SAN JOSE, Calif.---Sept. 10, 2001-- Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced that Frankel Convergence 121 (one-to-one) -- a division of Frankel, Chicago's second largest promotional marketing agency -- has switched to Adobe InDesign software from QuarkXPress(TM) as the core of its page layout and print production workflow. Frankel converted to InDesign to meet the complex design and production challenges of executing integrated direct-response campaigns for prestigious clients such as Visa, Ameritrade, eBay, First Union, Frito-Lay, and the United States Postal Service. InDesign has proven ideal for Frankel's direct-response marketing efforts. In this business, companies create mass mailings and other marketing campaigns involving multiple printed pieces with subtle differences in detail and a variety of formats and response tracking mechanisms. "In our industry, there is never one version of anything,'' said Laurie Hoppe, Frankel Convergence 121's creative director. "InDesign lets us create a master template and manage all versions and changes in one central document, so we don't have to update separate files and jump between programs. We can easily import Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files as-is, create type effects, and fine-tune the appearance of text while keeping all the various page elements in layers that we can turn on and off as needed. The optical kerning option, multi-line composer and other advanced typographic controls included with InDesign keep us from jumping between programs as we did when we used Illustrator and QuarkXPress.'' Frankel quickly and easily converted to InDesign. Because InDesign shares common tools, palettes, and commands with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, Hoppe's team needed only a few days to learn the program. After adopting InDesign, Frankel Convergence 121's initial assignment was a series of three customer mailings for First Union, the sixth-largest U.S. banking company. "When it comes to maximizing creativity, InDesign offers tools not found in other professional page layout and design applications,'' said Susan Altman Prescott, vice president of cross-media publishing at Adobe. "Frankel Convergence 121 has harnessed the advanced typographic controls and integration with Photoshop and Illustrator that InDesign offers to bring the quality and creativity of their clients' direct response materials to an entirely new level.'' Like all of the agency's clients, First Union viewed work in progress online in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Hoppe estimates that electronic reviews take about 20 percent less time and save about $1,000 to $2,000 per project compared with generating color copies and managing paper archives. Before Frankel sends pieces to the printer, they package and preflight the files right within InDesign, using no additional utilities, verifying that fonts, colors, image formats, and print settings are correct. They can generate press-ready files in either Adobe PDF or native InDesign format. The ability to provide files in either format gives the agency maximum flexibility when choosing printers. Lake County Press in Waukegan, Ill., frequently runs print jobs for Frankel, receiving all files in native InDesign format. "We've been very successful with Frankel's InDesign files. For example, the integration of Adobe's product suite lets me easily check the Photoshop and Illustrator files within a document for specific color information,'' said Kathy Funk, electronic prepress technology supervisor for Lake County Press. Frankel offers its clients strategic and tactical expertise in sales promotion, market research, direct/database marketing, retail design and merchandising, premium development, and interactive communications. Frankel has a blue chip roster of clients that includes McDonald's, Visa, United Airlines, Target, Frito-Lay, Nestle and the United States Postal Service.