Common Ground Challenges Adobe for the Internet; Common Ground Web Publishing System delivers fully-formatted DigitalPaper documents one page at a time

Business Wire, Sept 27, 1995

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 1995--Challenging Adobe Systems, Inc.'s efforts to make Acrobat's pdf the electronic document standard for the Internet, Common Ground Software, Inc. today demonstrated the Common Ground Web Publishing System (CGWPS) at Seybold San Francisco, featuring the company's own DigitalPaper format.

CGWPS complements Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) to deliver exact reproductions of electronic documents for viewing and printing one page at a time. CGWPS begins shipping on Oct. 16.

"We're competing against a giant with a lot more marketing muscle, but we believe that DigitalPaper is a better solution than Acrobat for publishing on the Internet. Our system requirements are lower, we can guarantee exact reproductions by never substituting fonts, and we have a viewer that's one-fifth the size," said Richard Preston, president of Common Ground Software, Inc.

"Our web publishing system provides a way for companies to publish on the Internet quickly and inexpensively; it was designed to dramatically reduce the time, cost and administrative effort needed to maintain a web site."

The Common Ground Web Publishing System converts any electronic document into DigitalPaper and automatically creates HTML pages which provide users with information on the website's DigitalPaper documents. The HTML pages can provide layers of detailed information to enable users to quickly locate the document and the exact page they need.

Employing Page-on-Demand technology, a Common Ground exclusive, users are also able to browse a document online without having to download the entire file.

"With the Web Publishing System, it is now feasible to post a 200-page DigitalPaper document on a website," said Steve McConaughey, director of marketing for Common Ground Software.

"Our Page-on-Demand allows anyone with our free MiniViewer to skip around a very long document - a manual, for example - downloading and viewing only the pages they need. With Adobe's Acrobat, they'd have to download the entire 200 pages prior to viewing." McConaughey added that Page-on-Demand also frees network servers from unnecessary downloads.

The Common Ground Web Publishing System consists of two components: Common Ground Web Edition and Common Ground Web Server Tools.

o The Common Ground Web Edition is the authoring tool used to create DigitalPaper documents. It includes the navigational tools to create a Table of Contents and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) hyperlinks to HTML pages and other DigitalPaper documents.

o The Common Ground Web Server Tools enable webmasters to automatically create HTML pages which form the navigational infrastructure of a library of DigitalPaper documents. Also included is a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script to allow single page viewing. The web server tools are compatible with any CGI-compliant web server software, including NCSA HTTPd, Netscape Communications Server, NaviSoft's NaviServer and CERN web servers.

Common Ground's MiniViewer is available for Macintosh and Windows platforms with a UNIX version expected next quarter. The viewers are available free of charge from the company's website: http://www.commonground.com.

System Requirements

Common Ground Web Edition for Windows Any 386 or higher personal computer Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher 4MB RAM

Common Ground Web Server Tools

SunOS 4.1.3 (Solaris 1.1) of Solaris 2.4 SPARCStation with 16 MB RAM

Common Ground MiniViewer

Windows: 2MB RAM Macintosh: 1MB RAM

Price and Availability

Common Ground Web Publishing System is available at a list price of $999. Windows NT and Macintosh web server tools are scheduled for release next quarter.

About Common Ground Software

Common Ground Software Inc. (formerly No Hands Software, Inc.) pioneered the electronic document distribution market with the release of Common Ground in 1993.

The company maintains a competitive edge by delivering exact reproductions of documents for electronic distribution, by requiring lower system configurations of users and recipients of electronic documents, and by providing innovative technology at substantially lower cost than competing products. Common Ground software is available in Windows and Macintosh versions.

Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., the company can be reached at (415) 802-5800 or (800) 598-3821. To receive information via the Internet, address your request to info@commonground.com or access the company's Web site at http://www.commonground.com. -0-

Note to Editors: DigitalPaper, Common Ground, MiniViewer and ProViewer are trademarks of Common Ground Software, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective manufacturers and companies.

CONTACT: Nickelsen Communications

Kathleen Miller/Myrna Nickelsen, 510/845-8804

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