Vendors wave Rhapsody flag
Several longtime NeXT graphics developers last week joined the Rhapsody hullabaloo with announcements of updates and support for Apple's next-generation OS.
Stone Design Corp. shipped Version 4.2 of Create, its design, layout and Web authoring tool (see 05.26.97, Page 1).
The new version, which carries an introductory price of $249, will work with Apple's newly available developer release of Rhapsody for PowerPC, the company said. Create has been shipping for eight years on the NeXTstep/OpenStep platform.
Version 4.2 adds several new features to the application, including the ability to export elements as JPEG and GIF files. Users will be able to drag and drop PostScript effects, such as shadows, skewing, scaling, pattern fills, stroke outlines and color blends.
The package combines standard drawing tools, such as lines, polygons, and Bezier splines, with more-specialized tools, such as date and page markers and path-based text. Web features include the ability to generate user-editable HTML code, as well as navigation bars for images and image-quality settings. It includes a PostScript pattern editor as well as Animation and Video plug-in modules.
Anderson Financial Systems Inc. said it will release a Rhapsody version of its $695 PasteUP page-layout application in early 1998. Meanwhile, the company said it will offer an update to its OpenStep version later this month. It also sells an OpenStep word processing application.
"PasteUP is designed for a high-end prepress environment," said Gregory Anderson, Anderson Financial founder and CEO. According to Anderson, his company's OpenStep version is now "equal to QuarkXPress from a layout perspective."
The current software provides typographical controls for leading, tracking, word spacing, line height and kerning. It also lets users add crop marks, set halftone frequencies and angles, and output negative images.
The forthcoming Rhapsody version will beef up several functions such as indexing large documents, Anderson said.
M. Onyschuk and Associates Inc. announced a Rhapsody version of Glyphix, the company's OpenStep drawing and charting program. The company said it hasn't finalized prices but expects the software to cost about $150.
The company said the object-oriented Glyphix will create "intelligent" drawings that maintain structural data even when elements are edited. Graphics can also contain other attributes. For example, the software can automatically make allowances for office furniture clearances. Glyphix will come with several hundred prebuilt shapes and elements, the company said.
Stone Design Corp. of Albuquerque, N.M., can be reached at (505) 345-4800; fax (505) 345-3424; info@stone.com; http://www.stone.com.
Anderson Financial Systems Inc. of Springhouse, Pa., can be reached at (215) 653-0911 or (800) 237-8723; fax (215) 653-0711; http://www.netaxs.com/~afs.
M. Onyschuk and Associates Inc. of Toronto can be reached at (416) 598-1321; fax (416) 598-1312; ask-oaai@oaai.com; http://www.oaai.com.
Several longtime NeXT graphics developers last week joined the Rhapsody hullabaloo with announcements of updates and support for Apple's next-generation OS.
Stone Design Corp. shipped Version 4.2 of Create, its design, layout and Web authoring tool (see 05.26.97, Page 1).
The new version, which carries an introductory price of $249, will work with Apple's newly available developer release of Rhapsody for PowerPC, the company said. Create has been shipping for eight years on the NeXTstep/OpenStep platform.
Version 4.2 adds several new features to the application, including the ability to export elements as JPEG and GIF files. Users will be able to drag and drop PostScript effects, such as shadows, skewing, scaling, pattern fills, stroke outlines and color blends.
The package combines standard drawing tools, such as lines, polygons, and Bezier splines, with more-specialized tools, such as date and page markers and path-based text. Web features include the ability to generate user-editable HTML code, as well as navigation bars for images and image-quality settings. It includes a PostScript pattern editor as well as Animation and Video plug-in modules.
Anderson Financial Systems Inc. said it will release a Rhapsody version of its $695 PasteUP page-layout application in early 1998. Meanwhile, the company said it will offer an update to its OpenStep version later this month. It also sells an OpenStep word processing application.
"PasteUP is designed for a high-end prepress environment," said Gregory Anderson, Anderson Financial founder and CEO. According to Anderson, his company's OpenStep version is now "equal to QuarkXPress from a layout perspective."
The current software provides typographical controls for leading, tracking, word spacing, line height and kerning. It also lets users add crop marks, set halftone frequencies and angles, and output negative images.
The forthcoming Rhapsody version will beef up several functions such as indexing large documents, Anderson said.
M. Onyschuk and Associates Inc. announced a Rhapsody version of Glyphix, the company's OpenStep drawing and charting program. The company said it hasn't finalized prices but expects the software to cost about $150.
The company said the object-oriented Glyphix will create "intelligent" drawings that maintain structural data even when elements are edited. Graphics can also contain other attributes. For example, the software can automatically make allowances for office furniture clearances. Glyphix will come with several hundred prebuilt shapes and elements, the company said.
Stone Design Corp. of Albuquerque, N.M., can be reached at (505) 345-4800; fax (505) 345-3424; info@stone.com; http://www.stone.com.
Anderson Financial Systems Inc. of Springhouse, Pa., can be reached at (215) 653-0911 or (800) 237-8723; fax (215) 653-0711; http://www.netaxs.com/~afs.
M. Onyschuk and Associates Inc. of Toronto can be reached at (416) 598-1321; fax (416) 598-1312; ask-oaai@oaai.com; http://www.oaai.com.