The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems articles from August 1997

The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems archives from August 1997

Agfa, DuPont sign. (Agfa acquires DuPont's film and platemaking divisions) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Agfa and DuPont have agreed on all terms for the acquisition of the DuPont film and platemaking divisions by Agfa. The new organization will commence operations on Jan. 1, 1998.

Xerox to sell Xeikon DCP/50D. (imaging engine incorporated in DocuColor printers)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 18, 1997... Xerox will incorporate the new Xeikon DCP/50D imaging engine in its DocuColor range of color printers. The company currently integrates the DCP/32D in its DocuColor 70 printer.

HP drops Encad infringment case. (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Hewlett-Packard has abandoned its claims of patent infringement against Encad in a lawsuit pending between the companies, according to a report from Encad. The suit filed by HP charged that Encad's products infringed on an HP multi-pass imaging...

ACI signs Swedish distributor. (American Computer Innovators, Envision AB) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... American Computer Innovators (ACI), supplier of newspaper editorial systems, has signed a distribution agreement with Envision AB of Helsingborg, Sweden. ACI will continue to handle North American sales but will begin reselling through...

AGT acquires imaging service firm. (Applied Graphics Technologies acquires MBA Graphics) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Applied Graphics Technologies has acquired MBA Graphics, a commercial graphic and digital prepress imaging firm that provides graphic services, digital photography and prepress production services to clients in the retail, manufacturing and...

Applied Graphics Technologies. (second qtr of 1997 sales) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Applied Graphics Technologies posted sales of $41.3 million, up 33.3%, in its second quarter. Net income was $3.3 million, up 61.5% from $2.1 million in the second quarter of 1996.

Sun Microsystems. (fourth qtr 1997 sales) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Sun Microsystems reported a record fourth quarter, 1997, with revenues of $2.543 billion, up 26% compared with the fourth quarter of 1996. Net income was $237 million, up from $122 million last year. For the 1997 fiscal year, revenues were...

Take 2. (News Briefs)
August 18, 1997... Imation has asked us to clarify the name of its new digital proofing material, demonstrated with the Presstek and Creo CTP systems at the recent Seybold and Imprinta shows. The correct name is Imation Matchprint Laser Proof.

Xeikon. (revenues for the quarter ended Jun 30, 1997) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Xeikon reported revenues of $19.0 million and net income of $340,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 1997, compared with revenues of $17.5 million and net income of $382,000 for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue for the first six months...

Imation. (1997, second qtr results) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Imation reported revenues of $554.8 million and net income of $4.4 million for its second quarter ended June 30.

Cymbolic Sciences makes smooth change from imposed films to plates. (Cymbolic Sciences International) (includes related article on Cymbolic's link with MDA) (Product Information)
August 18, 1997... BECAUSE CYMBOLIC SCIENCES was one of many new vendors of platesetters that appeared at Drupa '95, it was easy to get lost among the throng. Neither the company background nor the machine specifications were impressive enough at first glance to...

Nexpo '97, part II: editorial and advertising systems, other products. (Industry Trend or Event)
August 18, 1997... Editorial and Advertising Systems (cont.) IN OUR LAST ISSUE, we started our alphabetical wrap-up of systems. We pick up here with DEC and later add sections on two specialized areas of system design: the use of Lotus Notes for editorial...

Screen debuts its own smart scanner: Cezanne. (Dainippon Screen's flatbed CCD color scanner)(Product Announcement)
August 18, 1997... Higher resolution at a lower price The professional, A3-size, flatbed CCD color scanner market is getting increasingly competitive. The latest contender is Dainippon Screen, which is set to unveil its Czanne at Print '97 on Sept. 3. From the...

New RIP handles flexo, preflight checks, PDF. (Pre-Press Image Technologies' Purifire)(Product Announcement)
August 18, 1997... Print '97 forum for family of products Pre-Press Image Technologies, a small, seven-year-old prepress equipment supplier, has developed a family of RIP products to handle flexographic printing, preflight checking and conversion of a variety...

Monotype Typography offers multimedia fonts. (Enhanced Screen Quality Fonts)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Enhanced screen quality for ESQ set Monotype Typography has developed a new line of multimedia fonts designed to provide enhanced quality on screen. The new TrueType fonts are called Enhanced Screen Quality (ESQ) fonts. They incorporate...

Xionics licenses LinoColor technology. (Linotype-Hell color-management technology) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Xionics has licensed the same Linotype-Hell color-management technology that has been licensed by Apple and Microsoft, ensuring that Xionics-built engines will include a fully ICC-compliant RIP. Xionics builds printer controllers for a wide...

Polaroid hobnobs with Polychrome. (Polaroid Graphics Imaging licenses lithographic plate technology) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... Polaroid Graphics Imaging (PGI) and Polychrome have announced a joint agreement whereby PGI will license some of its instant lithographic plate technology to Polychrome under an exclusive agreement. Polychrome is already working with PGI to...

Highlights from Macworld. (Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
August 18, 1997... With all the turmoil surrounding Apple Computer these days, the recent Macworld show was a good opportunity to take stock of the situation, get a feeling for Apple's future and see the latest products for the Macintosh. Our full coverage will...

Installations. (News Briefs)
August 18, 1997... American Computer Innovators has announced installations of its OpenPages Dynamic Pagination systems: * Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune-The installation, which includes ACI's OpenPages archive database, will connect all users on an...

Why we need an open PDF. (Adobe's PDF and PostScript 3 technology)(Pete's Palaver) (Company Business and Marketing)(Column)
August 18, 1997... Proprietary is bad. Open is good. Everybody knows and accepts this, especially in the publishing industry. But once in a while, someone rises to challenge this conventional wisdom. For example: I have read more than once recently of calls for...

People. (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Paul Peyrebrune has been appointed president of Xeikon America, overseeing all activities of the company's Chicago-based America team. He joins Xeikon from KBA Planeta N.A., a German supplier of offset presses. Peyrebrune will report to Xeikon...

Take 2.(Correction Notice)
August 4, 1997... Harlequin, not 5D, for Cortron Cortron has advised us that the RIP used in its Digital PageStripper (see Vol. 26, No. 17, p. 16) comes from Harlequin, not from 5D Solutions. We apologize for this error. In our story, we noted that the...

Nexpo '97 highlights: new sales, year 2000 concerns, interesting products. (new publishing systems debuting at the show) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... IN AN OVERVIEW of the 1997 Nexpo show in our last issue, we noted that the atmosphere was alive with activity. Many newspapers were ready to buy equipment for the first time in a long while and people were more optimistic about the future than...

Editorial and advertising systems.(Nexpo '97 Highlights: New Sales, Year 200 Concerns, Interesting Products) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... APT signs with DEC, AISI Advanced Publishing Technology got a real shot in the arm with the announcement of a strategic marketing alliance with Digital Equipment. The two companies signed an agreement under which DEC will sell, integrate and...

High-resolution output, remote printing, etc.(Nexpo '97 Highlights: New Sales, Year 200 Concerns, Interesting Products) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... WITH IMPRINTA STEALING much of the thunder in the field of high-resolution output, there weren't a lot of highlights left for Nexpo. But there were a few items, including three items in the CTP arena: an autoloader for the PrePress Solutions...

Large-format color: markets are merging.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... THE LINES CONTINUE to blur. As imaging increasingly becomes a digital operation, applications of all sorts get swept up in it and end up sharing an audience and some of the same exhibition space. A $653,000 ink-jet printer used for making big...

Other imaging systems and related issues.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... BESIDES HIGH-RESOLUTION CTP systems, high-speed digital presses, on-press plate imagers and large-format color printers, there are a few other categories of output devices to cover. They include color laser printer-copiers and RIPs, desktop...

Desktop plate imagers and printers. (Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... The market for low-end CTP systems appears to be growing, perhaps stimulated by the success of high-end systems or perhaps on its own. In any case, three companies featured desktop laser printers producing paper plates, while one also...

Imposition software.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... Farrukh adds Alpha, Mac for imposition Farrukh Systems introduced two new platforms for the client-server version of its Imposition Publisher software. First, for the NT version, which was released in March, Farrukh has added the DEC Alpha...

PostScript and PDF output tools.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... EPS Read for Advent's 3B2 EPS Read, an optional package for Advent's 3B2 composition package, allows the reading of PostScript files. The files are converted into 3B2 files, and they can be edited and manipulated with all the tools that 3B2...

Prepress tools: beyond Xpress, Photoshop.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... Quark Xpress and Adobe Photoshop marked the end of the road for some vendors of prepress software that couldn't compete with retail software on standard desktop computers. But others continue to find ways to thrive. Several of the latter used...

Ink-control systems.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... We covered some new ink-control products earlier as components of full systems, such as Scitex's InkPro running in its Brisque RIP (see Vol. 26, No. 16, p. 15), and we mentioned ProImage on p. 21 of this issue. There is one more to cover:...

Color management: new measuring tools appear.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... IMPRINTA WASN'T a big show for developments in color management, but the key players were there with their latest products and enhancements. We asked one of our European correspondents, Menno Mooij from the Netherlands, to check out this area...

Publishing software.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... OUR REPORT on software designed specifically for publishing applications falls into two main categories: database publishing, where three companies showed new developments, and more general-purpose applications, where a few companies brought...

General-purpose page layout software.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... One of the best indications of how this show was dominated by output issues is the lack of news in the area of document composition and page layout for general commercial applications: It's true that Quark again previewed Xpress 4.0, which we...

Font developments.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... The font wars are long over, but a few font issues remain. We noted with interest (above) that Berthold still has 2,000 or so customers using its system and historic fonts. In the following brief section, we provide an update on an impressive...

Data communications aids.(Imprinta, Part III: More Imaging, Systems, Composition and Layout) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... Augment enters Europe on speed issue The European launch of Augment Systems of the U.S. was timed to gain a quick foot in the door of one of the company's primary target markets- graphic arts. Augment, founded in 1990, develops powerful...

Misomex readies new CTP units for Print '97. (the Omnisetter 4000 CTP imager)(Product Announcement)
August 4, 1997... Misomex is set to demonstrate a whole array of CTP imagers at Print '97, including an innovative new machine that handles both flexo and offset plates as well as dry and wet film. Called the Omnisetter 4000, it is an oversize eight-page imager...

Pantone to feature low-cost monitor calibration. (the Personal Color Calibrator monitor calibration software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Pantone will feature the Personal Color Calibrator, a monitor calibration tool that is claimed to be accurate enough to use in making purchasing decisions over the Internet and inexpensive enough to suit designers. It uses a series of simple,...

Iwatsu to image polyester and paper plates. (Iwatsu Electric's Elefax LP-501CR electrophotographic platesetter)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Iwatsu Electric of Tokyo will introduce the Elefax LP-501CR electrophotographic platesetter for imaging polyester and paper offset printing plates. It will serve A3-format presses.

PostScript 3 color laser printer from Mita. (Mita Copystar America's PointSource Ci-1000 Color Laser Printer)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Mita Copystar America, which has been on a campaign to raise its profile in the digital printing market, will introduce a color laser printer supporting PostScript 3, with resolutions up to 1,200 dpi and printer management using the Web. Called...

Quick printers look to digital solutions. (new printers debuting at the Print Image '97 trade show) (Industry Trend or Event)
August 4, 1997... If the annual quick printing show is any indication, the market is going digital. At Print Image '97, a great deal of activity surrounded the booths of Canon, Xerox, IBM, HP, Riso, Danka and the cluster printers at T/R Systems and Entire....

PrimeSource to sell platesetters for Creo. (PrimeSource becomes a VAR for Creo's platesetters and related products) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... PrimeSource, a leading graphic arts and printing products distributor and system integrator, has signed an agreement to become a value-added reseller for the platesetters and related products offered by Creo. Except for the VLF Platesetters,...

Diebold picks ArborText for SGML authoring. (ArborText will supply editing and composition software for Diebold's SGML-based technical publishing system) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Diebold, a leading supplier of automated teller machines and transaction security and service solutions, has picked ArborText as the supplier of editing and composition software for Diebold's new SGML- based technical publishing system....

MidSystem readying NT workflow product. (MidSystem Technology's NT version of its Unix-based MCL Server version 3.2 workflow management system) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... MidSystem Technology, the UK software developer specializing in workflow management, is developing an NT version of its workflow management system. Its system, in use at a large number of publishers and prepress companies, is supplied as the...

Aladdin acquires revision control. (Aladdin Systems acquires the publishing rights to 6prime's Rev revision-control software) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Aladdin Systems, developer of the StuffIt Macintosh compression standard, has acquired the publishing rights to Rev from 6prime corporation. Rev is revision-control software for the Macintosh that can be set to save unlimited (or a fixed...

LinoColor Jade scanner now $499. (Product Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... LinoColor has cut the price of its Jade scanner to $499 from $795. Compatible with the Mac and PC, it is LinoColor's entry-level desktop scanner and comes with Photoshop LE 4.0 as well as LinoColor VisuaLab EZ software. Jade can scan...

Wamnet services to GATF. (Wamnet's data delivery system is donated to the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's technology center) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Wamnet has donated its data delivery system to the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's (GATF) new technology center to facilitate research and training. It includes a Network Access Device (NAD), software, high-speed phone line connection and...

Archetype teams with Verity. (Archetype licenses Verity's Search '97 technology for its MediaBank and NuDoc publishing workflow management products) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Archetype has licensed Verity's Search '97 technology for integration into its MediaBank and NuDoc workflow management products for publishing. It will enable MediaBank users to perform full-text searches on virtually any textual content...

Dice America moves. (Company Operations)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Dice America, 16 Sterling Lake Rd., Tuxedo, NY 10987; phone (914) 351-2677, fax (914) 351-2669.

Installations. (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Harris Harris has sold a 130-terminal NewsMaker editorial system to the New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune (circ. 322,000), where it will replace a CSI system. The order includes 32 Harris 2100 pagination stations. The paper also will upgrade...

X-Rite. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... X-Rite reported its best-ever second- quarter results: net income of $4.6 million, or $.22 per share, on sales of $24.0 million, compared with net income of $3.8 million, or $.18 per share, on sales of $20.8 million for the same period last...

DuPont. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... DuPont reported net income of $1.1 billion for its second quarter, the highest for any quarter in the company's history. However, the printing and publishing operation suffered a small loss, DuPont said. Sales for the second quarter totaled...

Silicon Graphics. (4th qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Silicon Graphics reported net income of $102 million, or $.56 a share, on sales of $1.2 billion. A year earlier, the company posted a loss of $48.7 million, or $.30 a share, on sales of $977 million. For the year, SGI earned $78.5 million, or...

Presstek. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Presstek achieved net income of $3.2 million ($.10 per share) on revenues of $20.9 million for the 1997 second quarter, compared with $1.6 million ($.05 per share) on revenues of $11.9 million last year. For its first six months, Presstek had...

CalComp. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... CalComp showed second-quarter net sales of $52.1 million, compared with $47.0 million a year earlier. The company sustained a net loss of $7.3 million, or $.16 per share for the quarter, compared with a net loss of $12.9 million, or $.32 per...

Eastman Kodak. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Eastman Kodak's second-quarter profits fell 14%, which the company attributed to the strong U.S. dollar, growing losses for digital products, higher marketing expenses and price competition. Kodak's earnings were $368 million ($1.12 per share),...

Sun Microsystems. (4th qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Sun Microsystems reported record fourth-quarter revenues of $2.543 billion, up 26% compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 1996. Net income for the quarter was $237 million ($.61 per share), compared with the prior year's net income of $122...

IBM. (2nd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... IBM's second-quarter profit climbed 7.4%, thanks to increased sales in its computer services business. Net income rose to $1.45 billion ($1.46 a share) from $1.35 billion ($1.26 a share) in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 3.8% to $18.87...

Apple. (quarterly financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Apple posted a $56 million net loss ($.44 per share), far smaller than the $71 million loss analysts had predicted. Revenues fell to $1.7 billion for the quarter, down from $2.2 billion a year ago. Revenues, however, were up slightly from the...

Microsoft. (4th qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Microsoft's fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 90%, with net income climbing to $1.06 billion ($.80 per share) from $559 million ($.43 per share) in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 41% to $3.18 billion from $2.26 billion.

Splash Technology. (3rd qtr financial report) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... Splash Technology announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 1997 and nine months ended June 30, 1997. For the quarter, net revenue was $19.8 million, up 49% from $13.3 million for the same quarter last year, and there was a...

Nexpo talking topics. (Cole's Corner) (Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
August 4, 1997... Though the major activities at Nexpo '97 revolved around commerce-as in, publishers were either buying or planning to buy shortly-more than a couple of other technological concepts were on the lips of newspaper executives. Some of this stuff...

GammaGraphX focus is on OEM business. (the publishing-system vendor has new management and a new strategy) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 4, 1997... GammaGraphX (GGX) was a pioneer in on-demand printing technology. It has offered systems-first driving Siemens printers, then Kodak, then Ricoh-for many years, and it has provided a combination of hardware and software technology, including job...