Quark Publishing System
| Quark Publishing System | |
|---|---|
| Basic data
|
|
| developer | Quark Inc. |
| Current version | QPS 9.2.1 (2012) |
| Current preliminary version | QPS 9.2 (2012) |
| operating system | Windows , Mac OS , Web |
| License | Proprietary |
| Quark Publishing System | |
The Quark Publishing System (better known by the acronym QPS) is an editorial system from Quark Inc. It is mainly used for print production in the magazine and newspaper industry, but also by advertising agencies, catalog manufacturers and book publishers.
history
QPS was presented for the first time worldwide in 1991; previously there was only the P.INK editorial system based on QuarkXPress .
Rumor has it that Tim Gill, founder of Quark, programmed the central element, the dispatch server, on his own over a weekend.
QPS 1.0 was first used productively in Germany in 1992 for the newspaper Die Woche .
functionality
In addition to workflow control, i.e. routing and assigning components, QPS enables content (images, texts) and design (layouts) to be edited at the same time. These elements are automatically forwarded and assigned to the appropriate users depending on their status. QPS notifies users who e.g. B. edit a page to see whether changes have been made to the components it contains and update them. In addition, the status of each element, each page and each publication can be tracked.
technology
The central element of QPS is the QuarkDispatch server, which manages user requests, rights and notifications. Version 1 of this had to run on a dedicated computer.
Up to and including version 3.5, the dispatch server required a Macintosh computer, while clients from version 1 for Macintosh and from version 2 also as Windows versions are available. Supported clients are QuarkXPress and InDesign (as layout programs), QuarkCopyDesk and InCopy (as WYSIWYG text editors) and any other programs (for example Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop ) as suppliers.
Since version 7, QPS has been using a Java- based "Services Oriented Architecture" server that can run on Unix, Mac OS X or Windows.
Up to version 3.6 QPS did not use a relational database, but a (Quark-proprietary) RAM-based database. As of version 7, QPS also supports relational databases such as Oracle , MS SQL or HSQL .
Up to version 2.1, QPS used AppleTalk, which was still revolutionary in the early 90s, as a communication protocol. With version 2.2, QPS switched to the Internet protocol (IP) used today .
market
With regard to the installed base, QPS is the market leader in the area of print editorial systems with 900 systems sold and over 50,000 workstations in the area of editorial systems; In the meantime, however, there is increased competition from other editorial systems either based on QuarkXPress or InDesign.
Sample customers
Since publishers often use a wide variety of editorial systems in order not to be dependent on one editorial system manufacturer, publisher references are often wasted today. Therefore, here are some objects that are currently (June 2007) being produced with QPS in German-speaking countries:
- Berliner Zeitung, Germany , daily newspaper
- Der Spiegel , Germany , magazine
- Tagesanzeiger, Switzerland , daily newspaper
Version history
- QPS 1.0 (1991): Support for QuarkXPress 3.1
- QPS 1.1 (1996): Support for QuarkXPress 3.3
- QPS 2.0 (1998): Support for QuarkXPress 4, initial support for Windows clients, Passport support in the server.
- QPS 2.2 (2003): Support for QuarkXPress 5, first version with IP support
- QPS 3.0 (2004): Support for QuarkXPress 6, support for MacOS X Server
- QPS 3.5 (2005): Support for QuarkXPress 6.5
- QPS 3.6 (2007): Java-based server, therefore also for Windows.
- QPS 7 (2007): Support for QuarkXPress 7, support for relational databases. Change to " Service Oriented Architecture ", web editor for editing text flags on the Internet
- QPS 8 (2008): Support for QuarkXPress 8, support for InDesign and InCopy . Parallel operation possible.
- QPS 9.0 (2011): Support of QuarkXPress 9, support for the ZAVE and ePUB output format. Support of AppStudio for the creation of interactive editions for the iPad
- QPS 9.1 (2011): Support for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)