(October 26, 2008) Agfa Graphics announced today that the new :Apogee Suite - Agfa's comprehensive suite of software solutions, :Apogee Publish, :Apogee Portal, :Apogee Prepress, and :Apogee Color - is making its North America debut at Graph Expo, which runs October 26th through October 29th at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois.

:Apogee Suite is designed to meet the needs of various stakeholders in the printing and publishing process, including print buyers, content owners, designers, prepress managers and production coordinators. It integrates all content, proofing, output, connectivity and other integral elements through one comprehensive suite.

"Our new :Apogee Suite takes connectivity to a new level, with a highly functional integration that further improves overall management of the graphic communications process," said Deborah Hutcheson, senior marketing manager, Digital Solutions, Agfa Graphics, North America. "Our customers' software solution needs are changing and it is important that we offer them solutions that are modular. :Apogee Suite's modules serve the functional needs of a specific department or group inside a company. At the same time, because they are modular, they can be integrated together to form a logical total flow."

:Apogee Suite is made up of four main components:

- :Apogee Publish includes solutions focusing on all tasks from content management to page creation for print and web. :Apogee Media, part of :Apogee Publish, is tailored to the needs of content creators and brand owners, as well as departments at print service providers and design agencies. Existing tools for word processing and desktop publishing are leveraged into a more automated integrated workflow with a built-in content management solution. :Apogee Publish also contains :Secuseal which provides dedicated design and verification tools to generate complex security designs and patterns that make imitations recognizable and traceable. :Secuseal is an Illustrator plug-in option.

- :Apogee Portal (formerly :Delano) strengthens the communication and collaboration between printers and their customers. It allows participants throughout the graphic communications process to collaborate on projects and tasks. This results in higher productivity, fewer steps before printing and reduced costs associated with reworks and errors. It includes :Apogee WebApproval for file and proof retrieval, :Apogee StreamProof for integrated, fast, high resolution softproofing and :Apogee ProjectManager for more advanced functionality and online management of print projects.

- :Apogee Prepress (formerly :ApogeeX) provides a full JDF-enabled prepress production hub, allowing everyone in the production environment to control and manage all prepress processes. The increased level of automation gives production environments the ability to accomplish more functions with fewer people. It offers complete connectivity to Agfa's set of CtP engines, as well as innovative technologies such as :Apogee InkSave for increased ink efficiency and cost savings and a new component called :Apogee PlateMaker for continuous plate production.

- :Apogee Color seamlessly integrates end-to-end quality and color management solutions into the :Apogee Suite solutions. :Apogee Color, including :ColorTune and :SherpaProof, produces predictable soft and hard copy proofs at critical points in the production cycle. It makes sure that everyone in the communication process looks at the same proof and color wherever they are.