The Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing articles from February 1994

The Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing archives from February 1994

The great Seybold trapping shootout. (summary of feature article)
February 1, 1994... Ever since color publishing moved to the desktop, the issue of trapping color jobs for printing on a press has loomed increasingly larger. It has been clear that trapping has to be performed, but not so certain is who should do it and what...

The Mac platform: innovation continues.
February 1, 1994... Although "Windows has won" the race to become the dominant platform for publishing applications, there is a legitimate (and profitable) role for the number-two competitor in keeping the market leader on its toes. Whether it likes it or not,...

Adobe ships DOS Acrobat reader: no word yet on Unix, APIs. (Adobe Systems Inc.)(The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... Continuing its push to put Acrobat on all of the major operating platforms, Adobe has released a dos version of the Acrobat Reader. The dos Reader is available for $50 in single copies. The Reader software runs as a separate application and...

'94 Calendar updates: CES, Nexpo, Digital '94. (trade shows) (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... As we have done in past years, we will continue to update our latest annual Calendar of Events as we are notified of changes. * The Consumer Electronics Show, summer edition, will be held in Chicago June 23-25, featuring new electronic...

Xerox updates Mac Textbridge OCR. (Xerox Corp. Textbridge 2.0) (optical character recognition) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... At the Macworld Expo last month, Xerox introduced Macintosh version 2.0 of its Textbridge ocr program for the Mac. The price is $99, same as the earlier Windows version (see Vol. 7, No. 10). Foreign-language modules will continue to be...

Trapping test: comparing Aldus, Island Graphics, Rampage and Scitex. (desktop publishing software) (Software Review) (Aldus Corp. TrapWise, Island Graphics IslandTrapper, Rampage TrapIt, Scitex Full Auto-Frames)(includes related articles on industry issues, element descriptions) (Evaluation)
February 1, 1994... Prior to the advent of desktop publishing, trapping of color jobs for printing was handled by highly skilled production personnel in a print shop. However, as other production functions associated with publishing -- such as page layout and...

Graphics innovation, Apple's EWorld highlight lively Macworld Expo. (EWorld online service) (trade show) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... Macworld Expo is many things to the Macintosh true believers: a shopping spree, a few days in a nice town far away from the ice storms, a peek at next year's graphics platforms and a hunt for products that embody the kind of innovation (and...

Photo CD Portfolio tools now available. (Eastman Kodak Create-It, Arrange-It, Build-It) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... Last fall at Seybold San Francisco and other events, Kodak began demonstrating pre-release versions of software that would enable a new Photo CD format, called Portfolio, containing interactive presentations combining sound and pictures....

Microsoft helps kids get creative with multimedia: first multimedia publishing for kids. (Creative Writer) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... You are never too young to publish, or so Microsoft seems to think, judging by the introduction of its newest publishing package, Creative Writer. Designed for kids aged 8-14, Creative Writer is intended to spark the creative flame in...

VivaPress of Germany to tackle Xpress, PageMaker. (TechWare introduces VivaPress desktop publishing software) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... The spirit of innovation is not dead in the desktop publishing market. A new entrant, TechWare Computer GmbH, appeared at Macworld to show VivaPress, a page layout program for the Mac with some interesting concepts. The software is still in...

Tektronix Phaser 300i boosts speed, color. (color thermal printer) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... Tektronix has updated its color printer line with the announcement of the Phaser 300i plain-paper color printer. The new Phaser 300i replaces its predecessor, the Phaser III PXi, which is now being heavily discounted. Both machines are popular...

New IBM LED printer has impressive resolution. (IBM 4037 5e) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... IBM has introduced an interesting led printer intended for the office, boasting impressive reliability and excellent resolution for text and business graphics. It is offered at an attractive price: $759. The 4037 5e, intended as an...

Ligature, Israeli firm, eyes U.S. OCR market. (introduces Character Eyes) (The Latest Word)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... Ligature Software, a developer of ocr software that was formed in Israel and has an office in Burlington, MA, has released its first product for the U.S. market. Called Character Eyes, the software features neural network technology, high...

HP to boost LaserJets to 900 dpi or more. (patents new technique) (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... The quality of laser printers in the office may be going up again soon. Hewlett-Packard has patented a technique for varying the resolution of laser print engines between 75 and 900 dpi. The technique could be pushed to 1,200 dpi, according to...

Prepress Business Observer makes debut. (new publication) (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... A new monthly newsletter for prepress service bureaus, Prepress Business Observer, was launched last month. It is published by Steve Hannaford, who said that it would focus on the business issues affecting prepress shops, rather than on...

PageAhead sells InfoPublisher to Step2. (PageAhead Software sells InfoPublisher product to Step2 Inc.) (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... PageAhead Software has sold its InfoPublisher product to a long-time database-publishing vendor, Step2, Inc. The change should not have any immediate impact on InfoPublisher's distribution or pricing, and Step2 said that it would begin adding...

Compaq quits making printers. (This Month in Computer Industry) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... Compaq as a whole has been logging impressive sales, but the company recently announced plans to shutter its peripherals division because the "return was not worth the investment," according to a senior Compaq official quoted in PC Week. The...

Label that disc. (Trace Mountain CDP 5300 special-purpose printer) (This Month in Computer Industry)(Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
February 1, 1994... Machines to write your data onto a cd-rom, as we noted last fall (see Vol. 8, No. 5), are now priced around $4,000 from JVC and others. But for that final touch of professionalism, you need to print a label on the disc. The January issue of...

Apple seeds developers with OpenDoc. (new compound document architecture) (This Month in Computer Industry) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... The collaborative efforts of Apple Computer and other computer suppliers to establish a compound document architecture to rival Microsoft's ole moved from the drawing board to the engineering lab as Apple shipped beta copies of OpenDoc toolkits...

Intel readies fast '486, cuts Pentium prices. (This Month in Computer Industry) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... Even as the Pentium chip is just getting into the market, Intel is moving quickly on two related fronts: readying a faster version of the '486 and cutting the prices of Pentiums. The company is about to offer a 100-mhz '486 chip that will...

Fast Ethernet alliance to seek ISO blessing: proposes standard for 100 Mbps LAN. (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... An ad-hoc consortium of networking vendors, the Fast Ethernet Alliance, has been growing rapidly and plans to submit its work to the ISO's 802 networking-standards committee later this year. The Alliance now has 18 members, including 3Com,...

Reexamination ordered for Compton's patent: Patent Office cites undisclosed prior art. (Compton's New Media) (The Latest Word) (Brief Article)
February 1, 1994... In December, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks issued an order for "reexamination" of the Compton's patent for multimedia technology. Compton's NewMedia shook the booming multimedia industry in November by disclosing it had...