June 29, 2007 -- This past week the Board of Directors of DICE, The Digital Imaging Customer Exchange, sent a letter to Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, as well as other top Adobe managers expressing its members’ concerns over the Adobe’s decision to include a “send to FedEx Kinko’s” command in Acrobat 8.1. DICE is perhaps the oldest digital printing users group in the industry, boasting 328 member companies, all who own high-end color digital presses from either Kodak, HP, or Xerox.
In the letter it was stated that “DICE members collectively own thousands of Adobe applications, Adobe font packages, and Adobe RIPs. They helped to make PostScript a de facto industry standard in early 90s and to make PDF the accepted foundation for graphic arts workflows over the last decade.” The letter went on to suggest that Adobe rethink its strategy of recommending FedEx Kinko’s at the expense of its many loyal, long-standing print provider customers.

The letter brought a quick, positive response from Adobe’s Chizen. In the response he expressed a sincere desire to have Adobe enter into discussions with DICE to help accommodate the needs of the DICE membership within the constraints of the company’s contractual obligations to FedEx Kinko’s. DICE intends to create a user committee to work with Adobe to explore potential workarounds to help offset the potential impact of the arrangement with FedEx Kinko’s.