QuarkXPress 7 debuted to much ostentation Tuesday . But while the initial release of the page - layout practical app swash many newfangled features , one affair it wo n’t have mighty off the chiropteran is the power to die hard natively on Intel - ground Macs .

Not to worry , Quark executives said Tuesday . The fellowship is working to produce a Universal Binary version of QuarkXPress 7 , and Quark ’s fourth-year vice president of background ware believes that Mac users will be please by the final result .

“ I can tell you it ’s break away tight as blaze , ” Quark senior vice president Jurgen Kurz toldMacworldat the unveiling of the new version of QuarkXPress Tuesday .

“ The imaging technologies are wander , so we can take reward of the Intel architecture , ” Kurz said . That also has some dribble - down functioning benefit for QuarkXPress user with multiprocessor and multicore PowerPC - base organisation .

Kurz says Quark is in the final appendage of vet a Universal Binary genus Beta that should send in a few weeks . “ The most crucial affair is that we can not afford to flip out - flop in any path , ” he say . “ The bottom line is that it ’s about lineament . ”

To that end , Kurz said that Quark is rigorously testing the Universal Binary version before releasing it . It will be a free update for QuarkXPress 7 customers . In the interim , Kurz confirmed that the shipping version of QuarkXPress 7 work fine under Rosetta .

The want of a final Universal version of QuarkXPress 7 did n’t stop the company from running a pre - release Universal version of the page - layout app on Intel - base Macs during Tuesday ’s press event ; that included the scheme used to aim Kurz ’s keynote presentation and a hands - on lab be dozens of iMacs .

Challenged by Adobe

Once the unchallenged drawing card in the screen background publishing world , Quark has seen rival Adobe make increase among professional designers and pressman in recent years with its InDesign app . Kurz acknowledges that Quark has lost some customers to Adobe , contribute that the best way of life to win those users back is to continue to better QuarkXPress .

“ We ’ve gotten out and clearly extended our product against the challenger ” with the new QuarkXPress 7 , Kurz read . New features let in better OpenType and Unicode baptistry accompaniment , “ Job Jackets , ” “ Composition Zones ” ( area on the Thomas Nelson Page where designers , editors and others can be responsible for for individual content ) , and simplified color management engineering .

Graphic design , page layout and printing has dramatically evolve over the age , Kurz articulate . “ lifelike designers are get into the market and end up joining in a lot of task and doing a lot of things , ” he bring .

For professional designers , time is money , and the median company can no longer wait several mean solar day for a designer to descend up to cannonball along with the specifications for a project . That ’s where Job Jackets come in . Job Jackets — XML text file that abide by with the Job Definition Format ( JDF)—go far beyond just pre - flighting , according to Kurz . Job Jackets help house decorator and pressman similar define specifications ranging from color , style sheets , trapping and color direction to render coloring space , formatting , resolution , Thomas Nelson Page size of it , number of pages , even ancillary information like whom to contact if there are problems .

JDF is an open data format , but , ironically , it ’s one that was created by Adobe . Quark is finding new ways to use JDF and is promoting its own extension to the criterion that the company is establish back to the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress , Press and Postpress Organization ( CIP4)—the not - for - earnings industriousness group tasked with shepherd JDF .

finally , though , the unexampled technology is a means to an end , Kurz aver — make great design that ’s easy and accurately output . “ At the terminal of the day , it ’s a originative industry , ” Kurz added . “ There ’s not a individual graphic designer who ’s not concerned about calibre . ”

And to that end , Kurz hopes that designers will see QuarkXPress 7 as another redoubtable tool in their armoury to help produce top calibre study .