QuarkXPress 7 will need to match or beat Adobe InDesign features to stay in the desktop publishing game.The first public demonstration of QuarkXPress 7, Quark Inc.'s first major upgrade to its flagship publishing product in two years, will take place at Seybold Chicago in September.
Seybold Chicago, produced by MediaLive International Inc., Wednesday announced that during the tradeshow event, keynote speaker Jurgen Kurz, Quark senior vice president of product development, will demo the product.
According to MediaLive's press release, Kurz will publicly unveil some of the features of QuarkXPress 7 during his keynote presentation, "Transforming the Business of Creative Communications," on Sept. 12.
"Adobe has been widely—and incessantly—covered by the graphic arts press, but we feel that Quark has an interesting story of its own to tell," Cynthia Wood, content director of Seybold Seminars, was quoted in the press release. "We invited Quark to address the controversy that lingers in some users' minds: Is QuarkXPress 7 worth the wait? And will there be reason to move back to QuarkXPress from InDesign once QuarkXPress 7 ships?"
Denver-based Quark has had a rocky few years in the graphic design software market.
The company has been seeking a CEO since June, when Quark parted ways with its CEO of 16 months, Kamar Aulakh. Linda Chase, senior vice president of commerce product development, has been appointed acting president on an interim basis.
Some critics believe that the struggling private software company, which has annual sales of about $600 million, can no longer compete with a publicly traded behemoth like Adobe Systems Inc., which reports $1.4 billion in annual sales.
QuarkXPress 7 will need to match or beat Adobe InDesign features, as well as make strong advances in collaboration technology, to stay in the game.
In May, Quark announced in a press release that it will further its commitment to interoperability by building many features in QuarkXPress 7 on open standards and "combine more design features with job-driven workflow capabilities and multi-channel publishing."
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