nexpo'96 PRE-PRESS
Open, Sez Me
If NEXPO'96 is any indication, pre-press systems are not only open, they're
becoming downright holistic. Consider the following:
- Unisys Corp. introduced Hermes, an Italian system
which handles a wide range of elements with only one program and one database,
used by editors, page designers and writers alike.
- Denmark's CCI Europe takes a "publications database"
approach to editorial systems, allowing content to be directed--and
redirected--for numerous uses.
- Another Danish import, Euromax, demonstrated its holistic
pre-press management system, which tracks and manages all page elements through
the entire production process.
- After showing its then newly acquired Atex and Dewar Information Systems
subsidiaries in separate booths at NEXPO'95, Sysdeco of
Bedford, Mass., merged their booths--and their products--into an integrated
production system.
- Advanced Technical Solutions Inc. of North Andover,
Mass., introduced its integrated ATS NewsDesk publishing system, which resides
on a ODBC-compliant Sybase database.
- By introducing a Windows 95 version of its circulation-management software,
Newspaper Technologies Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, makes its
product scalable, allowing it to be used at papers small and large.
Open systems and databases also open the door to partnerships:
- Freedom System Integrators of Wichita and Data
Sciences Inc. of Silver Spring, Md., looked at their matching Oracle
databases and decided to co-market each other's products.
- Linotype-Hell of Hauppauge, N.Y., signed an agreement
with GMTI of Cincinnati to market its DiGiCol multimedia archive system.
- Digital Technology International of Orem, Utah, sells its
own pagination solution but integrates such third-party products as QuarkXPress
into its Javelin database through AppleScript extensions.
In such an environment, system-integration skills become even more
important. Harris Publishing Systems Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., came to Vegas
touting a newly inked contract to provide pagination solutions for several
sections of the Los Angeles Times. Times execs specifically touted Harris'
system-integration capabilities.
Finally, open systems open the door to different hardware and software
platforms:
- Quark Inc. of Denver added links to Microsoft Word
for Windows to its Quark Publishing System and announced plans to make its
upcoming QPS Version 2.0 fully Windows-compatible, allowing sites to use PCs and
Macs side-by-side.
- CText Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., introduced Dateline/NT, a
Windows NT version of its editorial system. Both the new NT and existing OS/2
Dateline/2 workstations can access the same database.
TechNews Volume 2, Number 4: July/August 1996
©1997 Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.