Quark has announced the preview release of DesignPad, a new mobile app for what it calls ‘aspiring designers,’ that helps them explore grid-based design and create professional-looking artwork from a mobile device. In other words they can learn to work with on-screen layouts without paying almost £1500 for a new full copy of QuarkXPress.
Using multi-touch gestures, DesignPad allows users to experiment with different layouts. They can start with pre-defined grid-based designs for standard document types such as ads, posters, newsletters and brochures, which they can then modify.
The DesignPad Preview app is free to download from the App Store for designers to explore and provide feedback to help shape future releases. It allows users to create a QuarkXPress 9 version of the design, to complete on a full system. Users are encouraged to share their feedback on forums.quark.com.
Gavin Drake, vice president of marketing at Quark, said: ‘At Quark we are always looking at innovative ways to make graphic design accessible to the whole spectrum of creative professionals- be it a long-time print designer looking to break through in the digital arena without having to learn to code or a student approaching desktop publishing for the first time. Now with DesignPad everyone can get real hands-on experience creating grid-based designs to create a variety of document types, making it a valuable teaching aid for the education sector. At the same time, DesignPad is a useful tool for experienced creative professionals to start a design on the go and finalise it on their computer using QuarkXPress 9, where they have complete control and the most sophisticated tools to build of the grid designs from DesignPad.
‘We are looking forward to hearing from the design community on this new approach to grid-based design and invite designers, students and teachers to send us their feedback to make DesignPad the essential iPad app for creative professionals.’
Contact: www.quark.com/en/products/designpad
