Quark Digital Publishing User Manual

Digital Publishing with
QuarkXPress 9

CONTENTS

Contents

Introduction.......................................................................................3

Quark digital publishing options.......................................................4

Defining your goals and limitations...................................................5

Characterizing your content...................................................................................5

Assessing your customers' needs...........................................................................7

Planning for distribution.........................................................................................8

Assessing your infrastructure needs.......................................................................9

Hardware, operating systems, and formats....................................10

Hardware..............................................................................................................10

Operating systems................................................................................................11

Multimedia format limitations...............................................................................11

Delivery formats...................................................................................................11

General design approach................................................................13

Mistakes to avoid............................................................................15

Where to go next............................................................................17

Legal notices...................................................................................18

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Introduction

Digital publishing is a huge publishing opportunity. In fact, maybe a little too huge. There

are so many options - and so many uncertainties — that decision-making can be a bit

daunting. To make things even more complex, the answer to most of the questions you're

likely to ask is probably, "It depends."

The purpose of this Guide is to help you to make good decisions about digital publishing,

so that your efforts will meet with success.

INTRODUCTION

DIGITAL PUBLISHING WITH QUARKXPRESS 9 | 3

QUARK DIGITAL PUBLISHING OPTIONS

Quark digital publishing options

The purpose of this topic is to present the digital publishing options available through
Quark® for quick reference. You may want to refer back to this table as you read about

the various aspects of digital publishing referred to in the rest of the document.

Media Type

Description

Best for

Reader

Content

issues

A flexible proprietary
format with a
customizable, brandable
reader

magazines

(customizable)

From QuarkXPressLayout

slideshows, HTML,
interactivity, and more

A format that lets you
publish in the Amazon
Kindle store

KindleBranded reader

Built into reader
application

A standard,
book-centric format
supported by many
readers

Apple iBooks

MultipleMultipleiPadPlatforms

application

Text and picturesText and picturesText, pictures, video,

Third-partyAmazon Kindle storeApple App StoreDistribution

Blio eBookePub e-bookKindle eBookApp Studio app and

A flexible proprietary
format with a
Blio-branded reader

Books and magazinesBooksBooksCorporate and

Blio eReaderKindle, Nook, Google,

Multiple desktop and
digital platforms

From QuarkXPress®Built into reader

Text, pictures, video,
slideshows, HTML,
interactivity

Distributed by Baker &
Taylor through their
bookstore only

Available for
QuarkXPress?

QPS?

Cost

QuarkXPress 9.1 and
later

Varies depending on
number of issues you
want to sell

QuarkXPress 9.3 and
later

No cost for authoring
and publishing in
bookstore, but Amazon
may demand a portion
of the profits from sales

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QuarkXPress 9.0 and
later

No cost for authoring;
distribution
arrangement varies by
distributor

QuarkXPress 9.0 and
later

—QPS 9.0 and later—QPS 9.0 and laterAvailable for

No cost for authoring
and publishing in
bookstore, but Blio may
demand a portion of
the profits from sales

DEFINING YOUR GOALS AND LIMITATIONS

Defining your goals and limitations

When you think about digital publishing, it's easy to assume that your first questions

should be:

• Which devices do I want to publish to?

• What format do I want to publish in?

• Which tools do I want to use?

However, this may not be the best place to start. Different devices, formats, and tools have

different strengths and weaknesses, and it's difficult to choose from among them unless

you have a clear picture of your goals, needs, and limitations. The topics below can help

you to get a better fix on these, so you can make an intelligent decision when it comes

time to choose a direction.

Characterizing your content

To some extent, the choices you make about devices and format should depend on the

nature of your content. Is your content highly designed, like a magazine or a brochure?

Is it primarily textual, with just a few pictures? Is it designed primarily for visual impact,

or for leisurely reading? The answers to questions like these can help you decide whether

you need layout view, a reflow view, or both.

• A layout view lets you carefully design pages for maximum visual impact, and allows you

to include multimedia content such as sound and movies. A layout view also lets you

maintain your branding to the greatest degree possible, because it provides maximum

flexibility.

• A reflow view displays text and pictures only, usually with a user-controllable text size

and font. A reflow view is less flexible than a layout view, but may be desirable because it

makes it easy for the customer to read the text without distraction. Reflow view is well-suited

to traditional books and reference materials.

DIGITAL PUBLISHING WITH QUARKXPRESS 9 | 5

DEFINING YOUR GOALS AND LIMITATIONS

Examples of layout view (left) and reflow view (right)

If your content is designed to make a strong visual impression, if you need to maintain

your branding, and if you want to include multimedia components, you might want to

consider creating a custom app, or using App Studio to create content that can be viewed

in a custom reader app.

If your content is strongly visual and you want to include multimedia components, but

branding is less of an issue, you might want to consider creating eBooks for the Blio eReader.

If your content is primarily textual, and you don't have any need for fancy layout, you

might want to consider using a format such as Kindle or ePub. This format provides only

a reflow view, and is compatible with a wide variety of readers.

If it is critical that your content be presented in a way that is uniquely yours, you may

want to consider creating a custom app, either from scratch or using the App Studio

framework. Although this is the most labor-intensive option, it is also the most flexible.

Note, however, that the more custom work you put into an app, the more difficult it is to

recreate that app for multiple platforms.

Another question you may want to ask yourself is, do you want or need to support multiple

device orientations? Do your customers expect this functionality? If this is important to

you, you should probably consider this when choosing a format. Many ePub readers

support this functionality automatically, but not all of them. If you want to vary your

layout when the orientation changes, a better choice would be a custom app or an issue

created in App Studio.

If you're considering using multimedia elements such as audio and video, make sure you

have the resources necessary to produce those multimedia assets. It's easy to get excited

about the idea of using multimedia, but creating and using multimedia properly can

involve a great deal of planning and expense. You may be able to reuse materials that your

organization has already created for other media, such as the organization's Web site.

Some other things to think about:

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