The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems articles from January 1998

The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems archives from January 1998

Afga. (Afga-Gevaert Group 1997 sales) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Agfa ended 1997 with record-setting financial results. The Agfa-Gevaert Group will show profits of about 480 million Deutsche marks ($264.2 million) on sales of 8 billion marks ($4.4 billion). In 1996, the company had 243 million marks ($133.7...

Apple. (1st-qtr 1998 profits) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Apple will post a profit for its first quarter (ended in December) of about $45 million, acting CEO Steve Jobs reported at Macworld. Revenues were $1.575 billion. In comparison, Apple had posted a loss of $120 million on revenues of $2.1...

Adobe. (Adobe Systems' 4th-qtr 1997 revenues) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... For its fourth quarter, Adobe recorded $227.1 million in total revenue, compared with $207.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1996. Net income for the quarter was $46.8 million. Total revenue for the fiscal year was a record $911.9...

Xionics. (Xionics Document Technologies' 2nd fiscal quarter 1998 revenues) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Xionics expects revenue for its second fiscal quarter to be approximately $8.7 million and net income to be approximately $.02 per share. The company attributes the lower-than-expected revenue and earnings primarily to the combined effect of...

Tekronix. (2nd-qtr fiscal 1998 earnings) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Tektronix reported that earnings for its second quarter of fiscal 1998 increased 20% prior to one-time charges the company previously announced. Without the charges, the company posted earnings of $31.7 million, compared with $26.5 million for...

Fujifilm. (first six months FY 1998) (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Fujifilm has published the consolidated results of the first six months of its fiscal year with an increase in sales of about 12% to 673.3 billion yen or $16.75 billion. The consolidated operating result was $1.25 billion, which represents an...

Comdex Fall '97: a look at the future of building systems. (includes related articles on chip development, RISC vs CISC) (Industry Trend or Event)
January 19, 1998... President, CNI WHAT ISSUES confront us as we plan our prepress systems? Is the danger of global domination by Microsoft the most critical one? Should we care about Microsoft's ambition? Why does Janet Reno care? Are we facing a situation...

SGML gets a new lease on life at DC conference. (GCA's SGML/XML '97 conference) (includes related article on XML-data) (Industry Trend or Event)
January 19, 1998... XML Is the Big Thing (but Not the Only Thing) IN LARGE PART, the GCA's SGML/XML '97 conference in Washington early in December was a celebration of the triumph of XML. Powerful forces, including Microsoft and Netscape, have aligned...

The year 2000: newspapers face critical issues - is it in time? (includes related article on Year-2000 problem) (Industry Trend or Event)
January 19, 1998... 'IF YOU CAN SLEEP at night, you are already in trouble." With those ominous words from a consultant who makes a business out of dealing with the "year 2000" problem, newspaper executives hunkered down to begin an effort to head off this problem...

Linotype again brakes new ground in scanners. (Linotype CPS' Circon CDD flatbed scanner) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Circon sports 10,500 CCDs, 14-bit depth, 3.7 density, A3+ size and $15,000 price The professional scanner market, which has been characterized lately by a remarkable combination of advancing technology and declining prices, has gained...

Iris gets CalComp piezo technology in OEM pact. (CalComp to develop CrystalJet printers for Iris Graphics) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... New CrystalJet to employ Iris technology CalComp and Iris Graphics announced an agreement under which CalComp will provide Iris with wide-format color printers featuring CalComp's CrystalJet piezoelectric ink-jet technology. Following beta...

36,000-rpm spinner for 4-up Scitex 4press V. (Scitex's Dolev 4press V imagesetter)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... $125,000 price includes Brisque RIP Scitex has announced a new version of its four-up imagesetter, the Dolev 4press V, boasting a 36,000-rpm spinner and new electronics. The spinner raises the imaging speed to nearly 500 sq. in. per min. at...

Screen claims FT-R is faster 4-up imager. (Screen's FT-R3050 imagesetter enhanced)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Also upgrades 3100 punch, interface Screen has increased the speed of its FT-R capstan imagesetters by 25%, making the FT-R3050 the fastest four-up imagesetter on the market, the company claims. The increase was made possible by increasing...

Agfa deals for copydot scanning products. (to distribute Purup-Eskofot, Tecsa scanners) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Purup-Eskofot, Tecsa aid CTP strategy As computer-to-plate imaging gains momentum, Agfa has taken two steps to plug a hole in its strategy for supporting all-digital workflows. It has signed deals with Purup-Eskofot and Tecsa to obtain...

L&H speech technology flourishes at Comdex. (Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products' speech-recognition software) (Industry Trend or Event)
January 19, 1998... Advances in continuous speech, machine translation; Microsoft, IBM in the act At Comdex last November, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products launched and demonstrated new speech-technology offerings, including Voice Xpress, a...

Bowne buys Linguistix for machine translation. (Bowne & Co) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Bowne & Co. has acquired privately held Linguistix of San Francisco. Bowne's services include printing and distribution; Internet publishing and E-commerce; intranet development and content management; localization; and the designing and...

Idanit opens U.S. office, signs deal with Scitex. (Indanit Technologies) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Sells 40-plus large-format 162Ad units; Avery Dennison develops new media Idanit Technologies Ltd. of Israel has been making strides with its fully automated, large-format 162Ad digital printer, formally introduced in May 1996 (see Vol. 25,...

Bergmans leaves Barco for key Xerox R&D role. (Patrick Bergmans leaves Barco Graphics for Xerox Research Center Europe) (Company Operations)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Founded DISC; acquired by Barco Patrick Bergmans is leaving his posts as managing director of Barco Graphics and senior VP of the Barco Group of Belgium. He has moved to Xerox to take up the role of director of the Xerox Research Center...

Tribute to lead seminars down under. (Seybold's International Editor Andrew Tribute in Australia, New Zealand) (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Seybold Publications' International Editor Andrew Tribute will give three one-day seminars on developments in printing and publishing next month in New Zealand and Australia. They are being presented in association with Australian Printer and...

Presstek, SEC settle; executives fined. (Chmn Robert Howard, Pres Robert Verrando) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... SEC alleges Presstek chairman selectively edited analyst's report In two related settlements of financial controversies, Presstek, the company, has avoided paying any fines or penalties, but two of its executives have agreed to pay a total...

Presstek in stock deal for Heath Custom Press. (Company Business and Marketing)
January 19, 1998... Deal strengthens Presstek's technical position, allows independent R&D Presstek has acquired Heath Custom Press of Seattle, WA, a designer and manufacturer of custom printing presses. Heath was purchased for 94,865 shares of unregistered...

2,400-dpi Printware PlateStream. (PlateStream and Platestream 46 platesetters)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Printware's PlateStream and PlateStream 46 silver-halide platesetters now offer 2,400-dpi resolution, up from the previous maximum of 1,800 dpi. The result, Printware says, is the ability to produce 175-line screens and process color. Also,...

Adobe reorganizes to focus on customer. (Adobe Systems forms new Executive Committee) (Company Operations)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Warnock, Geschke head new council In a reorganization of parts of its management structure, Adobe Systems has formed a new Executive Committee, promoted several key personnel and restructured its divisions to focus on its customer segments....

Adobe adds royalty-free digital art to product line. (Adobe Systems' Adobe Image Library stock photograph database) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Still and video images on CD-ROM, Web Adobe has announced ambitious plans to begin competing in the stock photography business, offering its own line of still and video images aimed at creative professionals. The product line, called the...

Extensis unveils PhotoFrame. (software for creating borders)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Extensis has introduced PhotoFrame for Photoshop, for developing customized image frames, borders and border effects faster than manual execution allows. It includes more than 150 professionally designed frames that can be manipulated to create...

PC Docs to acquire Fulcrum. (Fulcrum Technologies) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... PC Docs has announced its intention to buy Fulcrum Technologies in a stock purchase valued at $20 million. PC Docs will issue up to 4 million new shares of stock (just under 20% of its total) to pay Fulcrum shareholders one share of PC Docs...

Online shopping for flexo, wide-format. (Media By Air, Flexo Online Shopper to sell printers online) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Printers and suppliers have some new online ways to purchase and promote products and services: Media By Air and Flexo Online Shopper. Media for HP, Kodak, Xerox and other wide-format printers can be bought at Media By Air...

IBM disk to supass 11 gigabits per square inch. (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... IBM reported that its Almaden Research Center had passed a new milestone for hard-disk capacity last month, packing more than 11 gigabits per square inch onto a magnetic surface. At that density, a 2.5? single-platter disk drive (typically used...

Flexo Ink & Substrate event. (FFTA's Ink & Substrate Conference) (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... The FFTA's Ink & Substrate Conference for the flexography industry will be held Feb. 5-6, 1998, in Phoenix, AZ. Phone (516) 737-6020; www.fta-ffta.org.

ParaGraph upgrades writing recognition. (ParaGraph Pen and Internet Technology's Calligrapher 5) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
January 19, 1998... CalliGrapher 5 is for hand-helds; ParaType fonts support Cyrillic ParaGraph PI Technology, a Silicon Graphics company, has upgraded its CalliGrapher handwriting-recognition software for hand-held computers. (The PI stands for Pen and...

People. (appointments and promotions in publishing software industry) (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Lynn Yawn has joined Mactive Development of Sweden as sales manager and will direct activities in North and South America. He had served with Harris Publishing Systems since 1983. Before that he was prepress manager at Today Newspaper (now...

A.B. Dick to sell PrePress Panther. (platesetter) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... A.B. Dick will market PrePress Solutions' imagesetters and platesetters in selected North American territories. Initially, it will carry the Panther, PantherPlus and PantherPlate34P in Canada and in eight U.S. cities: Minneapolis, Pittsburgh,...

More Gerber Impress dealers. (Gerber Systems distributors for Impress signature-proofing system) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Gerber Systems is expanding its North American distribution network for the Impress two-sided signature proofing system, which uses prepunched DuPont Digital Dylux ink-jet imposition proofing media. Dealers include Oldham Graphics Supply,...

Newspaper partners on Web. (Classified Ventures, partnership of Times Mirror, Tribune and Washington Post, online classified listings) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Times Mirror Co., Tribune Co. and the Washington Post Co. have created Classified Ventures, a partnership to help newspapers expand their position, through the Internet, as leading classified suppliers. The first product, www.cars.com, which...

New USA Today service on Web. (USA Today Online to use Open Market's Transact Internet e-commerce software) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... USA Today Online (www.usatoday.com) will use Open Market's Transact Internet commerce software to enable access to ten years' worth of text archives. The site, which contains more than 140,000 pages, receives approximately 50 million hits each...

Harlequin ships ScriptWorks 4.5. (document management software)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Harlequin has shipped version 4.5 of its ScriptWorks RIP Management System to its more than 50 OEMs. The capabilities include, most significantly, the ability to process PDF file input in native mode, without first having to convert it into...

OEMs for Artifex RIPs (Artifex Software OEM agreements with Ratio GmbH, Best GmbH for raster image processing software) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Artifex Software has signed two OEMs in Germany: Ratio GmbH (Hamburg), for Copybase and Plotbase, and Best Gmbh (Krefeld), for BestColor and BestScript.

HP, Corel, Pantone pick standard. (Standard RGB as hardware/software default color standard) (Technology Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Hewlett-Packard, Corel and Pantone have chosen Standard RGB (SRGB) as the default color standard for hardware and software. The W3C has already adopted it, and it is being incorporated into HDTV and Microsoft Office products.

Solaris moving to Intel's Merced. (Sun Microsystems' operating system ported) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Sun and Intel have entered a royalty-free patent cross-licensing agreement covering microprocessors and software. Sun will deliver a 64-bit optimized version of the Solaris OS for Intel's Merced processor, expected in 1999.

Power Computing to liquidate. (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... According to an SEC filing, Power Computing, the first Mac clone licensee, is planning to liquidate. It will hold a shareholders' meeting Jan. 26 seeking approval.

Ikon teams with Colorbus, MGI. (Management Graphics; Ikon Office Solutions' and Colorbus' Colorbus Monsoon print server) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Ikon and Colorbus have developed a new PostScript 3 print server, the Colorbus Monsoon, which runs Colorbus software on an HP platform under the Solaris OS. Available in five configurations, it drives two large-format printers and two color...

Summagraphics prices cut. (SummaPaint PC1500, SummaCut D1220) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Because of reduced manufacturing costs, CalComp says, it has lowered the prices of two Summagraphics sign-making devices. The SummaPaint PC1500 print-and-cut system has been cut by more than 23%-from $23,495 to $17,995. The SummaCut D1220 vinyl...

Fujifilm Europe, Intergraph deal. (Intergraph's NT server distribution) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... After a start in Germany, Intergraph's NT server is now also being distributed by other Fujifilm offices in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Each country can independently decide whether or not to sell the server. The reason...

Converting Expo to debut with Graph Expo. (GASC's Converting Expo trade show) (Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... GASC's Converting Expo will make its debut with Graph Expo at McCormick Place in Chicago Oct. 25-28. To be held annually, the show will also feature educational conferences. GASC, fax (703) 620-9187; info@gasc.org, www.gasc.org.

Jenoptik gains U.S. distribution. (Perry's Camera & Digital, Helix Camera & Video to sell Jenoptik's Eyelike digital cameras) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... Jenoptik, a German manufacturer of lasers and optics, signed Perry's Camera & Digital, Tustin, CA, and Helix Camera & Video, Chicago, IL, to distribute in the North American market. The dealers will sell and support Jenoptik's Eyelike digital...

First trendsetter made at Kiel. (Creo Trendsetter CTP platesetter) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... The first Creo Trendsetter CTP platesetter rolled off Heidelberg's Kiel assembly line as the company formally opened its manufacturing, R&D and administrative facility.

Seybold editors name 19 award winners for 1997 in Internet and print markets. (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
January 19, 1998... The 1997 edition of the annual Seybold Editors' Awards has recognized 19 companies and products covering input devices, laser imaging, workflow and a variety of other applications. The awards-formerly presented at the spring Seybold...

Front-page news from '97. (Cole's Corner) (News Briefs)(Editorial)
January 19, 1998... Now that we have bid adieu to 1997, I thought we should take a minute or two to reflect on the state of publishing systems in the North American newspaper market. Herewith, the stories I thought were the biggest of last year: Notes as...