Product Watch

Acrobat Additions

Several companies have joined Adobe Systems’ Acrobat act with new plug-ins. Enfocus Software’s (888/363-6287, http://www.enfocus.com ) $295 PitStop 4.0 performs preflight checks and lets you edit text and objects in PDF files. Quite a Box of Tricks, a $205 PDF utility suite from Quite Software ( http://www.quite.com ), features enhanced RGB-to-CMYK conversion and image-reduction features. The company’s Quite Imposing Plus, a $599 imposition program, takes advantage of Acrobat’s new maximum page size, 200 by 200 inches.

Animated Features

Animators can forgo ink and paper with Linker Systems’ ( http://www.linker.com ) $5,000 Animation Stand Pro 4.0. New features in the cel-based 2-D animation software include automatic color correction and support for combined simultaneous moves and effects.

Unplugged

Now you can use Adobe Photoshop plug-ins even if you don’t have Photoshop. Vertigo Software’s (604/684-2113, http://www.vertigo3d.com ) $39 Advertizer Web-graphics utility lets you create banners by importing an image and applying Photoshop plug-in effects.

Direct Savings

Looking for a new screen saver? Create your own with CinéMac 1.5. This $299 Macromedia Director Xtra from MacSourcery (800/622-7723, http://www.macsourcery.com ) converts Director 7 files to screen savers.–EDITED BY MICHAEL GOWAN

June 1999 page: 30