CHICAGO, Oct. 13 -- RR Donnelley now helps customers better manage content, images and color quality at every stage of the production process with its new MediaCompass suite of tools. MediaCompass tools create an online environment where production work- teams collaborate, as well as share critical content and color information instantly. RR Donnelley easily integrates MediaCompass tools into customers' workflows and RR Donnelley premedia services, resulting in more effective workflows. The MediaCompass suite includes three new offerings -- StudioStream, ShareStream and Digital Swatch Match. These tools are in addition to RR Donnelley's existing digital asset management and premedia workflow solutions, including ImageMerchant, Photo-Flow, AdSpring and PubSpring. "Quick collaboration and integrated workflows are essential to production success. We understand that," said John Campanelli, president of RR Donnelley Print Solutions. "We developed these tools based on experiences with our customers, and made sure that they can easily integrate with each other, our services and our customers' workflows. Our MediaCompass tools enable our customers to have more seamless and efficient workflows resulting in time and money savings -- while improving quality." AARP Publications, publisher of AARP The Magazine, uses the MediaCompass tools AdSpring and ShareStream to streamline their advertisement approval process. "We needed a dependable, predictable color management tool that would allow us to quickly and confidently color correct random images," said Mel Baughman, quality analyst for AARP Publications. "Upon instituting RR Donnelley's soft-proofing tools into our random proofing cycle, we immediately realized a two-day time savings on typical images and found we could work on troublesome files twice or more in a single day, saving at least three days in the schedule and two overnight deliveries with each round. The software is quite easy to learn and became a valuable and integral part of our prepress workflow within one issue." RR Donnelley's new MediaCompass offerings include: -- StudioStream, a workflow automation tool for digital photography customers that enables art directors to review high-resolution photography online while the set is still "hot." Users can comment and collaborate on photos, approving photography from anywhere; -- ShareStream, a SWOP(R)-certified soft-proofing solution that provides an entire workgroup fast and easy online access to content -- from creative concepts to page edits, color retouching and final page inspection. Teams can effectively collaborate and share clearly noted comments every step of the way; -- Digital Swatch Match, the industry's only on-line service for maintaining consistent color standards across workgroups and through multiple media types. Specific detailed color data are stored -- for items such as shirts in the latest catalog and corporate identities -- ensuring that colors appear the same in print, online, in-store -- anywhere an image is used. "Unlike other marketplace offerings, all MediaCompass tools are integrated with digital asset management, customer workflows and production services," said Mary Lee Schneider, president of premedia technologies for RR Donnelley. "They are based on industry standards with open architectures and leverage RR Donnelley's world-class color management and digital workflow expertise. RR Donnelley's solutions are also tightly linked to the services provided and the RR Donnelley service center that produces the project, giving customers complete control from concept to print-ready file."