The Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing articles from December 1994

The Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing archives from December 1994

State of the PC industry: getting ready for Windows 95. (fall Comdex 1994 computer show) (Evaluation)
December 12, 1994... The best way to see what will be in the direct-mail catalogs and computer superstores next year is to go to the fall Comdex show. By walking the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Convention Center (the two humongous...

Microsoft's network for the family: outstanding implementation, but is the online service concept dated? (includes related article on Microsoft's consumer plans)
December 12, 1994... All year, the computer industry has been talking about and speculating about "Marvel"--Microsoft's entry into the on-line services business. At Comdex, Microsoft officially announced "The Microsoft Network" (Marvel's official name) and...

Word for Windows: gateway to the net; killer app to make Word ubiquitous? (Internet Assistant extension for Word for Windows 6.0 aids in Internet publishing) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... One of the great things about Microsoft is that it is still willing to let people pursue good ideas. Another great thing is that it is not afraid to place multiple bets. Early this fall, Peter Pathe, general manager of the Microsoft Word...

Abacus multilingual layout returns to U.S.; Mosaic offers Nasq and Nastaliq composition under Windows. (Abacus Computers' Mosaic page design program supports two Urdu dialects)
December 12, 1994... Abacus, an Indian software developer experienced in multilingual publishing, is now seeking U.S. distribution for a new multilingual wysiwyg composition program running under Windows. Track record. A while back--at Drupa '90, in fact--we ran...

New activity on Asian language front. (DTP packages in Chinese, Korean and other languages)
December 12, 1994... The following news shorts cover a few recent developments aimed at making popular desktop publishing technology capable of handling Asian languages. At present, a common method for handling ideographic fonts is to load a special version of the...

New NEC printer handles dye-sub, thermal-transfer: 3 quality modes from $1,000 color unit. (NEC Silentwriter SuperScript 660, 660i and Color 3000 printers) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... NEC has joined Seiko and Fargo in offering a color desktop printer that combines both thermal-transfer and dye-sublimation printing capabilities. In NEC's implementation, the SuperScript Color 3000, there are three printing modes, each of which...

Yamaha ScoreReader: OCR for music publishing. (scanning software for sheet music) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... Midi (musical instrument digital interface) sequencers--computer programs that capture notes, display the sequences on-screen for editing and then pump them out to sound synthesizers--are the music equivalent of word processors. They have been...

Umax debuts dual-lens scanner at Comdex; two sets off optics in Gemini-16 yield true 800x1,600-dpi resolution. (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... In the intensely competitive flatbed desktop color scanner market, the battle to provide higher quality and faster performance at increasingly lower prices continues unabated. A new wrinkle was recently introduced by Umax Technology, a leading...

Sony adds to dye-sub printer family: 2 units priced at $7,500. (UP-8800 and UP-5500) (Product Announcement) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Sony recently introduced two dye-sublimation color printers, one of which is aimed at graphic arts applications. The two models complement Sony's current dye-sub offering. The UP-8800 printer prints up to 8 1/4 x11 3/4 pages at 300 or 150...

3M boosts CD-ROM data density to 7 GB: dual-layer recording, tighter bit packing with red-laser technology. (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... 3M has demonstrated a new disk construction technique that multiplies the density of cd-roms and readies them for playback in next-generation cd-rom drives. The technology is far from product implementation; 3M speculates that products...

Power reference adopted. (Apple, IBM, Motorola agree on PowerPC hardware reference platform) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Apple, IBM and Motorola have formally agreed on a hardware reference platform specification for the PowerPC microprocessor that should lead (probably in 1996) to a wider range of operating system and application choices for computer customers....

Power Mac upgrade cards. (Apple Macintosh Processor Upgrade cards and DayStar Digital cards) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... Users with aging Macs are now being offered PowerPC upgrade cards from Apple. The Macintosh Processor Upgrade card, which uses the PowerPC 601 microprocessor, is priced between $660 and $700, depending on the model Mac you are upgrading....

DOS card for Mac. (Apple Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible System and DOS Compatibility Card) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... Apple has announced a card for the Power Macintosh 6100 and the Performa 6100 Macintosh that makes them compatible with ms-dos and Windows computers. The Power Macintosh 6100 Dos Compatible system and the Dos Compatibility Card, as they are...

Sybase-Powerbase merger. (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Sybase, the number-two database server vendor, and Powerbase, a leading supplier of database front-end tools, are planning to merge. In an InfoWorld interview, Sybase vp of marketing Stewart Schuster cited the company's need for stronger tools...

Tying phones to computers. (computer-telephone integration coalition launched) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... A coalition of leading computer and telecommunications firms has launched an initiative to spur integration of computers and telephones. AT&T, Apple, IBM and Siemens Rolm plan specifications for CTI--computer-telephony integration--which...

Noorda steps aside at Novell. (Chmn Ray Noorda resigns) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Former Novell chairman Ray Noorda recently resigned from the company, vacating a seat on the board and ending his 11-year involvement with the networking leader. Noorda, 70, had turned over his chairmanship role to ceo Bob Frankenberg last...

IBM previews OS/2 for PowerPC (prerelease version) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... IBM demonstrated a prerelease version of os/2 for the PowerPC with more than a dozen applications running under it. The development was featured in the PowerPC pavilion sponsored by IBM, Motorola and Apple at Comdex. Commercial availability...

Embedded Alpha. (DEC 21066A Alpha chip picked for high-end peripherals) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... DEC says its 21066A has been chosen by Prime Option as a controller for high-end print engines, by Alpha Data Parallel Systems Ltd. for pc and workstation accelerators and building blocks for parallel processing systems, and by Alta Technology...

Word claimed to be top seller. (Microsoft's Word processing package) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Microsoft has staked a claim for its Word software as the best-selling word processing program of all time. The company said 19 million copies of Word have been shipped worldwide. Microsoft also said that 15 million copies of its Excel...

Double SCSI on the way. (DoubleSpeed or Ultra SCSI interface extension) (Brief Article)
December 12, 1994... Industry leaders Adaptec, Conner Peripherals, Quantum, Seagate and others have announced support for DoubleSpeed scsi (Ultra scsi), a compatible extension to the scsi interface, which doubles the maximum parallel scsi input-output data rate to...

Dragon recognizes multiple languages; speech recognition-dictation system expanded for Europe, vertical markets. (Dragon Systems' DragonDictate for Windows enhancements and add-on modules for English version) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... Dragon Systems, whose speech-recognition dictation system we reviewed last March, has introduced optional modules for recognizing European languages and certain specialized vocabularies. International Series. In Europe, DragonDictate 1.0 for...

NFL features greatest plays on CD-ROM; title released to commemorate the NFL's 75th-anniversary season. (Turner Home Entertainment's CD-ROM) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
December 12, 1994... If you are looking for that perfect holiday gift for the football fan on your list, you might want to check out Turner Interactive's latest cd title, the NFL's Greatest Plays. Turner Interactive, a multimedia development group under Turner Home...