Fremont, CA (April 9, 2001) - Today, Lantana announced Variform PDF, an Acrobat plug-in that significantly extends the usability of Acrobat Forms. Variform PDF merges variable data from local data sources with Acrobat Forms. Variform PDF is appropriate for any site with mail merge, forms filling, and other variable data applications, such as, home offices, small businesses, branch offices, corporate departments, quick printers, service providers, and consulting companies. Until now, a significant barrier to using Acrobat Forms has been its focus on server-based applications. To many Acrobat users, such forms projects are technically beyond their reach, under funded, or organizationally difficult. Lantana recognizes that there are millions of private data bases in the form of spreadsheets, PC databases, and custom queries of mainframe data. All of these are capable of producing the data in a delimited text file. Variform PDF allows one to merge these data files into Acrobat forms, and print the results or save them to file (PostScript or PDF via Acrobat Distiller). Additionally, any font may be used for the merged data. "Variform PDF empowers ordinary people to merge their variable data with templates created from any application and enhanced using the Acrobat Forms tool" stated Gary Armstrong, Lantana’s CEO. "Typically, we envision corporations electronically distributing Acrobat forms to maintain corporate identity, and branch offices using Variform PDF to complete them. And now, MIS and IT professionals have a simple way to service custom requests in their organizations without getting involved in massive forms-database projects." Variform PDF requires Adobe Acrobat 4.05 or above and is available now for Windows (95/98/2000/NT). The US suggested retail price for Variform PDF is $199 plus shipping. Prices will vary internationally. A Macintosh version is planned. Refer to the Lantana web site for details.