Version 5.0 finally supports layers, so you can easily organize objects, illustrations, images, and text boxes and hide or show individual layers as desired. Nor have the palettes and toolbar altered much you use them to access major functions such as colors, styles, and tables of contents.
To set up a page, you must create boxes to hold text and graphics, then import these elements as needed. The tried-and-true document layout process hasn't changed a bit either. For example, you can define kerning (the spacing between letter pairs) and trapping (the amount of space between two adjacent colors). The program still offers sophisticated, precise text and color handling. In general, Quark 5.0 is the same desktop publisher (DTP) that professional designers know and love. Amateurs should try easier Microsoft Publisher 2002. Nonetheless, this powerful program maintains its most-favored professional status among desktop publishers. We do have a few complaints: we find Quark's chronic, incomplete PDF support frustrating.
Furthermore, after years of customer requests, Quark 5.0 finally sports a table-building tool and a complete set of Web-page design features. The program offers precise control over typesetting and color handling and makes it easy for design professionals to lay out any sort of manuscript, from a magazine to a novel. In the desktop publishing arena, QuarkXPress holds the top banana title, with good reason.
