August 26, 2002 -- San Francisco (Seybold SF '02; Adobe Partner Pavilion, booth no. 1501) - Along with the soon-to-be-released DeskPack for Acrobat, Esko-Graphics has dramatically extended the abilities for packaging developers to maintain a firm grip on the design, communication and production process, with the release of DeskPack for Adobe illustrator. Without leaving the familiar desktop environment, Adobe Illustrator users have simple, affordable and controllable access to dedicated packaging design tools, sophisticated verification of printability, and - last but not least - the world's number one professional packaging trapping solution. "It's hard to think of anyone involved in packaging pre-production that could not benefit from the low cost and easy-to-learn DeskPack solution", states Jan De Roeck, Esko-Graphics Marketing Director. "Creative designers, packaging specialists, prepress operators and production experts all immediately will understand why DeskPack is packaging crowned with success - regardless whether they deal with labels, flexible packages, folding cartons or corrugated boxes, and regardless whether they work free-lance, in agencies, at tradeshops or with converters." Professional Packaging on the DeskTop The DeskPack workflow centers around Adobe Illustrator clients, adding a series of powerful plug-ins to extend Illustrator's functionality, and a plug-and-play server box hosting the trapping application. All operations are fully controlled from within the familiar Illustrator desktop environment. The server ensures that the Illustrator stations are freed up for more interactive tasks while complex manipulations continue in the background. The DeskPack workflow starts from the original design data, and returns all added information back into the same file: trapping objects, for example, are added as a separate layer to the Illustrator document, and can be freely edited or even discarded as desired. The user has full freedom to select either PDF or Illustrator's native file format for job input, storage and interchange - anywhere on the desktop network or over the web. "No need to learn how to deal with a new application, a new user interface or a new file format," continues Jan De Roeck, "all those things remain exactly as before. You just got a full load of exciting, industry proven tools added to your toolbox." "Barco Inside" All of DeskPack's tools come from the world's leading packaging pre-production products that have earned their reputation time after time in real life. DeskPack's plug-in collection includes: - boostX: a number of drawing, editing and ink control tools permitting faster and more precise product design; - checkX: a beautiful tool to analyze a design and compensate for limitations of the reproduction process early in the workflow, and to improve the communication between artwork supplier, prepress shop and printer; - trapX: the gateway to unsurpassed packaging trapping quality and performance (also available on DeskPack for Acrobat). DeskPack incorporates the same extensive and advanced ColorStitch object trapping technology as used with the most recent versions of PackEdge and BackStage. It supports any number (and any mixes) of process and spot inks, creates fully editable trap objects in a separate layer within the job, and introduces unique new solutions to CT and vignette trapping - all with breathtaking performance. Illustrator 9 and 10 enable accurate interactive preview of traps with overprints. Trapping job tickets and checkX press profiles can be created interactively, stored for later re-use and reference, or accepted from other advanced users, tradeshops and print experts (including those already using BackStage). DeskPack therefore allows to set up workflows with a very high degree of consistency and repeatability across jobs, operators and sites. This is ideal for facility management situations. Unique advantages to all packaging professionals DeskPack brings a number of money-saving and money-making advantages: - perfect "round trip workflow": design and pre-production concentrated around the powerful Adobe Illustrator file format, without the need to convert files into a dedicated pre-press oriented file format; - higher quality: the ColorStitch trapping engine and boostX packaging design tools are capitalizing on over 20 years of Barco expertise in packaging prepress; - improved reliability and efficiency: consistent high quality trapping and verification for printability across all operators becomes the rule, labor intensive, error prone manual trapping is history; - easy transition: no need to retrain operators, no need to abandon your favorite desktop application, no need to change the file format for data interchange and archive, no need to change the established design and production workflow; - low cost of ownership: with a moderate investment in DeskPack serving any number of standard Adobe Illustrator workstations, current operators can now produce higher quality jobs with greater efficiency, without investing in any other dedicated packaging software. Configuration and upgradeability DeskPack is compatible with Adobe Illustrator 9 and 10 on Macintosh (OS 9.1/9.2 and OS X version 10.1) and PC platforms (Windows ME, Windows 2000 SP2 and Windows XP). The DeskPack server software runs on any standard Pentium III/4 or compatible PC with appropriate CPU power, RAM memory and hard disk space, running Windows 2000 Server OS. The basic DeskPack license supports up to 5 concurrent user sessions from any number of Mac and PC clients on the network. The DeskPack server is upgradeable to a more complete BackStage workflow automation configuration, offering a broader choice background processing and communication tasks while maintaining full services for Illustrator clients. The soon to be released DeskPack for Acrobat, providing professional trapping utilizing trapX, is also on display at Seybold SF. About Esko-Graphics Esko-Graphics is the result of the merger between Purup-Eskofot A/S, a leading worldwide supplier of prepress equipment to the graphics industry, and Barco Graphics, the leading global supplier for digital pre-production solutions to the packaging industry. The new company combines the management, R&D, manufacturing facilities and distribution resources of the previous entities. The product lines of the two companies are also merged into one integrated portfolio. This gives Esko-Graphics the broadest line of CTP (computer-to-plate) products of any organization in the world as well as market leadership in a number of graphic arts and packaging business sectors. The head office of Esko-Graphics is in Gent, Belgium.