Extensis Announces Family of Graphics Add-ons; Leading developer of add-ons for Adobe PageMaker and QuarkXPress, announces an upgrade and new Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand

Business Wire, Sept 18, 1995

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1995--Extensis Corporation, the leading supplier of Plug-ins for Adobe PageMaker and XTensions for QuarkXPress, today announced three new products: PageTools 2.0, an upgrade to its best-selling collection of Plug-ins for Adobe PageMaker; DrawTools, a collection of Plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand; and Intellihance 2.0, an automatic photo-enhancement Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop.

PageTools 2.0 is an integrated set of 18 Plug-ins for Adobe PageMaker 5.0 and 6.0. It builds upon the success of PageTools 1.0 by enhancing the original ten components and adding eight entirely new ones. New tools include a character styles palette, glossary function, word counter, among others. Improvements to existing tools include multiple, customizable toolbars, and enhanced support for new functions in PageMaker 6.0.

DrawTools is an integrated set of 17 Filters for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand. It includes three modules: DrawTools Color allows users to edit color ramps, mix and replace colors, convert colors to grayscale, randomly replace colors, and create duotones and multitones; DrawTools Move allows users to precisely resize and position objects within and between layers; DrawTools Shape allows users to apply 3-dimensional effects to objects by projecting them onto geometric shapes, such as spheres, cylinders, cones, water, waves and diamonds, as well as "free projections."

Intellihance 2.0 is an intelligent Photoshop Plug-in that automatically adjusts image contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness and despeckle in a single-step. It works with any scanned, stock or Photo CD image. It applies artificial intelligence to the photo-enhancement process enabling users to get great looking results with little to no user intervention. Intellihance 2.0 is compatible with Photoshop 2.5.1 and later, as well as other applications that support Photoshop Plug-ins, including PageMaker 6.0 and QuarkXPress 3.3.1 with QX-Tools.

This introduction of three new products follows closely behind Extensis' August introduction of QX-Tools, the first integrated set of XTensions for QuarkXPress. QX-Tools has already been lauded by industry professionals as a "must-have" for any QuarkXPress user. QX-Tools includes 10 general productivity XTensions, including customizable toolbars, as well as tools for navigating, applying character styles, scaling multiple objects, managing layers, printing non-consecutive page ranges, applying Photoshop filters to images in QuarkXPress, and more.

New Products demonstrate Extensis' Focus on graphics add-ons

"The fact that we have shipped more than 150,000 units of PageTools in our first year of operation demonstrates the value of our products and the validity of the graphics add-on market," said Craig Barnes, president of Extensis. "Most of our customers use multiple graphics applications. These new products provide compelling new features and capabilities for five of the most widely-used graphics applications on the market. Our products are aggressively priced, share a consistent user interface, and are designed, tested and guaranteed to work together. Extensis customers not only receive a great value, but they also receive the added benefit of purchasing their add-ons from one source -- convenience, stability, compatibility, and consistency of operation."

Pricing and availability

PageTools 2.0 for Macintosh will ship on November 20, 1995, at a suggested retail price of US $149, $99.95 direct. Anyone who purchases PageTools 1.0 for Macintosh on or after September 1, 1995, will receive a free upgrade to version 2.0. It requires Adobe PageMaker 5.0, or 6.0, and System 7.1 or later. Users of PageTools 1.0 for Windows can expect the PageTools 2.0 version in the first quarter of 1995.

DrawTools for Macintosh will ship on October 20, 1995, at a suggested retail price of US $149, $99.95 direct. It requires Adobe Illustrator 5.0 or later, or Macromedia FreeHand 5.0 or later, and System 7.1 or later.

Intellihance for Macintosh will ship on October 20, 1995, at a suggested retail price of US $149, $99.95 direct. Intellihance requires Adobe Photoshop 2.5.1 or later, PageMaker 6.0 or later, or QuarkXPress 3.3.1 (with QX-Tools) or later, and System 7.1 or later.

QX-Tools for Macintosh is shipping now, and is available at a suggested retail price of US $149, $99.95 direct. It requires QuarkXPress 3.3.1 or later, and System 7.1 or later. All of these products are available direct from Extensis at 1-800-796-9798 in the US, (31) 3462-50584 in Europe, and through major software resellers worldwide.

Extensis Corporation, founded in 1993, develops and markets add-on software for graphics applications which enables users to get more from the software they're already using. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Adobe PageMaker, Photoshop and Illustrator are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. Macromedia FreeHand is a trademark of Macromedia, Inc. Quark and QuarkXPress are registered trademarks and XTensions is a trademark of Quark, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.