Cole's Newswire, July 19, 1995

July 19, 1995
Vol. 1, No. 6

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NEW PRODUCTS

ADWRITER INC.
Realtors now may create advertisements directly from their Multiple Listing Service database using ReAdPlus from AdWriter Inc. of Englewood, Colo. Once created and stored, ReAds can be edited, targeted to specific home buyers and transmitted to a newspaper for publication.

BASEVIEW PRODUCTS INC.
This supplier of Macintosh-based newspaper systems, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has put a home page on the World-Wide Web. Anyone seeking information about Baseview products can browse over to: http://www.baseview.com

DATATIMES
Businesses now have an on-line information network from DataTimes of Oklahoma City. Using EyeQ, a Windows-based graphical user interface, businesses can delve into databases devoted to business and financial news and research.

In addition to using natural-language searches and an intuitive GUI, EyeQ users can order customized briefings on more than 30,000 public and private companies. These reports can include graphs and charts, and be delivered by fax, mail or courier.

Monthly subscriptions to EyeQ start at $39; users pay not for connect time but for the reports they select for downloading.

HOWTEK INC.
The Aurora package of scanner control software has been upgraded by Howtek of Hudson, N.H. Aurora, which drives Howtek's high-volume Scanmaster 7500 drum scanner, has new features such as dynamic batch scanning, comprehensive negative control, selective color editing and interactive focus, which allows an operator to view an image on the scanner's display screen and quickly fine-tune the image's sharpness.

NIKON INC.
Melville, N.Y.-based Nikon has signed an OEM agreement with Varitronic Systems Inc. of Minneapolis to incorporate Nikon's Scantouch flatbed scanner in Varitronics' VintageColor graphics imaging system. VintageColor software automates the color matching process by pre-calibrating Kodak Color Management software with the Scantouch scanner.

OPTRONICS
This division of Intergraph, based in Chelmsford, Mass., has upgraded or introduced these four products:

--Eos is a new computer-to-plate imagesetter for imaging color pages at high speed with up to 300 lines per inch screening as resolutions up to 4000 dpi.

--IntelliDot ImPression is a new stochastic screening technology that will be incorporated in Optronics' line of external drum imagesetting products.

--Optronics has punched up its ColorGetter 3 family of drum-based scanners, adding "Turbo" to the three products in honor of performance upgrades that cut scanning times in half.

--"Intelligent" ColorRight 5.0 is a new "expert" version of Optronics' interactive ColorRight scanning software which employs artificial intelligence to enable experienced operators to be more productive.

PREPRESS SOLUTIONS
http://www.prepress.pps.com/ is the Web site for PrePress Solutions' new PrePress Main Street. Visitors to Main Street can access pre-press-related resources on the Internet, such as the Seybold Seminars and DRUPA graphic arts trade show, according to the company based in East Hanover, N.J.

PRINTWARE INC.
Printware of St. Paul, Minn., has announced two new products:

--A new generation of offset printing plate material called Platinum, which replaces the Premium line and affords higher-resolution reproduction.

--A new version of its ZipRip raster image processor, the ZipRip 969, which features a new help screen for interactive diagnostics and new TIFF data compression algorithms for faster throughput.

SCITEX AMERICA CORP.
Scitex, based in Bedford, Mass., has introduced two new output devices:

--The Dolev 4press imagesetter is an internal-drum output device that delivers plate-ready film in a four-page format with net exposure time of about 2.5 minutes. Up to 65 feet of exposed film can be held in its accumulating cassette.

--The SPONTANE digital printing system combines the Scitex digital front end with a high-speed, full-color print engine for putting out short-run, print-on-demand jobs such as customized catalogs or localized inserts at a rate of one 8.25-x-11.75-inch page per minute.

A Scitex subsidiary, Iris Graphics Inc., also of Bedford, has made three product announcements:

--Two new ink-jet color printers, the Realist 5015 and 5030, are the first from Iris. The 5015 has an image area of 14-x-21-inches; the 5030, 21-x-28-inches.

--Iris now offers a rental option for its color printers with spans of one, two and three years.

--Under a new OEM agreement with Linotype-Hell AG of Germany, Linotype-Hell will sell Iris printers as part of its pre-press systems.

SOFTWARE CONSTRUCTION CO.
Atlanta-based SCC, created when IronMike Software and Object Quest merged in January 1995, has announced three product developments:

--SCC PhotoGrid Pro for Mac and Windows adds crop and publish functions to PhotoGrid, a folder-watching application that displays a grid of thumbnail photos.

--SCC Offline for Macintosh is a set of utilities that integrates a Kodak CD jukebox with an AppleSearch image database to replace JPEG high-res files with previews, thus expanding the storage capacity of the database eightfold.

--SCC Reception Kits for collecting image inputs from Reuters and Associated Press feeds.

TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Chicago-based TMS has launched Bizplus, a twice-a-week feature package that includes a story or stories on business topics, accompanied by photos and graphics to make a centerpiece for a weekday business page. The packages are contributed by newspapers across the country, and are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

XiNET
XiNet has released FullPress, a UNIX-based open pre-press interface (OPI) server complete with network applications.

XiNet, of Berkeley, Calif., links its server to Macintosh workstations for image manipulation, page design and filesharing.

FullPress dynamically binds "For Placement Only" versions of high-resolution images to the originals and keeps track of any changes made to the originals. The more efficient FPOs can be used for page layout while color operators are touching up the originals.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is written by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SYSTEMS and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

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