QuarkXPress is a complex graphic editor that offers powerful tools designed for desktop publishing.

Since it is quite a large program, it is going to takes a while to load, while its interface is quite appealing and easy to use. Indeed, QuarkXPress is designed for professionals, but it also keeps the rookie's experience in mind.

That is why the welcome window offers you all the resources you need to get started in using QuarkXPress.

In order to create a project, you have to provide details such as layout type, page size, orientation, margin and column guides.

If you have no idea about basic elements such as text and typography, color management, digital publishing, or about advanced layout construction like page elements, transparency and drop shadows, web and interactive layouts, then you definitely need to get into the QuarkXPress training program.

This program lets you use the App Studio in order to create and publish your own iPad apps, design and sell interactive content for the Blio e-reader, or convert QuarkXPress layouts into e-books for iPad, Sony Reader and others.

Additionally, you can use conditional styles to automatically design content according to styling rules, insert bullets, numberings and callouts (boxes and groups that automatically move with text), clone certain design elements and access a story editor.

“ShapeMaker” is a tool which enables you to easily create one-of-a-kind shapes, while “ImageGrid” helps you import and automatically build grids of images “,Linkster” was incorporated for unlinking and relinking text boxes without overflow.

QuarkXPress consumes a lot of the system’s memory, yet this is quite normal for such a complex utility. There are many options inside the menus, yet they become difficult to follow after a while, especially for novice users. The response time is quite good and our tests did not return any errors, crashes or bugs.

All in all, QuarkXPress is a great application for desktop publishing, with many features that can surely please both beginners and expert users.