COLE'S NEWSWIRE, March 3, 1999

March 3, 1999
Vol. 5, No. 9

The NEWSWIRE is a weekly distribution of information about the sales and installations of publishing technology and the latest news on new products developed by suppliers to the industry.

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ADOBE SYSTEMS INC.
Adobe, a desktop publishing software supplier based in San Jose, has introduced InDesign, a package of page design and production tools that integrate with other Adobe products such as Photoshop for image handling, Illustrator for graphic design and GoLive for publishing on the World-Wide Web (Adobe acquired GoLive System Inc. earlier this year; a Windows version will be available this month).

The modular design of InDesign will enable third-party suppliers to create plug-ins to extend a user's capabilities in using the Adobe Publishing Platform. Three major suppliers of newspaper publishing systems have announced they will incorporate InDesign in future systems. The suppliers are Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Digital Technology International of Orem, Utah, and System Integrators Inc. of Sacramento.

Adobe also introduced at Seybold Seminars/Boston Adobe PressReady, software for printing proofs on color inkjet printers, and Adobe Acrobat 4.0, which includes such new features as the ability to edit graphics from within a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, using Photoshop or Illustrator, then store the changes back into the PDF file. Acrobat 4.0 also includes enhanced font handling functionality, a 200-inch-by-200-inch maximum page size, color management using ICC profiles and support for Adobe PostScript 3 output. Adobe officials countered industry criticism of a lack of feature-parity between the Windows and Macintosh versions of Acrobat 4.0 by saying that the Macintosh version will have the same features as the Windows version "very shortly."

Acrobat upgrades for registered users will cost $99; copies of 4.0 for Macs and Windows will cost $249. Anticipated street price for InDesign will be $699, but the company promises an aggressive competitive upgrade pricing. Adobe is on the Web at http://www.adobe.com/.

APPLE COMPUTER INC.
Apple, the Cupertino, Calif.-based supplier of the Macintosh operating system, has announced that developers have signed up to create and support products for the soon-to-be-released Mac OS X. The new operating system combines features of the Mac OS and UNIX. Developers who have signed on include producers of desktop publishing software, web publishing tools and asset management software.

Apple also announced the adoption of its ColorSync color management tools by Corbis, a web-based provider of photos; Kinko's, the global production service bureau, and PEOPLE magazine.

Apple is on the Web at http://www.apple.com/.

APPLIED GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGIES INC.
AGT, a provider of production outsourcing services for newspapers and commercial printers based in Rochester, N.Y., has introduced an upgrade to its Digital Link web client, which is used to access databases over the Internet.

Enhancements include stronger security measures for clients, better image handling functionality with faster access to low-resolution files for use as placeholders in production-bound documents and broader annotation features to ensure that jobs are handled in the manner clients wish.

AGT is on the Web at http://www.agt.com/.

INSTANTOBJECTS INC.
InstantObjects, a supplier of e-commerce tools based in San Francisco, has launched a new classified advertising web site at the TORONTO STAR in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. InstantObjects e-Business Platform provides users with improved ad formatting and improved search capabilities.

InstantObjects has enabled the STAR to more readily customize its site and post more than 5000 classified ads daily, providing users with advanced searches of real estate and auto ads published in the STAR.

InstantObjects is on the Web at http://www.instantobjects.com/.

MEDIA PASSAGE
Seattle-based Media Passage, which places advertising orders with newspapers on behalf of advertisers and agencies, has announced it has begun a similar service for the magazine industry. The Internet-based service will provide access to more than 10,000 publications.

Media Passage is on the Web at http://www.mediapassage.com/.

NEWSINC.
A business magazine has erred in sketching a gloomy future for newspapers, writes NEWSINC. Editor/Publisher David M. Cole in the March 3 issue of the newsletter about the business of the newspaper business. Not only does BUSINESS 2.0 have some fundamental facts about the newspaper industry wrong, its projections that the Internet has doomed the print media don't add up, Cole writes.

Inside, NEWSINC. reports on a range of new media issues and events. New writer Susan Clark covers the Interactive Newspapers Conference in Atlanta, finding hope (and fear) for the future. Senior Editor Pete Wetmore examines the sale of Zip2 to AltaVista, profiles two new media pioneers heading for new challenges, reports on a new effort to secure industry growth and skips across the country to gauge how test audits of readership surveys are going.

For more about the March 1 issue of NEWSINC., visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

QUARK INC.
Denver-based Quark, a supplier of publishing tools that include Quark XPress, has announced it will support the Macromedia Flash file format in new and upgraded versions of its products. Flash, from San Francisco-based Macromedia, is used to generate vector graphic-based web sites; its Flash player is included with Windows and Mac OS-based computers.

Quark is on the Web at http://www.quark.com/. Macromedia is at http://www.macromedia.com/.

REAL MEDIA
Real Media, a New York-based provider of on-line advertising services and technology to newspapers and other media, has announced the acquisition of Cubicmedia Gesellschaft fr neue Medien mbH, an on-line advertising sales company based in Germany.

Cubicmedia will be renamed Real Media Germany and its founders will continue to run the company as well as retain a 24 percent interest in it.

Real Media is on the Web at http://www.realmedia.com/.

T/ONE INC.
T/One, a supplier of image transmission and archiving solutions based in Quincy, Mass., has announced enhancements to its Merlin System. Version 4.0 has a new user interface, can support more file formats including audio and video, offers improved performance and client-server architecture, and has new functionality incorporated in its picture desk.

Users gain drag-and-drop functionality, plus dynamically updated search windows, customized screen displays and user-defined searches. The picture desk affords batch editing and multiple project management.

T/One is on the Web at http://www.t-1.com/.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS and NEWSINC., and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

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