Canto is now delivering the Workgroup and Single User Editions of Cumulus 5.5, its digital asset management solution.
Showcased last month at Macworld San Francisco, the upgrades of the Workgroup and Single User Editions include new features such as improved IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) support, a Palette View Mode and integrated file format conversion functionality. IPTC is a standard used by photographers, newspapers and magazines to include additional metadata on photographs and images.
The Palette View Mode supposedly makes it more convenient for users to integrate Cumulus more readily as a tool when working with other applications such as Adobe InDesign, Quark Xpress or Adobe Photoshop. In the Palette View Mode, Cumulus integrates into those applications and appears as one of their palettes.
The new Server/Client Asset Transfer and Remote Admin functions are designed to simplify the administration of the Cumulus Server. The Server/Client Asset Transfer allows clients to access assets via established Client/Server TCP/IP connections. They no longer have to have access to the File Server with the original asset. There have also been optimizations in speed and stability, according to Canto CEO Jennifer Neumann.
Users working with the Workgroup Edition in cross platform environments benefit from the Server/Client Asset Transfer, as it reduces system requirements to the installed network software, she said. Administrators also benefit from Remote Admin that allows administration of the Cumulus Server via any standard Internet browser, Neumann added.
With the enhanced IPTC support, users managing a large amount of image documents can write modified metadata directly back into the original file. For example, changes can be seen in the Photoshop file info. Plus, previews are now generated faster, especially TIFF documents
Cumulus 5.5 is completely compatible with all Cumulus 5 options such as QXP AssetStore and PDF AssetStore. Canto recommends that customers using the Web Publisher Option at the same time update to version 5.0.6, which is also now available.
The update also includes Integrated URL AssetStore and ZIP AssetStore. The URL AssetStore is integrated as a light version into Cumulus 5.5 and resolves FTP and http asset references. The ZIP AssetStore Option is now included in Cumulus 5.5 as a fully working version free of extra charge. Previously it was sold as a separate US$69.95 option.
According to Neumann, Cumulus 5.5 includes several other user-requested features such as the ability to print contact sheets, sorted lists with type-ahead functionality, an improved slideshow feature, the ability for HTML output to consider the orientation of thumbnails when publishing assets to the Web, availability of the “Convert to file format” conversion functionality in the Single User Edition and more.
The Workgroup Edition is $995 for the server (for Mac OS or Windows) or $1995 for the server (for Unix, IRIX, Linux, and Solaris) and $295 per client for Windows and Mac. Pricing for the Enterprise Edition is available on request. Anyone who purchased Cumulus 5 after Jan. 1 can get Cumulus 5.5 free with proof of purchase.