Esko (www.esko.com), a global supplier of integrated solutions for packaging, sign and display finishing, commercial printing and professional publishing, will integrate the online editing technology of CHILI Publish, the Belgian developer of the 'hottest online editor', into its WebCenter web-based packaging platform. Esko will also develop a new plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, enabling users to open packaging designs in WebCenter to create, edit and modify the packaging content.

With this new integration, a designer or artwork creator will be able to publish an Adobe Illustrator document to a WebCenter project. Content like barcodes, nutrition facts, regulatory compliance data and other can then be provided by the brand owner simply by going online, opening and editing the document using the CHILI Editor within the WebCenter browser window.

Bjorn Willems, Product Manager Interactive Applications at Esko, explains: "There is a trend in the packaging industry for prepress companies to move upstream in the supply chain toward packaging artwork design and creation. Now, thanks to CHILI Publish, we are the first to make available a robust platform for content collation of packaging designs. This further complements our portfolio of WebCenter applications that manage the approval, collaboration, project management and planning for the packaging life cycle."

"We experience a huge interest in online document editing, and users also ask us for packaging functionality," adds Kevin Goeminne, CFO and managing partner of CHILI Publish. "Working with Esko, the technology leader in this domain, is a logical and important strategic step that helps us launch our technology into a new market."

The new online packaging editing functionality will be available through Esko channels by the end of 2012.

This new capability will be demonstrated in North America at Graph Expo 2012, scheduled for October 7-10 at McCormick Place in Chicago.  Esko will be located in Booth 427 and CHILI Publish will be located in Boot 971 at the show.