Adobe vs. Quark: Left, Quark DMS demonstrates its ability to display a query of images in a group of thumbnails. Right, Adobe Photoshop 6 shows off its new-found abilities with vector graphics and type.

Adobe, Quark dominate Seybold new product announcements

SAN FRANCISCO -- For once the event actually lived up to the hype. Seybold San Francisco 2000, deemed in its own press kit to be "bigger and better than ever before," was all of that. But it wasn't the 350 exhibitors or the dozens of announcements or the thousands of attendees (35,000 was the estimate) that made the event a success. It was the quality of the announcements, as well as the chance for attendees to get a handle on what could be some of the dominant publishing technologies of the 21st century.

Quark Inc. of Denver, Colo., and Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose, had major announcements. In the past, these two companies have made plenty of promises and then delivered products that still needed some refining before the promises were fulfilled.

But at this Seybold, Quark showed that forthcoming version 1.5 of Quark DMS (Digital Media System) was finally the industrial-strength database that users and analysts alike had decried as absent for many years. The database and DMS-associated XTensions make the goal of repurposing Quark XPress documents viable, feasible and doable. But more about Quark later.

Not to be outdone, Adobe announced a major upgrade to its industry-standard photo and graphic manipulation tool, Photoshop, with version 6.0. Shipping later this year, this upgrade refines the familiar Photoshop look-and-feel to make the program even easier to use and adds vector-based graphics and text support.

However, the most interesting announcement of a future product had to be Adobe's InScope, the company's solution for managing high-volume, complex workflows at magazines, catalogs and newspapers.

Based on this writer's preliminary look at the offering, this new system from Adobe has great potential, as does InDesign. But Quark has finally figured out what sort of company it wants to be, and with Quark DMS, has, at last, a database to match its layout capabilities. Competition for Quark, as yet little more than probable, seems to have had a salubrious effect on the Denver company. But more about InScope later, as well.

There were many other software and hardware announcements of note at Seybold besides the ones from the big boys, Adobe and Quark.

Software of note included further improvements in the expanding field of PDF workflow solutions, better file compression and delivery methods and programs to enhance web-based software repurposing.

On the hardware front, improvements in digital cameras from Olympus, Nikon and Kodak were all in evidence, with more megapixels and more features for the buck.

Industrial-strength database
Getting back to Quark, and foremost, Quark DMS, which the company calls "an enlightened and powerful enterprise-wide digital asset management system" in accompanying publicity, the great historical question -- "When is Quark ever going to provide its customers with an industrial-strength database?" -- has finally been answered.

It might have helped if Apple had provided better server hardware earlier, but Apple had problems of its own as the 1990s developed and Quark itself seemed to take one step forward, two sideways and one back during that time. (Does anyone remember or use Quark Immedia, a proprietary-format repurposing tool ... or how about Quark Styles, a hobbled version of the full application?)

But that was then and this is now. At Seybold, Quark's efforts to rededicate itself to being the database for reuse and repurposing to "best suit the needs of our customers" was evident from the newly styled booth to the pavilion full of developers right next to it.

Scott Moore, the strategic product manager for Quark DMS, demonstrated a clear knowledge of the 1.5 version, despite not being around for the entire 3¢-year development cycle for version 1.0.

Quark DMS is a true repository for assets, and not just a catalog database of the locations of those assets or a text-only document management system. This facilitates the improved features of DMS 1.5: collection assets, automatic e-mail notification, XML mapping and enhanced ability to query the database.

Putting these features in context requires a brief explanation of just what Quark DMS is, without getting overly technical.

Quark DMS not only imports and exports nearly every file format a publisher might use (the usual alphabet soup of TIFF, EPS, PDF, GIF, JPEG, ASCII, HTML, XML, Microsoft Word, Quark XPress tags and video and audio formats), but also allows new file types to be added through the Administrator interface. Or, in a move that reinforces the openness and extensibility of the Quark DMS platform, developers can create new DMS XTensions with the XDK (XTension Developer Kit) that provides the framework to write a special XTension for any unique format not currently supported.

DMS supports several flavors of open pre-press interface (OPI) servers and lets users have access to the database from any location with a computer, Internet connection and a web browser through Quark DMS Web Client.

DMS provides client software that also works within other applications besides XPress. Several Adobe applications are supported, like GoLive, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Microsoft Word and Excel. And DMS, at last, provides an easy way to deconstruct Quark XPress documents into individual asset components for repurposing as well as just archiving.

All that said, Quark DMS does have its limitations. It currently supports only Oracle8 as its internal database, although additional databases may be supported in the future. The DMS can run on Windows NT and Sun Solaris servers. Clients can be either Macintosh- or Windows-based systems, and the feature sets for both are identical. Currently administration must be done on a Windows PC, but a Macintosh version of the administrator software is forthcoming. Testing at Quark included a 1-terabyte, million-asset database with 500 simultaneous users. Anything more may be uncharted territory. But the ground this database rests upon seems firmer than anything that Quark has released before.

Quark previews and betas
Want more? Quark had it, with a preview version of Quark XPress 5.0 and a beta version of Quark CopyDesk SE (Special Edition). Essentially, what Quark 5.0 promises is all of what XPress does now, with the addition of all of what Adobe InDesign 1.5 can do. Briefly, the ability to create web pages easily, create hyperlinks for PDF and web content, a much improved table-creating and exporting function, better color management with some new XTensions, less cumbersome, more contextual menus and document layers and better, easier AppleScript support.

Assurances have been given that the version 5.0, which was shown in preview, would not cause the extensive XTension rewriting necessary in the step up from 3.3x to 4.x for either XPress or DMS.

As for CopyDesk SE, why not have a text-editing program that accurately replicates the hyphenation-and-justification algorithm of XPress to allow for the same precise copy-fitting Adobe InDesign users will receive with InCopy? CopyDesk SE is the text-editing application that XPress never had, allowing the ability to view text as it will appear when printed, either in full-screen or galley view. So write-to-fit will not be approximate, but exact, and editors will have a chance to tweak hyphenation-and-justification and accurately write and adjust headlines before flowing the copy into XPress.

Editors will also be able to write and attach sticky notes to a CopyDesk document that can be printed and edited right along with the story text.

This important addition to the Quark family of software will be available sometime later this year. It will run on any PowerPC Macintosh under System 7.6.1 or later, and only needs eight megabytes of memory. For Windows PCs, a '486 or faster processor and 12 megabytes of memory with a VGA or better monitor will do the trick. And don't forget Adobe Type Manager for accurate display of fonts, whether in Windows or Macs. The price is reasonable, like $99 list.

Quark DMS is a more expensive proposition, with Quark doing no direct selling. Current list price is $50,000 for 10-user license, $2000 per additional seat. The price does include the Oracle8 Enterprise internal database. Compared to the now-dinosaur-like proprietary systems that newspapers paid for in the 1970s and 1980s, the price is most reasonable. It's not medical care that's being bought here.

New: InScope and Photoshop
Countering Quark's attempt to stay on top in the electronic publishing field is Adobe's newest addition to its publishing family, InScope, and a new Photoshop version, 6.0.

InScope seems to be positioned where Quark DMS was in 1998 or early 1999, with a 1.0 version not in sight until 2001. In fact, there may be no standard version of InScope, because third-party developers will be customizing InScope to fit the unique needs of each publishing client.

To show Adobe is serious about this venture into high-end publishing, a key Seybold announcement named Time Magazines as a huge client that intended to adopt InScope for its next-generation publishing environment. For those who are counting, that means 35 magazines worldwide that will be migrating to InDesign. A pilot program is already underway at Fortune.

What was being shown at Seybold was a system cobbled together for Adobe Magazine, but wasn't actually being used for that magazine yet. In fact, a decision hadn't been made whether to produce Adobe Magazine with InScope yet. That's not to say that the product is vaporware ... far from it.

However, only three integrators have been selected so far to sell and customize the product, two foreign and one solid U.S. company, Managing Editor Software Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa. With Managing Editor and Time Magazines involved, the future bodes well for InScope, but not well enough for Adobe Magazine to make a prerelease commitment to the application.

Enthusiasm is running high. Just ask Dennis McGuire, the head of Managing Editor. His company had great success in the '90s with a slew of XPress-based ad layout products, both display and classified, and knew when to stop being Mac-centric. In fact, Managing Editor was one of the first publishing products to ditch being proprietary and link to any ad database. So both publishing experience and use of open standards make Managing Editor an excellent selection for an InScope integrator.

Just what will they have to integrate? Because of the modular nature of Adobe's new page layout program, InDesign, and the ability of Adobe's products to use similar plug-in architecture, there is a built-in extensibility in all of Adobe's software that will make it easy (or at least not killer difficult) for an integrator to use to great advantage.

One must, however, grab a database (Oracle?), which is undefined. Necessary integration will be provided by plug-ins in the various Adobe applications. Other than a web browser, no special client software will be needed.

If it sounds a little vague and fuzzy, that's because it is. But Managing Editor's McGuire was most enthusiastic about the potential of InScope. The open nature of the product and the underlying Adobe software means that "APIs [Application Program Interfaces] can be written to change almost anything," McGuire said. This product will bear close watching in the months ahead.

Less problematical is the new Photoshop 6.0, which adds vector-object support to the program, roughly making the program like a 21st century version of that old Macintosh application, SuperPaint. Support for type is vastly improved and menus have been better grouped and simplified, layers can have styles and even more seamless integration with the Adobe family of software. It is a major upgrade, perhaps the biggest since version 3.0.

Two last mentions
Briefly, two applications should also be mentioned before the space runs out. The first is ContentWelder from DeskNet Inc. of New York City. By using eXtensible Markup Language-encoded text, ContentWelder allows the passing of information between different Web-based templates so the same information can appear in different layouts.

All layouts can be automatically updated when the text is updated, which makes the management of multiple web pages with different content easy. End users can also move and resize text and images on their own web pages. Based on administrator-set preferences, users with a web browser could compose brochures, reprints or even ads using a set of predefined criteria with only a web browser.

Similar to AdLizard (see The Cole Papers, August 2000) ContentWelder is browser-based, enabling non-designers to produce content on their own from a pre-approved set of layouts and data. The cost for these robots is $10,000 and up, because they come attached to a server for the data. Compared to wages for a living employee, $10,000 plus electricity is not a large investment.

FileFlow of Milford, Mass., an innovative way to manage the movement of large digital images over the Internet, addresses the twin problems of speed and security when passing large documents to others digitally. FastSend and FastStore are being beta-tested by several advertising agencies for ease, convenience and security.

These products are like a digital FedEx, handling delivery more efficiently than an individual. Using military-grade 2048-bit encryption (by comparison, personal banking on the Web uses 128-bit encryption), the file to be transmitted is broken down into thousands of encrypted packets of information that can be sent as rapidly as bandwidth will allow ... the bigger the pipe, the more packets.

When the file arrives at FileFlow, the recipient gets a message that a file is ready to be downloaded. The Java-based system then sends the file when requested by the recipient, along with a key to decrypt it. The end user can purchase a reusable key, or like FedEx, pay a one-time delivery fee.

FastStore is basically an on-line web archive of FastSend images, with the ease of use that goes with the compressed file size and the extra-strong security. FileFlow on the client end uses no additional software, since Java applets at the source handle everything. If speed of transmission and security are primary goals, this method should be worth close scrutiny.

Although barely scratching the surface of the many announcements at Seybold S.F. 2000, this all-too-brief account should foretell that the only constant as publishing moves into the 21st century is the pace of change, which is ever faster.

-- George Powell, gp@colepapers.net

"I think in the next 20 years, we are in for an age of policy by piracy. And I think that's a very good thing. Because if the pirates don't set the policy, the lawyers will set the policy. And if the lawyers don't set the policy, well, God help us, Congress will do it and look what they've done lately."
-- Futurist Paul Saffo, on the concept of copyright, at Seybold Seminars 2000.

Adobe Systems Inc.,
(408) 536-4281; (800) 833-6687;
Apple Computer Inc.,
(408) 974-4611;
DeskNet Inc.,
(212) 343-9800,
e-mail: desknet@desknetinc.com;
FileFlow Inc.,
(508) 473-3728,
e-mail: salesus@fileflow.com;
Managing Editor Inc.,
(215) 886-5662,
e-mail: info@maned.com;
Quark Inc.,
(303) 894-8888,
e-mail: aselvia@quark.com.

From THE COLE PAPERS, September 2000, Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved.