As of this afternoon, QuarkXPress 2016, version 12.0.0.0, is shipping.

If you pre-purchased an upgrade from the previous version, you should have received a message from Quark informing you of how to obtain your copy. The new version will shortly be available to purchase, and to download for trial.

Those upgrading need their old 2015 serial number, and the new 2016 serial number which was included in the receipt when you pre-purchased. A link in the emails sent out today allows you to obtain your Validation Code, which you will need to enter when you first start the app.

On this Mac, the first attempt to start the new version up resulted in it hanging; I force-quit the app, and on the second attempt it eventually kicked in with the process of entering the validation code. When I went to register the new copy, it was already registered to my account.

First impressions are that it is a really great upgrade: I tried opening old documents which appeared fine, then created an empty new document and imported PDF pages into that. I have only very briefly looked at the documents and played with this, but it looks wonderful, if a tad pedestrian.

It imported PDF one page at a time; right-clicking then brought up the contextual menu, which allowed me to convert each imported page into its constituent native objects. During that process it identifies any missing fonts and allows you to select substitutes. Once done you can adjust text boxes, etc., and you have a regular and fully editable page in your document: miraculous!

App size has actually reduced from 612 MB (version 11.2.0.1) to 545 MB, and it feels significantly more responsive. There is no sign yet of any new version of Quark DesignPad for iOS, so I presume that the current version will continue to work with QuarkXPress 2016.

In case you are in any doubt, QuarkXPress 2016 is still sold on a perpetual licence basis: you do not have to pay any subscription for it, unless you want additional support.

Further details are here.