NEW YORK, April 23, 1997 — Today at the electronic publishing industry’s biggest trade show – Seybold Seminars New York 97 – Microsoft Corp. announced it has established major momentum as a publishing platform on the server and the desktop. The company also announced new platform enhancements for future operating systems, industry investments and relationships to ensure its growth and to demonstrate its commitment to the publishing and creative community.
Approximately 35 companies will demonstrate their Windows® operating system-based products and tools for publishing customers at Seybold, including Adobe Systems Inc., Macromedia Inc., Linotype-Hell AG and many others. Microsoft is also making great strides in the ISV publishing community on the server side with vendors such as Folio Corp., Graphical Technologies Corp., Pantheon Inc. and Unisys Corp. now embracing the Windows NT® Server operating system, Microsoft® SQL Server
™
and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) technologies.
“At Folio, we are convinced that the Microsoft platform is critical to our continuing leadership in electronic publishing,”
said Curt Allen, executive vice president of strategy at Folio.
”
We carefully evaluated the various platform options for Internet information delivery and selected Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft BackOffice
™. Our siteDirector product is built exclusively on Windows NT and is designed to take advantage of Microsoft IIS through the Internet Server API (ISAPI).”
“Constructed using Microsoft SQL Server, the Hermes database ensures reliability, high performance and data security in a distributed client/server environment,”
said Gabriella Franzini, marketing director of publishing solutions for Unisys.
”
The first Hermes client on Windows NT is El Pa
í
s, the most widely read newspaper in Spain. With more than 250 users in a distributed environment, El Pa
ís chose the Hermes system on Windows NT for its complete functionality and because the solution was compliant with the newspaper’s desire to move to a global Windows NT Server-based environment.”
Pantheon, an industry leader in editorial, classified and community software applications for the Internet, has embraced Microsoft Windows NT Server with plans for future products to run on Microsoft SQL Server. Daren Tsui, vice president of engineering for Pantheon, said the decision to go with Microsoft technology was easy.
“The Windows NT Server is quickly becoming the Internet operating system of choice in the publishing industry for its ease-of-use and interoperability. With more than 100 daily and weekly national newspapers using our product, addressing these needs is very important to us.”
Technology Enhancements Boost Windows as Publishing Platform
After listening to electronic publishing industry leaders and application developers, Microsoft plans to deliver a color management API called Image Color Management (ICM) 2.0 in the next version of the Windows 95 and Windows NT Workstation operating systems. Microsoft announced this strategy today and outlined it in more detail in the white paper titled
“Color Management in Microsoft Windows Operating Systems,”
available on the Internet at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/backgrnd/html/icmwp.htm .
Technology enhancements for color management include announcements, also made today:
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Microsoft licenses LinoColorCMM (color management module ) for the next version of Image Color Management. The LinoColorCMM will become the default CMM, providing users of applications that support the API consistent and reliable color across applications, scanners, monitors and printers. By licensing the LinoColorCMM, users can also expect better cross-platform color management for print and Internet delivery.
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Microsoft supports complementary color space based on open standard sRGB, as default color space for future Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft, in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard Co., has proposed a new standard to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to allow for a standard color space called sRGB. This color space will help ensure that images transmitted across the Internet, or across peripherals, with no embedded color profile information will be rendered with reliable, consistent color. sRGB will be the default color space in future versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems and Internet browsers. More information on this initiative is available at (http://www.color.org/) .
Technology enhancements for typography and printing include announcements, also made today:
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Progress in the OpenType
™
font technology initiative. Microsoft and Adobe today released the OpenType specification to ISVs. The new specification brings together today’s leading font technologies – TrueType and Type 1 – in a single specification for the next generation of type for print and online delivery. The two companies are broadly cross-licensing technologies to each other and now are inviting all interested third parties to license the new specification. -
Microsoft today unveiled its first OpenType typeface, a new expanded character set version of Hermann Zapf’s Palatino. Probably the world’s most successful type designer, Zapf has added Greek and Cyrillic and has overseen the project with Linotype at every stage. The new typeface consists of four fonts (regular, bold, italic and bold italic), each containing over 1,300 characters – more than twice the number of previous extended-character set Pan-European fonts. The new font went on show for the first time today in the Type Gallery at Seybold. Palatino is a trademark of Linotype-Hell AG.
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Adobe and Microsoft collaborate on Adobe PostScript 3 printing solutions. Adobe and Microsoft today announced a relationship to jointly develop, release and support a single Adobe PostScript printer driver for Windows NT. Designed for use with all PostScript printers including Adobe PostScript 3 print systems, the jointly developed printer driver will provide significant benefits to users, print system manufacturers and application software vendors. The single Adobe PostScript driver will provide users of Windows NT with access to the highest quality PostScript printer driver, ensuring that documents print reliably and quickly.
“We’re reaching out to the creative community as we never have before, and the response has been tremendous,”
said Brad Chase, vice president, marketing, Internet client and collaboration division at Microsoft.
“We’re also on track to deliver some cool new enhancements to future versions of Windows, providing the rich feature support that the publishing community needs – such as better color management, type and printing capabilities.”
As part of Microsoft’s expansion of its marketing and technology focus on the publishing industry, Chairman and CEO Bill Gates plans to deliver the keynote address to the Newspaper Association of America convention on April 29. The convention will run from April 27 to 30 at the Chicago Hilton and Towers.
Microsoft Makes Investment to Creative Community
Microsoft is making an investment in the field’s leading professional schools. The first two schools selected to receive Microsoft investments are the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., and the New York University (NYU) interactive telecommunications program (ITP). The investments will help to educate future creative and design professionals in all areas of Internet authoring, design and multimedia.
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NYU will use the Microsoft investment to accelerate the expanding use of Windows-based PCs and software in its ITP lab. ITP uses PCs exclusively for VRML authoring and for teaching digital network concepts. It also uses Windows NT Server for streaming audio, chat and virtual environment development.
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The world-renowned Art Center College in Pasadena is receiving software, hardware and cash from Microsoft and Compaq Computer Corp. to establish a laboratory for digital content authoring. The new lab will expand the Art Center’s existing design technology facility with a range of Windows NT-based products and technologies from Microsoft, Compaq and others.
“We are extremely excited to see Microsoft so committed to developing a close relationship with the creative community,”
said Red Burns, ITP program chair, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.
“Their involvement here at NYU will help ensure that the next generation of creative professionals will learn firsthand of the benefits of Windows in interactive design.”
Microsoft Site Builder Network to Better Meet Web Designer Needs
Microsoft has also redesigned its Microsoft Site Builder Network Web site to better serve Web-based designers worldwide. The site has been visited by more than 500,000 site builders, including more than 150,000 currently involved in Web site design. The site is located at (http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/design/)
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, BackOffice and OpenType are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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