R.R. Donnelley Financial selects Adobe Acrobat software for first Internet resource on Municipal Bond Information; Over one million pages of paper-based documents converted to Adobe Portable Document Format for easy public access via the World Wide Web

Business Wire, March 12, 1996

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 1996--Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) announced today that R.R. Donnelley Financial, the international financial printing and information services unit of R.R. Donnelley, has selected Adobe Acrobat Capture and Adobe Acrobat software as the enabling technologies to provide public access to municipal bond information through the Internet.

The Municipal Bond Resource Center, or MRC, at http://www.municipal.com, was launched earlier this year in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's call for making municipal bond information available and more accessible to a wider audience. Using Acrobat Capture software, R.R. Donnelley Financial has converted to date over 10,000 paper-based municipal bond documents, or over one million pages, into the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), a standard file format used on the World Wide Web, CD-ROM, on-line services and corporate networks for the cross-platform distribution of electronic documents.

"Our objective with the Internet-based Municipal Resource Center is to encourage the democratization of information in the municipal bond industry and enhance communication between bond issuers and investors," said Bill Freeland, director of Advanced Technology, R.R. Donnelley Financial. "Through the MRC, the Web, and leading-edge technologies such as Adobe Acrobat software, a variety of investors, including individuals, market professionals and government agencies, can have direct access to source documents, helping them to make better informed and more timely business decisions."

The MRC represents the first, and most extensive, searchable database of municipal bond source information available through the World Wide Web. Because most information on municipal bonds is available only as paper-based documents from the bond issuers, R.R. Donnelley Financial required an on-line publishing solution to convert millions of pages of paper documents into electronic copies that could easily be distributed on the Internet. Acrobat Capture software, which uses PDF to convert paper documents into fully searchable, portable electronic files that look just like the original, was the clear choice for the massive project. Additionally, Adobe Acrobat Reader software is available free on the site for individuals to view and print the documents on demand.

About the MRC

The MRC is the first service of its kind on the World Wide Web providing a centralized information resource for the municipal bond industry. A core element of the MRC is the Municipal Securities Disclosure Archive, a library of documents mandated under the new SEC Rules 15c2-12 that requires disclosure on bonds sold on the secondary market. The archive is an SEC-approved Nationally Recognized Municipal Securities Information Repository, or NRMSIR, and it contains official statements, notices of material and annual financial information from bond issuers. The MRC currently holds over 10,000 documents on municipal bonds and Donnelley is adding an additional 100 to 200 documents daily to the site.

Today, all the information contained in the MRC is available without cost to the end user. As the site matures, some areas within the MRC will carry pay-per-view or subscription fees, however, R.R. Donnelley Financial is pursuing support of MRC services through industry sponsorships and advertising revenues.

About Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Capture

The Adobe Acrobat software family of electronic publishing tools simplifies the creation and distribution of electronic documents, allowing customers to use virtually any authoring application to create information that can be viewed, searched and printed by all major computer platforms and printers. The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), an open, cross-platform file format created by Acrobat software, preserves the exact formatting of electronic documents across platforms.

Using PDF, Acrobat Capture replicates complex layouts of the printed page, including mixed fonts, graphics, and multiple columns, while translating text into a computer readable form that can be searched and indexed to make information easy to find. Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Capture software combined provide a complete cross-platform environment for sharing and managing documents, regardless of whether those documents originated in paper or electronic form.

R.R. Donnelley Financial is the international printing and information management services unit of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (NYSE:DNY). The parent company is a world leader in managing, reproducing and distributing print and digital information for the publishing, retailing, merchandising and information technology markets. It specializes in the production of catalogs, inserts, magazines, books, directories and financial and computer documentation. Founded in Chicago in 1864, the company now employs 41,000 people in 20 countries on five continents.

Based in Mountain View, Adobe Systems Incorporated is the world's third largest personal computer software company, with 1995 revenues of $762.3 million. The company develops and supports products to help people express and use information in more imaginative and meaningful ways, across all print and electronic media.