Graphics industry news

Quark buys Xtensions company.

Quark Inc., the publisher of DTP layout package QuarkXpress, has purchased Xtensions software developer A Lowly Apprentice Production (ALAP).

Fulfilling the same role that plugins do for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Xtensions are key in extending the desktop publishing functionality of QuarkXpress. Indeed, the huge quantity of available Xtensions for Quark were a major factor in QuarkXpress's dominance of the design and publishing industry for many years.

A Lowly Apprentice Production (ALAP) have long been in the forefront of developing some of the most popular Xtensions for QuarkXpress and include such titles as XPert Tools Pro, ShadowCaster, InEffects and Imposer Pro. In recent years they have converted many of these Tools into Plug-Ins for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Acrobat.

It seems likely that many of ALAPs Xtensions will be integrated as features in the forthcoming release of QuarkXpress 7. Indeed, Linda Chase, interim president of Quark has stated that,“ALAP’s imaging technology will work with the outstanding QuarkVista technology in QuarkXPress, and adds sophisticated compositing and Photoshop support to QuarkXPress".

As ever, this hots up the battle between QuarkXpress and Adobe's InDesign for the most fully featured page layout program.

15 December 2005

More Quark related stories and features

• QuarkXpress version 6.5.
• Photoshop Import Xtension.
• Quark introduces free customer support.
• Quark wins design award.

Relevant discussion in the design software forums

• Quark versus InDesign – the debate continues
• QuarkXpress 7 discussion.