DesignPad is aimed at amateur and professional designers alike who want to quickly access a grid-based design package that will allow them to explore basic creative ideas or create the foundations of a professional layout on a mobile device.
The software enables users to customise designs for products such as posters, business cards, brochures and postcards on pre-defined layouts that are set out on a visible, removable grid to aid the design process.
Quark DesignPad offers the use of touch screen technology to select layouts with moveable columns, rows, text and picture boxes as well as font, colour and text wrap options.
The software, which allows users to save their work and forward it to colleagues from their iPads via email or twitter, also incorporates image cropping and resizing functions as well as colour and transparency control boxes and background image designs.
DesignPad app users, who are being encouraged by Quark to submit their feedback on the software’s capabilities, can select images stored on their iPads to upload into their work or access an online selection of free images.
If designers decide to use their work as a basis for a more complete and detailed design, files created using the DesignPad app can be uploaded and developed further in QuarkXpress 9, using a wider tool selection for greater precision.
Quark said that although DesignPad had been launched as a preview in order to get market feedback, the company considered it to be a "complete" product already.
Senior product manager Matthias Günther said: "We want to know exactly what people think of this. Are there features missing, do they like it, is it user friendly, do we need to add anything?"
Günther said that Quark did not plan to create an iPad version of the full QuarkXpress software.
He added: "We don’t envision adding the kind of capabilities that are available on the full version but who knows, maybe we will get that feedback from the market.
"The iPad obviously has a limited user interface so I don’t think anyone making a fully fledged layout would want to use this mobile app because your finger simply doesn’t give the precision of a pen or a mouse."
Günther said that a decision had not been made on whether users would have to pay to download the app when it is launched commercially in the future.
