Pongrass Newspaper Systems: The latest version of the Bondi Quark XTension allows for ease in making up display ads with XPress.

T/One Inc.: The longtime supplier of digital archiving systems has developed Merlin-net.com, a web site that allows photographers and newspapers to sell images on-line.

Unisys Corp.: DocCenter Web is a web interface to the company's digital asset management system. Database queries can be performed in full text or using Boolean or proximity operators.

Xitron: The Navigator NT Raster Image Processor comes as a set of software, an instructon book, cables and a printed circuit card, which can be place in a Windows NT machine.

35. NewsView Solutions: The supplier of news archiving systems has broken ties with Reed Technology/Lexis/Nexis and is now marketing its line of digital asset management products directly to newspapers. New for NEXPO will be wireless phone and hand-held computer output for NewsView 2000, a text asset management program that uses WebDesk to also allow newspapers to output editions to the Web, wire services and other customized destinations as well as providing e-commerce capabilities for archives. Also on hand will be the company's NewsView text archive, PhotoView picture archive and NewsView Assignment. (800) 897-3271; e-mail: info@newsviewsolutions.com.

36. OneVision Inc.: Only those newspapers that use Portable Document Format (PDF) ads should look at OneVision -- oops, that's everybody, isn't it? The company has three main applications -- Asura, an automatic PDF preflighting tool; Solvero, a manual application that includes a variety of PostScript editing tools, and Secare, a digital stripping and imposition program. Solvero is backed up with seven optional plug-ins that handle tasks such as recombining separated PostScript files, an automatic search program that seeks out a user-defined database of offensive words, a spot-to- Cymk color conversion system, a text extractor for PDF, PostScript or EPS files that can create RTF, HTML or ASCII, an automatic crop locator that then crops the work to size, an imposition module and a module that automatically resizes ads to fit. (732) 404-9600; e-mail: info@OneVision.com.

37. Open Pages Inc.: They only mention the word "print" in passing any more, but the former American Computer Innovators made its bones in the newspaper pagination business. Today, ContentWare, the company's flagship product, is used to create web sites at Community Newspapers of suburban Boston, the Miami Herald and has been adopted by Knight Ridder's RealCities network. Nonetheless, I bet if you asked them about pagination, they could talk about that too. (978) 392-0640; e-mail: sales@openpages.com.

38. Pongrass Newspaper Systems: The purveyor of high-quality classified advertising systems is unveiling Version 5 of its product, which includes a variety of new features, including new ad makeup screens, new security features, new contract management capabilities, a link to Pongrass' Juggler software, a rolling dummy capability and enhancements to logo management. Oh, and the new software -- scheduled to be available in the fall -- will also support Internet ad entry and publishing. Also on display will be the new version of the Bondi Quark XPress XTension, which is designed to automate the flow of text and graphics into layouts, which streamlines production and shortens the time required to produce display ads with XPress. {011} (612) 936-93111; e-mail: sales@pongrass.com.au.

39. PTFS Inc.: There is a certain amount of debate in the library world regarding whether paper archives should be converted to digital. There may have been some debate at the Chicago Tribune, but the paper decided last year to digitize 15 million clippings going back to 1849. The company that got the multimillion-dollar three-year contract is Ptfs (Progressive Technology Federal Systems Inc.), which integrated its Avatar Archival Retrieval product with its co-developed NewsScan, which works with full pages, clippings and microfilm. (301) 654-8088; e-mail: tglass@ptfs.com.

40. Quark Inc.: The provider of page layout software will demonstrate the features of XPress 5.0, which, the company says, is "designed to streamline the process of making content flexible and appropriate to its delivery medium" (you can expect 5.0 in the fall). Also new in 5.0 will be the ability to export Portable Document Format files without the use of Adobe Acrobat Distiller. Adding to the hubbub will be the first NEXPO showing of avenue.Quark, an XTension that allows for text export and tagging in the XML format, as well as the Quark Digital Media System, a digital asset management system that's based on the Oracle8 database and which runs under Sun Solaris or Windows NT. (303) 894-8888; e-mail: aselvia@quark.com.

41. QuickWire: Starting out as a couple of guys in the newsroom of Ontario's Hamilton Spectator, QuickWare (new name) now has a couple of products, including its flagship QuickWire -- a wire collection system that is in Version 4.0. QuickWire, a client/server system, can be accessed on the client side with either a stand-alone application (for Windows and Macs) as well as through a Quark XPress XTension (available in 3.x and 4.x series). New this year will be features that turn QuickWire into an almost-front-end system (the company says that it won't go head-to-head against the Big Boys; just try to integrate with them). Also on display will be QuickTrac, an ad-tracking and production management system. (905) 526-3217; e-mail: bmuir@southam.ca.

42. Rotulus Networks: An interesting set of advertising intermediation tools all wrapped up in a web site, Rotulus offers direct on-line order for insertion orders with AdOutbox for advertising buyers and AdInbox for media, in addition to auctions (media companies offer packages directly), real-time chat between sellers and buyers (it's integrated with the ordering system), centralized tear sheet control, consolidated invoicing as well as advertising and media news, chat rooms, bulletin boards, news and events and education. {011} (528) 170-7403; e-mail: hgarcia@rotulus.com.

43. SAXoTECH Inc.: The other Danish system supplier has a couple of big U.S. sales under its belt this year -- the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Washington Times -- so it's coming into NEXPO with its head held high. New features in SAXo press 3.0 -- the editorial front-end -- include the use of the Tansa digital proofing system, table of contents generation, CTP integration and additional workflow tools; 4.0 features will be demo'd, with XML output and media tags and a Quark XPress-based text editor shown. New features in Publicus 4.0 -- the dynamic Web page creation system -- include a community publishing module, a multimedia module, a weather service module and a news group module, not to mention a mapping service and a travel service. (301) 294-0805; e-mail: rlaszlo@saxotech.com.

44. Sonic Factory: You used to know this company as the New Horizons Team (providers of voice publishing -- aka audiotext -- systems), but it has moved with the times. Now the company provides a service bureau environment to allow your users to generate streaming audio "on-the-fly" with a TouchTone or cellular phone. The user dials into the Sonic Factory server and begins recording (it has a limit of 10 minutes); the server compresses the audio file in Real Audio, Windows Media Player or MP3 formats and then transfers it to your server, where it's available. The company will also introduce the Opus voice scheduling software, which provides dynamic linking and scheduling of audio clips to Web pages. (570) 621-3306; e-mail: nht@pottsville.infi.net.

45. Sonoran Scanners Inc.: This company says its CactusSetter UV CTP images a broadsheet plate every 15 seconds -- or 250 broadsheet plates an hour at 1270 dots per inch. Even the most punishing page-close probably isn't that bad. The CacusSetter has the option of the current gas-ultraviolet laser or the new solid-state ultraviolet laser and the company will be offering a "lite" version of the product at a "lite" price. (520) 617-0072; e-mail: nbogen@sonoranscanners.com.

46. Summit Infotech Ltd.: An editorial system supplier that is based in New Dehli, India intrigued me. NewsPro -- a Windows-based production and workflow management system that uses Quark XPress for page layout and Microsoft's SQL Server for database -- seems to be a full-featured system with wire collection, tracking, bureau software and event software. It also provides for all Indian languages, but you may not need that feature. {011} (9111) 651-7994; e-mail: rahluwalia@summitindia.com.

47. System Integrators Inc.: Much the same as Atex and Digital Technology International, SII has got to show some significant progress on its Insiight Editorial product, which was unveiled at NEXPO '99. At that show, SII announced an agreement with Quark to integrate XPress -- as well as Adobe InDesign -- into its solution, which added more moving parts to an already complex environment (it appears that Insiight Editorial is a lot like the cliché-ridden Chinese restaurant menu -- you take one from Column A and one from Column B). Also on display will be Insiight Advertising, which is based on the old CompuText classified system. The company will also show content management, digital asset management and Internet publishing systems. (916) 929-9481; e-mail: info@sii.com.

48. T/One Inc.: The imaging and archiving company has a couple of interesting ideas this year: The first is Merlin-Net, a centralized archive and commerce site for photographs (see NewsMX); it will be at http://www.merlin-net.com/. The second good idea is Scrounger -- this solves what's now called the "Lewinsky problem." In the world of digital images, photographers have been erasing unused photos; in the world of analog images, they stored them on negatives (the name refers to the instance of a previously unpublished picture of President Clinton and a certain intern wherein she is smiling and throwing her arms around him in a crowd). Scrounger takes data from multiple camera card readers and stores it on a redundant magnetic disk and then it's later transferred to CD or DVD media for permanent storage. Last good idea: an upgrade to the company's flagship Merlin archive. (617) 328-6645; e-mail: sales@t-one.com.

49. Unisys Corp.: The sale of a system to the Wall Street Journal apparently hasn't knocked the wind out of their sails in suburban Philadelphia, and if they can handle the WSJ, they can handle anyone. Unisys will be showing a new editorial application -- Hermes OnLine -- which enables papers to publish Web pages with their Hermes print system, using the same database for both. The ubiquitous XML is the tagging language. Also new at Unisys is MediaCenter, which is a Web toolkit allowing journalists to view the WireCenter and DocCenter applications via the Internet. The booth will now also have the advertising products of the former PPI -- AdCenter and AD Tracking. Oh, and they have something they're calling "Index2Business" -- it's a tool to quickly create business indexes; wonder who needed that? (215) 986-4080; e-mail: publishing.info@unisys.com.

50. Xitron: New at the longtime supplier of output systems is the Cobalt 8 Violet Laser Diode computer-to-plate output system that features the Xitron Navigator NT raster image processor (RIP) or the XIP RIP. Also featured will be the Xitron Automated Page Stitcher, which is a film-saving module, and the XiStrip Basic Imposition system. The latter is a client/server imposition package (the client is Java-based, while the server is Windows NT). (734) 913-8080; e-mail: xitronsales@xitron.com.

-- dmc

From THE COLE PAPERS, June 2000, Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved.