Adobe ships InDesign, delivering the foundation of next generation professional publishing systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced the immediate shipment of Adobe InDesign, an innovative, new page-layout application and the cornerstone of the company`s new platform for professional publishing solutions.

InDesign software, built from the ground up, is based on a new open, object-oriented architecture that is highly extensible, thus greatly reducing development cycles and enabling Adobe to rapidly evolve the platform.

This open architecture creates a core on which third-party developers and system integrators can deliver custom publishing solutions for magazines, advertising agencies, catalogues, retailers, design studios, and newspapers. In fact, in conjunction with InDesign, a number of third party vendors and service providers have announced key plug-ins and solutions designed to immediately extend the functionality of version 1.0.

Nine of these solutions are shipping immediately, including FRAEMZ PS for InDesign from ShadeTree, PowrTable from PowrTools, and Sonar Bookends InDex from Virginia Systems.

"With InDesign, Adobe is delivering on its commitment to the professional publishing community," said Bruce Chizen, executive vice president, Adobe Systems, Inc. "When developing InDesign, a key objective was to work with our customers to deliver a solution that addresses their needs, as well as to provide a modern, extensible foundation on which the future professional publishing platform will be built. With 1.0 we are delivering exactly that."

Innovative Design and Typographical Features

InDesign is packed with hundreds of features that deliver new levels of creativity, precision, and control, including many groundbreaking features unmatched in current page-layout products.

These include:

.         Multi-line Text Composer

.         Optical Kerning

.         Optical Margin Alignment

.         High-resolution EPS and PDF display

.         Hierarchical Master Pages

.         Multiple Redo & Undo

.         Extensive Multi-lingual support

.         Zooming from 5% to 4000%

Beyond its key features, InDesign is tightly integrated with other popular Adobe products for graphics professionals, such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe PressReady. Users familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator will learn InDesign quickly because of the common interface and shortcuts. Designers can also take advantage of built-in import of QuarkXPress and Adobe PageMaker files to transfer existing templates and master pages.

The Foundation for Professional Publishing

Adobe InDesign incorporates key technologies for imaging, type support, printing, and colour management that are now common to all Adobe professional applications. With these applications, Adobe is providing the industry`s first platform for publishing that creates consistent results on screen and in print. In addition, Adobe InDesign includes extensive support for Adobe PDF, enabling PDF-based digital workflows.

This open architecture also allows Adobe to evolve and enhance InDesign more rapidly than with traditional software products. The company plans to rapidly deliver additional features and functionality for InDesign users. Adobe will deliver these enhancements via Adobe Online, a feature of InDesign that provides dynamic content and automated product updates via the Internet.

Pricing and Availability

A limited promotional price is available for Adobe InDesign.

For customers who want the convenience of purchasing the essentials they need in one comprehensive tool kit - all from a single vendor they trust - InDesign is available as part of the Adobe Design Collection. The Adobe Design Collection includes the latest versions of Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Acrobat software for creative professionals who want the most advanced tools available to create and produce cutting-edge, design-intensive communications (ads, packaging, etc.) for both Web and print use.