’t . You should be capable to unlink textbook boxes without the text reflow , and with Quark ’s new Linkster utility , you actually can .
One of the many build you may create with ShapeMaker .
The one Modern feature that add a actual unexampled purpose component is ShapeMaker . you may create a multifariousness of highly customizable shapes from waves , polygon , stars , and whorl , and even save them as a preset .
One of my favorite shapes is the rounded rectangle with the lower unexpended corner set as Pointed , which pee-pee it search like a spoken language balloon from a comedian . Or you could employ “ Waves ” to a text box seat to give it a alone shape that looks great with textual matter inside . Back in the erstwhile 24-hour interval , I consecrate an total chapter of my QuarkXPress 6 book to explaining how to do this manually . Clearly , using ShapeMaker is much faster , and it return you the added bonus of experiment with the values and fine-tune the results .
Quark has done a great job with all of the new publication features , but this one is totally fun and I love it .
Macworld’s buying advice
If you are fascinated by the idea of design publications for mobile devices like the iPad ( as well as others in the future ) , then QuarkXPress 9.1 is an exciting choice . It is especially compelling if you already own a written matter of QuarkXPress and are considering an upgrade . Quark ’s pricing dodge is attractive and QuarkXPress 9.1 provides some excellent feature of speech . Taken in its entirety , the QuarkXPress 9.1 update is lure even if you are “ just ” a print designer . The callout , outline , and conditional elan tools are crucial features that will greatly improve productivity , and ShapeMaker is a wonderful , visually creative addition . I rarely say this , but working on my first eBook with QuarkXPress 9.1 was a circumstances of merriment , and that by itself rationalise an acclivity for me .
[ Michael Baumgardt a project manager for eCommerce and Online marketing and manages several websites for one of Germany ’s largest article of furniture store chains . He has written several books on desktop publishing and World Wide Web design , including _ QuarkXPress 6 for Print and Web Design(Peachpit Press ; 2003 ) . He wrote his first eBook , Masters of their trade wind : Print Designers , as part of his research for this review . It will be available for purchase on the Apple App Store as soon as it is approved . ]
