ON DEMAND EXPO, NEW YORK, NY -- April 23, 2002 -- Creo Inc. announced today the worldwide release of version 4.0 of its acclaimed Darwin Desktop variable information (VI) authoring tool. Building on the success of Darwin Desktop as the leading VI tool on the market, this new version fully supports all QuarkXPress 5.0 functionality, enhances database management and proofing, and offers new production features, making it even easier to create, proof and print complex personalized jobs. The Darwin Desktop application is widely recognized as one of the most robust, cost-effective VI authoring tools available. It provides designers, small print shops as well as large printing firms with the best in class, all-inclusive tool for creating full-color personalized documents. The Darwin Desktop authoring tool is ideal for highly complex, graphically rich applications, such as postcards, coupons, newsletters, and other one-to-one marketing items. It is also very simple to use, enabling VI authoring on a desktop computer, without scripting or programming. "Darwin has opened up the variable printing market to us," said Orlando Roman, production manager at DocuSource of Wilmington, DE. "It's easy to grasp, easy to use, and we don't have to do any workarounds or coding. We also like Darwin so much as it works with QuarkXPress, which accounts for about 90 percent of our business." "Creo is dedicated to offering comprehensive VI solutions via our Darwin Desktop tool, Creo Variable Print Specification format, and Spire color servers," commented Eli Shalhon, director of marketing, Print On-demand Systems Group, Creo. "While our well-developed VI Partnership Program integrates all leading variable information tools, we will continue to enhance our own Darwin Desktop tool, guaranteeing our customers an affordable VI solution that is well-integrated with Creo Spire servers." In addition to supporting QuarkXPress 4.x, the new Darwin Desktop version fully supports QuarkXPress 5.0 and its new functionalities. Darwin now also supports the Mac OS X operating system, enabling users full operating system flexibility. Darwin also fully supports printing over TCP/IP networking, in addition to the already-supported AppleTalk(r) networking. Advanced database management capabilities introduced in version 4.0 dramatically speed up the handling of larger databases. For example, Darwin 4.0 imports records up to 20 times faster. These enhanced capabilities also enable more complex databases, supporting up to 1000 fields per record, and assist in database cleaning due to the ability to ignore leading and trailing spaces in fields. The improved on-screen preview and proofing capabilities available in Darwin 4.0 make it easier for designers to design the VI job by automatically checking for the longest record and for hidden text that exceeds the box boundaries. New features that enable faster, smoother production include automatic numbering of booklets, and of pages within the booklets, in the crop mark areas. This feature enables operators to easily verify that each part of the job was produced successfully. Easy to learn and use and exceptionally cost effective, Darwin Desktop 4.0 can be used as an entry-level tool by designers and printers new to the variable information market. Because it is a complete design-to-production tool that is well integrated with the Spire workflow, Darwin also provides experienced print shops with a comprehensive production tool. It supports Creo Automatic Picture Replacement (APR) and enables test runs and/or final output to be printed on any PostScript(r) printer. Darwin Desktop 4.0 is available worldwide for US$2,995.