Quark's New Business Strategy: Repositioning for Network Publishing

(NPES International E-commerce Website, July 29, 2008) Quark, the professional publishing company, aims to pull everything together with its network centered Dynamic Publishing vision. What lies behind this and what will become of the Xpross desktop application? Matthias Gilke, Quark's Central European Marketing Manager, answers the questions.

Drupa technology guide: Quark has recently presented its vision for Dynamic Publishing (DPS). What precisely is this all about?
Matthias Gilke: To put it briefly, what Dynamic Publishing means is the gathering together of elements of information in any format, which can flow into a very wide range of layouts in a highly automated way and then be published independently in any out-put format and at any time. Dynamic Publishing is particularly suitable for multilingual, global publishing or for large volumes of constantly updated content.

Dropa technology guide: So what exactly is new in this concept? Hasn't there previously been enterprise publishing from Quark?
Gilke: Quark DPS exploits to the full Quark products and technologies that have been proven over the years, such as the we all known Quark Publishing System as a sewer-based standard product for workflow automation, the Quark Xpress Server as server-based standard publishing software and Quark Xpress as well as Quark CODV- desk as desktop authoring tools. However, we are now placing greater emphasis on further expanding functions and design possibilities, as well as automating workflows more highly. To achieve this, we have made our architecture consistently XML-capable and we have added new components such as the Quark Transformation Engine as well as Xpress Author for Microsoft Word that allow the conversion of certain XML dialects into other dialects. What is more, through a service-oriented architecture and open standards we have created completely flexible possibilities for connecting to other business systems.

Drupa technology guide: As a rule, media neutral content is not entered via a layout program. What solution has Quark developed for this? Matthias GIIke: Since DPS is based on open standards, one can use numerous authoring tools within the framework of the Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution. These include three Quark applications: Xpress, Copydesk and the XML editor Xpress Author for Microsoft Word, which allows the simple and direct production of structured XML data directly from Word. However, content does not just consist of text. Other media assets such as pictures, video or data from databases can also be automatically flowed into the various layouts through a link to content management systems. The media-independent formats in the central storage location are converted using XML by the Quark Transformation Engine and Quark Xpress Server into the display formats for print, web or e-mail so that the integration into the workflow of manual tasks involving Quark Xpress or Quark Copydesk, for example, is controlled by the Quark Publishing System.

Drapa technology guide: Is it true that InDesign can also be integrated into the Dynamic Publishing concept?
Gilke: Yes, that is the case. Naturally, we recommend Quark Xpress 7 as the layout and design software for the DPS environment to our customers. However, content from other desktop applications that understand and can output XML can also be processed within Quark DPS, and this includes Adobe and also Microsoft products. In the case of InDesign, Quark DPS can utilize IndDesiga XML and integrate it into the publishing process. Our approach is to be as open as possible. We do not want to create standards but to support current ones, which is a plus point compared with other suppliers.

Drupa technology guide: Following the new positioning of Quark, should Quark Xpress users be worried that their layout program will no longer be looked after in the way that they might wish?
Gilke: Quark Xpress is the most important piece of the puzzle in the new Quark strategy. DPS draws on the manifold creative possibilities that Quark Xpress supplies to create a fully automated process. Since we consider Xpress to be the basic publishing element, we will continue in future to invest heavily in our desktop software. We can only be successful in the Dynamic Publishing arena, when we are also successful in desk top publishing. There has to be an application with which complex layout templates are produced that will be filled later with data from various sources, and what could be better suited to this task than Xpress?