Macworld San Francisco 2006 SAN FRANCISCO--Jan. 11, 2006-- Apago Inc., a software developer for the graphic arts and document management industries, today announces its 15-year anniversary of providing innovative applications and custom-development services for users seeking to maximize their digital workflows. From consumers and small businesses to leading graphic arts OEMs and Fortune 500 companies, Apago enables low- and high-volume users to easily create, manipulate, and repurpose PDFs for presentations, brochures, catalogs, magazines, newspapers, and more. Founded in 1991 by Dwight Kelly, Apago first entered the market as an OEM software provider. Since then, the company expanded its offering to include retail and custom development services, achieving tremendous success while marking several important milestones. These include: -- In 1992, Apago (formerly Essential Technical Services Inc.) became one of the early innovators in the large-format printing market developing RIP software, specialized halftone patterns and color correction for producing posters and vehicle wraps. Apago is still active this market. -- In 1994, Apago developed one of the first OPI server products for the newspaper industry. The company licensed its Native File eXchange software to leading graphic arts OEMs, including Scitex, Dalim, Dupont, Screen, Contex, and PCC, allowing them to interface with competing systems. Apago became a leader in the TIFF/IT-P1 market with RIP and conversion software. -- Since 1997, Apago has helped guide the development of and provided technical feedback on numerous international and industry standards, including TIFF/IT, PDF/X, JDF, PDF/A, and the Ghent PDF Working Group. -- 1998 was the year that Apago released Piktor, a powerful RIP and file conversion tool. Piktor has been licensed by many graphic arts companies, including Fuji, Onevision, Screen, Summa, and Agfa. -- In 2001, Apago expanded beyond OEM partners to begin selling software under its own brand. The company name was changed from ETS to Apago Inc. -- Also in 2001, Apago introduced PDF/X Checkup, the first product for creating and preflighting PDF/X-1a files. The product received a Seybold Hot Pick that year. -- In 2002, the company made its first move into the consumer market with PDFshrink and PDFmerge, applications for reducing and optimizing PDF files and for merging and assembling multiple documents into one PDF, respectively. -- In November 2002, Apago introduced PDF Enhancer, a powerful production tool for automating common PDF tasks such as document assembly, correction, cropping, imposition, color management, and compression. The product has received numerous awards including a MacWorld 4-mice rating, inclusion on Kevin Slimp's "Must Have" software list, 5 stars and a Pick award from SoftPedia, and an honorable mention in Electronic Publishing's 2005 Hot Products. -- In 2005, Apago broke into the corporate document and newspaper markets responding to the demand for solutions for creating, modifying, archiving, and repurposing digital documents. Apago's Cluster Workflow provides reliable, scalable automation to these high-volume workflows. "Apago's longevity and growth is a testament to our ability to help companies save time and money through innovative products that address real workflow needs and bottlenecks. Our 15-year anniversary is significant because it demonstrates that we can effectively respond to an evolving market and deliver the highest-quality products and services," states Dwight Kelly, president of Apago Inc. "With 15 highly successful years behind us, our customers can trust that we will continue to be there in the future with the solutions they need." In the years ahead, Apago's customers and its target market will continue to see innovative solutions from the company. Apago is leading the way with the tools and technologies such as PDF Enhancer and Cluster Workflow to support the need for electronic and archived versions of magazines and newspapers. Consumers and small businesses can also expect advancements to products such as PDFshrink. In 2006, Apago will reach new markets such as government agencies and corporations with a solution for the long term, electronic preservation of multi-page PDF documents. For more information about Apago and its products and services, visit www.apago.com or call 770-619-1884.