Software Industry Announcements and News


Picture Collage Maker: Fit the Pieces Together!

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 12.09.10 under ASP Member Companies, Desktop Publishing, Graphic Apps

Stunning Collages and Christmas Cards – Now With a Few Mouse Clicks

Pearl Mountain Software has introduced its Picture Collage Maker, an easy-to-use tool for creating neat digital collages, scrapbooks, greeting cards, and more with a few clicks of a mouse. Fully fledged yet intuitive, the program allows bringing best creative ideas to life quickly and easily.

Designed to become a versatile collage making solution, the software enables a user to unleash inner artist, make some visual aid, and create corporate souvenirs. The program provides a variety of nice, cute and professional looking pre-designed templates (80 in Basic Edition and 130 in Pro Edition) to satisfy users´ needs and allow building collages for any occasion. Whether it is a card for someone significant in your life or a school alumni calendar, Picture Collage Maker will help its user make it look exactly how he or she wants it.

The program can come in especially handy during the holiday season for creating dozens of personalized cards. Granny will be happy to get a Christmas card with her grandchildren wearing Santa hats, your buddies will appreciate the Christmas card featuring nicest and most memorable moments of your friendship, and a large collage visualizing the year 2010 at workplace will come as a pleasant surprise for the co-workers.

Creative process itself is fairly simple and has only 3 steps:

1. Making a draft: pictures for the future collage are dragged and dropped to the program window.
2. Enhancing pictures: built-in photo editing features allow resizing, rotating and cropping pictures to perfection.
3. Adding a little something extra: in addition to layouts, Picture Collage Maker features a set of backgrounds, masks, clipart, and various frames which can be added to a collage making it even more special.

While the software gives complete control over the collage making process, it can also be employed to automate collage building. The wizard featured in the program makes throwing together quality collages a matter of a few seconds. It comes in especially handy when it´s necessary to add a personal touch, but time is critical.

After the work on a collage is finished, it can be saved as a project for further updating, turned into a template, shared via email or used right away.

Pricing and Availability:
Picture Collage Maker runs under Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, VISTA or Windows7. Prices for the product start at $29.90 for a Single-User Personal License; volume discounts are available. Further pricing information as well as the 15-day trial copy is available at the product website.

Company:
Founded in 2006, Pearl Mountain Software, Inc specializes in development of powerful yet easy-to-use software of the high quality. The company is focused on delivering customer satisfaction through providing superior service and support to the consumers.

Product website: http://www.picturecollagesoftware.com/
Download page: http://www.picturecollagesoftware.com/Downloads/download.html
Screenshots: http://www.picturecollagesoftware.com/screenshots.html

Adobe Announces Adoption of eBook DRM by Google

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 12.07.10 under Desktop Publishing

Adobe Content Server 4 Powers the Delivery of PDF and EPUB Content from Google eBooks

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that Google has licensed Adobe® Content Server 4 software as its ebook content protection solution for Google eBooks. With the addition of Google, more than 200 publishers and distributors worldwide have now deployed Adobe Content Server, making it the most pervasive Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution for ebooks and other digital publications.

As a true cross-platform solution, Adobe Content Server enables consumers to purchase or lend ebooks through thousands of points-of-purchase without being tied to one store. With support of the Adobe® Reader® Mobile software development kit (SDK) on more than 85 devices and applications, consumers can download and read protected ebooks from Google eBooks in both PDF and EPUB format. Supported devices include a broad variety of platforms: smartphones, tablets and desktops, as well as dedicated reading devices like the Sony Reader or the Barnes & Noble nook. With more than 13 million downloads of Adobe Digital Editions, a free software application for acquiring, managing and reading ebooks, users can transfer their digital content to their netbooks and desktops, and by taking advantage of a growing number of mobile applications, users can also consume ebooks from Google eBooks on tablets like the iPad. For a complete list, visit Adobe Digital Editions Supported Devices.

“We are excited about Google joining the largest ecosystem of content distributors that believe in giving consumers the freedom to read ebooks across platforms and device types,” said Dave Burkett, vice president and general manager, Creative Solutions Business, Adobe. “Adobe is helping publishers navigate a rapidly changing media landscape, where new devices are opening up new business opportunities to distribute unique content.”

Adobe Content Server is part of Adobe’s end-to-end Digital Publishing Solution for ebooks with Adobe InDesign® CS5, Adobe Digital Editions and Adobe Reader Mobile SDK. The solution allows users to download and read ebooks from Google eBooks without being locked into a proprietary file format or device. More than 200 publishers and distributors worldwide are using the solution today to securely deliver their copyrighted content to end-users through thousands of points-of-purchase across the globe, including many public libraries. This reduces the risk of unauthorized distribution and gives content owners the flexibility to develop their own monetization models around digital content delivery. Licensees of Adobe Content Server include Barnes & Noble, Google, Random House, Sony, WW Norton, OverDrive, Ingram Digital, Kobo, British Library, and many more.

With the Reader Mobile SDK, Adobe enables companies to offer smartphones and reading devices that can easily download, manage, and display ebooks based on PDF and the open EPUB file format. Adobe’s ebook initiatives come at a time when Adobe is pushing the boundaries of delivering new digital publication experiences with leading publishers such as Condé Nast and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. With these new types of interactive, branded experiences, publishers can create rich content on tablets, smartphones and other devices that attracts high-value subscribers and advertisers.

For more information visit the Digital Publishing blog. Follow the team on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/adobedigitalpub.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Corel® WordPerfect Office X5® Update Now Available

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 11.10.10 under Desktop Publishing

Corel® WordPerfect Office X5® Update Now Available

Free Update to Corel’s Flagship Office Software Includes Improved Compatibility with Microsoft® Office

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Nov. 10, 2010) -

Corel today released a new update for Corel WordPerfect Office X5. Available as a free download to current WordPerfect Office X5® customers, Service Pack (SP)1 builds on the office suite’s unmatched file format support and legendary formatting features, adding over 50 key enhancements requested by users. This new update offers improved file compatibility with Microsoft® Office 2010 formats as well as enhancements to the suite’s document-management, Web services and printing features.

“Just as our users have come to rely on WordPerfect’s trusted features, we also rely on our user community to help prioritize our development efforts,” said Jason Larock, Director of Product Management for Corel’s Office Productivity group. “We want to help our WordPerfect customers be as productive as possible, and this latest update ensures that our users are up-to-date and able to work effectively with the latest file formats.”
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Adobe Announces New Digital Publishing Suite

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 10.25.10 under Business, Desktop Publishing

New Viewer Technologies and Hosted Services Revolutionize the Creation and Deployment of Publications Across Desktops, Tablet Devices and Mobile Marketplaces
Adobe MAX 2010

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–At MAX, Adobe’s annual worldwide conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite, providing publishers a set of turnkey hosted services and viewer technology to create, publish, optimize and sell digital content direct to consumers, through content retailers or leading mobile marketplaces. Built on the foundation of Adobe Creative Suite® and Adobe InDesign® CS5 software, the Digital Publishing Suite enables the design and delivery of innovative publisher-branded reading experiences, paired with flexible commerce models and support for deep analytics reporting.

Using InDesign CS5, PDF, HTML5 and the Digital Publishing Suite, publishers will be able to efficiently author both fixed and adaptive layouts, natively build new levels of interactivity directly in InDesign, distribute and monetize their digital editions, and optimize their editorial and advertising content for a complete end-to-end digital publishing workflow.

“The publishing industry is reinventing itself and a new era of editorial and advertising innovation is upon us as publishers target new mobile hardware platforms,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager for Creative and Interactive Solutions, Adobe. “By leveraging the InDesign CS5 workflow and the services of the Digital Publishing Suite, professional publishers can design and commercialize a new class of innovative digital magazines to create a richer and more dynamic reading experience that will attract high-value subscribers and advertisers.”
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Adobe Unveils New Acrobat X Solutions

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 10.18.10 under Desktop Publishing

Easily Create, Review and Share Compelling Documents with Greater Productivity Across Organizations

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced the Adobe® Acrobat® X software family – Acrobat X, Reader® X, the Acrobat X Suite and new document exchange services at Acrobat.com – that empowers professionals to innovate and create higher quality content, driving tighter collaboration and productivity across teams in today’s dynamic business environments.

“Companies today need to work with their customers and partners in multiple time zones, languages and cross-functional teams,” said Melissa Webster, analyst, IDC. “Seamless, fluid content creation and collaboration is critical to how organizations use, repurpose and share information – it is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it is an imperative to success in today’s business world.”
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Adobe Launches Adobe Museum of Digital Media

[ Comments Off ] Posted on 09.24.10 under Desktop Publishing, Graphic Apps

One-of-a-Kind Digital Venue Will Go Live Oct. 6, 12:01 AM Eastern with Inaugural Exhibition, Valley, by Artist Tony Oursler and Curated by Tom Eccles

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the official opening, on Oct. 6, 2010, of the Adobe Museum of Digital Media (AMDM). A one-of-a-kind online museum, the AMDM is an interactive venue to present and preserve groundbreaking digital media works, inspire creative ideas and experimentation, and provide a forum for expert commentary on how digital media influences culture and society. It is located at www.adobemuseum.com.

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