Wired, The New Yorker, Martha Stewart Living, and other magazines on the iTunes App Store were created with Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite. Quark customers have been out in the cold — until today.
Users of the Quark Publishing System (an editorial workflow system) now have access to a new module, App Studio. It takes you from the customization of a “starter” app, to the design of the digital publications that will go inside the app, and all the way through publishing, updating, and managing the app.
App Studio for QPS Costs
You can customize the “starter” app and add interactivity to digital publications for free. If you like what you see in the Preview App (also free) and want to submit the app to Apple’s App Store, you then have to pay Quark. The good news is that Quark doesn’t take a percentage of your App Store sales, nor does the company require a monthly subscription. However, you do have to pay a one-time fee of $4,000 and a per-issue fee that can be as high as $349. While that may sound steep, QPS clients tend to be corporations that can absorb that kind of cost.
iPad Publishing Service for QuarkXPress 8.5
But what about people who don’t have Quark Publishing System? Your wishes may be granted next month, when Quark rolls out the iPad Publishing Service for QuarkXPress 8.5. Using special XTensions, you can add video, audio, animated slideshows, and hyperlinks to QuarkXPress files. Those QuarkXPress files may be existing ones originally intended for print, or you can create iPad-specific documents; for example, with the exact dimensions of the iPad screen.
Once you’ve finished adding interactivity to the layout, the iPad Publishing Service converts the document into a digital publication file called an “issue” file. You associate the issue file with a Quark Starter iPad App. Quark will configure the Quark Starter iPad App with an image and colors you choose.
(If you’re wrestling with the difference between apps and issue files, picture the app as a suitcase and the issue file as an item of clothing inside the suitcase. Just as you can have several shirts inside one suitcase, you can have multiple issues inside one app.)
After Quark has configured your app and published the issues to it, you’re ready to submit the app to the App Store. The iPad Publishing Service also includes a Web-based service for managing your apps and their content after they appear on the App Store.
To make sure you can dive into the iPad Publishing Service as soon as it’s available in February, fill out Quark’s online information form.
iPad Publishing Service Costs
You can add interactivity to QuarkXPress 8.5 documents for free. Then the costs come in:
* One-time fee of $499 to configure one Starter iPad App.
* Per-issue fee of $499 to convert QuarkXPress layouts to one issue file.
* Per-issue fee of $349 or less. Quark calls this a “license fee.”
Quark does not take a percentage of your App Store sales.
What’s the Difference?
The feature differences between the iPad Publishing Service for QuarkXPress 8.5 and the App Studio for Quark Publishing System are a little murky at this point. PG Bartlett, Quark’s senior VP of product management, seems to imply that the iPad Publishing Service will be replaced by App Studio when he says, “Customers that use the iPad Publishing Service starting in February 2011 will be able to easily migrate to App Studio for QuarkXPress later in 2011.” It’s unclear whether App Studio for QuarkXPress will be a standalone product or be folded into a future version of XPress.
Read the official App Studio for Quark Publishing System press release here.
Read the official iPad Publishing Service for QuarkXPress 8.5 press release here.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on January 20, 2011
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