Lantana
Research Corporation, an Adobe Ventures L.P. company, today
announced Crackerjack, a plug-in facility
to Adobe Acrobat Exchange 3.0. Crackerjack
provides tools that give the graphic arts
professionals control over their output
for PDF documents. The initial release
runs on Macintosh and Power Macintosh
computers and compatibles. The dictionary
defines "Crackerjack" as "expert". And
Crackerjack is the first and only product
to enable expert printing of PDF
documents.
When installed,
Crackerjack is accessed from the "File"
pull down menu on the Exchange tool bar.
It provides a series of "index cards" for
user input and a window that shows the
relationship between the PDF page and the
output media for the current user
selections. The controls allow for
variations in scaling, orientation, fine
positioning, negative and mirror printing.
Crackerjack allows for the selection of
any of the media sizes supported by the
target device, and also custom page sizes.
Additionally, Crackerjack provides user
control over separations and screening for
both process and spot colors. Crackerjack
drives the selected output device or
creates a PostScript or an Encapsulated
PostScript (EPS) file. Menu parameters may
be saved and reloaded as standard formats.
Crackerjack output is compatible with any
Adobe PostScript Level 2 or Level 3 raster
image processor (RIP).
According to John
Warnock, CEO of Adobe, "PDF is quickly
becoming the distribution format of choice
for high-end pre-press content. The
Crackerjack plug-in for Acrobat Exchange
now lets users seamlessly position, scale,
screen, and separate PDF content. It will
be an invaluable tool for pre-press
activities."
"Crackerjack
continues our tradition of providing
quality solutions for high-end prepress
work" said Gary Armstrong, Lantana's CEO.
"The combination of Crackerjack and Adobe
Acrobat 3.0 simplifies print production
workflows, reduces costs, improves
schedules, and enables a 'a deliver then
print' distribution strategy. We are
pleased to continue our long-standing
relationship with Adobe and envision a
number of other Acrobat enhancement
products in the coming months."
Crackerjack
demonstrates that Acrobat and PDF are not
just for "the Web", but with the new
features, they bring many benefits for
professional print production. These
features include support for separations,
screening, overprint, additional color
spaces, patterns/fills, OPI proxies,
UCR/GCR, and double byte languages. This
allows a PDF workflow to maintain all the
fidelity of PostScript workflows even for
the most complex combinations of
typography, graphics, images, and color.
In itself, Acrobat Exchange enables
customers to digitally preview and
preflight documents intended for
production printing. Acrobat's
cross-platform capabilities, sophisticated
font handling, and display of embedded EPS
files helps reduce the errors and
frustration caused by multiple creator
applications and different version levels.
By providing expert control functions for
output, Crackerjack is the catalyst to
allow graphic arts professionals to
realize these benefits for print
production.
According to Frank
Romano, Melbert Cary Distinguished
Professor of Graphic Arts at Rochester
Institute of Technology and a leading
industry author and analyst, "Crackerjack
is the most important part of Acrobat 3.0
and users are dying for it."
Crackerjack is
particularly applicable for output to
imagesetters and platesetters. But it also
provides benefits when printing PDF
documents on digital proofers, color
printer/copiers, plotters, and digital
presses. Crackerjack is a must for
personnel in marketing communications
departments, imaging service bureaux,
color trade shops, quick printers and
commercial printers. Because Crackerjack
also supports composite color output, it
is also useful as a preflight step
upstream of existing prepress
applications, such as trapping and
imposition.
"By enabling
customers to move toward more complete
digital workflows, the combination of
Acrobat software and Lantana's Crackerjack
plug-in can help customers decrease some
of the most costly and time-consuming
aspects of production printing," said
Kevin Wandryk, Director of Product
Management, Adobe Systems. "We are very
pleased to be working with Lantana to
bring the high quality benefits of Acrobat
software and PDF to the production
printing market."
The
Macintosh/Power Macintosh version is
available now for $495 excluding taxes,
duties, shipping and handling. A data
sheet and a white paper further describing
Crackerjack and PDF workflows may be found
in PDF format at Lantana's web site at
www.lantanarips.com. For more information on how
to obtain Crackerjack contact Lantana by
email at crackerjack@lantanarips.com or
phone 510-744-0282.
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