Platform

Q++Studio Workstations must be installed on a physical PC-based computer (not a Virtual Machine and not on an emulator such as Parallels).

Processor

Pentium Quad-Core processor 2.8 GHz.

RAM

8 GB (16 GB is optimal) if you plan to use QuarkXPress.

16 GB (32 GB is optimal) if you plan to use InDesign.

Operating System

The recommended version of Windows to use with the XV4 64-bit version of Q++Studio, is Windows 10 64-bit (more details).

See also: QuarkXPress/Windows compatibility and InDesign/Windows compatibility.

Screen

A 22 inch display with a screen resolution in between 1366x1200 and 1920x1200 (optimum).

➢Another, costlier, option is to use a screen with a resolution of 2560x1440, as long as the screen is at least 30 inch in size.

Avoid higher resolution screens, such as 4K or 8K screens, as they are very expensive, and additionally require an expensive graphics card, and, most importantly, make many programs' dialogs, such as Q++Studio look very small.

Disk Space

200 GB of free disk space

Network

A good quality gigabit network card.

Bandwidth

For LAN connections, bandwidth requirements are negligible.

For WAN connections (users connecting to the server via the internet), in typical use, a workstation uploads about 25 MB per day to the database server and downloads about 100 MB from the database server. This translates to about 45 KB/s available upload speed and a ping of less than 40 msec to the remote database server.

Security

See anti-virus and firewall settings.

Separately Purchased Software

QuarkXPress

To use QuarkXPress to generate diaries and calendars, using Q++Studio, you need a valid license to use, and a properly installed and activated copy of QuarkXPress 8-2025 (see the Operating System section, above, for a list of the versions of Windows compatible with different versions of QuarkXPress).

Currently (November 2024), the minimum recommended version of QuarkXPress to use with the XV4 64-bit version of Q++Studio is QuarkXPress 2018 (with the 64-bit version of Windows 10 or Windows 11), which has all the advantages of the excellent 2017 version, but also handles large font families with multiple font styles, in particular as it will allow you to select print-only fonts using the new font list editor.

InDesign

To use InDesign to generate diaries and calendars, using Q++Studio, you need a valid license to use, and a properly installed and activated copy of InDesign 2020-2025.

You will also need a separate license for the InDesign version of Q++Studio (if you are not already running the multi-site version of Q++Studio).

InDesign 2022, 2023 or 2024 are currently the recommended versions of InDesign to use with the XV4 version of Q++Studio, although Q++Studio still functions equally well with InDesign 2020 and 2021, and none of our clients have reported any issue when using Q++Studio with InDesign 2025.

Additional consideration

If you use Type1 fonts and/or rely on Pantone colors, then you might want to remain with InDesign 2022.

When using InDesign 2023-2025, Type 1 fonts are not available and accessing the Pantone libraries requires the additional purchase of a license for the Pantone Connect Extension.