Newsfront

CARLY FIORINA, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has been appointed to the U.S. Space Commission. HP's large-format printers are being used by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to view high-resolution, colour photos of Mars. This particular view, from the Gusev Crater, may encapsulate the rover Spirit's entire journey, from lander to a possible final destination in the east hills. Fiorina will be on a commission charged with advising the White House on what sort of science agenda should be considered for the moon.

UP3I enters the market as a viable workflow standard with the backing of companies like IBM, Duplo, Hunkeler, Oce, Stralfors and Xerox. This group will evolve a graphical interface for end-to-end communication of systems data between the printer and the pre- and post-processing hardware components of an integrated digital print line. UP3I enables integration with other workfiow standards, such as JDF. The group's goal is for controlled information to reach every device in the digital print line.

CASCADES FINE PAPERS GROUP became the official paper supplier of Earth Day Canada, to be celebrated this April. Cascades is positioning itself at the forefront of the recycled paper market and has Canada's only paper mill to be EcoLogo certified. Its fine papers contain an average of 30 per cent post-consumer fibres. Earth Day is celebrated in more than 180 countries and attracts the participation of 500-million people. Six-million people take part in Canada alone.

QUARK INC. has appointed Kamar Aulakh as its chief executive officer. Aulakh joined Quark in 1995 and led much of the company's research-and-development efforts. During his tenure, he created a development organization that currently includes some 1,000 engineers worldwide, as well as a global manufacturing and services infrastructure. Aulakh has also been instrumental in establishing product-release schedules, including the much-anticipated QuarkXPress 6.1 upgrade for Mac OS X.

ADOBE SYSTEMS has rebranded its PDF Transit software for creating print-ready PDF files that can then be sent to a printing company via the internet. Adobe claims the new PDF JobReady 1.6 employs one-click creation from any authoring application based on pre-configured settings from the print provider, as well as the ability to proof print jobs from the desktop and secure 40-bit encryption file delivery. JobReady 1.6 also features client-side Job Definition Format creation.

KODAK POLYCHROME GRAPHICS signed a letter of intent to buy RealTimelmage's Graphic Arts Division, which develops products for Web-based, high-resolution collaborative proofing and approval management. These technologies are an obvious fit KPG's own Matchprint Virtual Proofing System, and should make the company a dominating force in monitor proofing. Moving forward, RealTime-Image will focus on its fast growing healthcare imaging business under Eintracht's leadership.

JOHN KERRY, while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency in Tennessee, called on Quebecer World to recognize labour unions at its plants in the state. The same sentiment was posted to his Website, on which Kerry recognizes the Canadian company and writes, "I have always believed that one of the best ways to raise people out of poverty is to give them the real freedom to form a union. I urge Quebecor to remain neutral when it comes to its employee's choice to form a union."

CAP VENTURES has released a white paper outlining that the large-format-UV-curable inkjet printer market is expected to grow from just a few hundred units shipped in 2002 to over 1,400 units in 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 56 per cent. According to the report, recently introduced and soon-to-be introduced mid-volume units at lower price points will help propel the UV-curable inkjet hardware market into fantastic growth rates over the next few years.

NETWORKED GRAPHIC PRODUCTION welcomed four more companies into its JDF initiative, bringing the total number of members to 35. The new NGP Partners include Ryobi Ltd., a maker of offset printing presses and prepress systems; Press-sense Ltd, a developer of Web-based applications; NovaVision Software Denmark A/S, a management information system developer; and JDF development platform specialist Objective Advantage. Printcafe has decided to remove itself as an NGP partner.

CREO acquired the assets of Spectratech, a printing-plate manufacturer based in Virginia, for approximately US$19 million. Creo plans on repackaing the two negative thermal plates that are currently being produced at the plant. Fortis PN is developed for the newspaper market and Minis PN for the commercial and packaging market. With this acquisition, Creo more than doubles its plate manufacturing capacity, after first entering the market last year with the purchase of a South African facility.

GOOGLE INC. marked an internet milestone by expanding the breadth of its Web index to include more than 6-billion items. Undoubtedly, the move places Google as world's largest collection of online information, comprising more than 4.28-billion Web pages, 880-million images, 845-million Usenet messages and a growing collection of book-related information pages. The company was cofounded by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.