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MWNY: Stone Studio goes international

By Dennis Sellers
Macworld

Stone Design is showcasing updated versions of Stone Studio for Mac OS X this week at Macworld New York. The studio consists of seven applications designed from the ground up to take advantage of OS X.

Stone Design also announced a German version of Stone Studio and French and Spanish versions of Create, its flagship drawing and page layout program. All versions are available online at the Stone Web site. What’s more, the company announced the availability of full strength demo licenses on request.

“We know people like to try before they buy,” Andrew Stone, CEO of the veteran Macintosh Cocoa software house, said in a statement. “While unlicensed versions of our products do everything but save, we want users to know they can get a fully-functional, time-limited license just by emailing us at info@stone.com.”

He said that Stone Design has been busy fixing and polishing since the release of Mac OS X.

“Because we’re small and responsive, we work with users to provide the best possible software,” he added. “And because we’re a Mac OS X only shop, we are working to take maximum advantage of Mac OS X and Aqua features to provide the best possible user experience.”

Stone Studio includes the following applications:

  • Create 10.3.4 for Mac OS X is a draw and layout application built on the idea that everything is an object. Patterns, blends, effects, art, and pages can be dragged and dropped to create multipage documents. Features include Web page authoring, instant graphic conversion, autotracing, animation, multiple document master pages, patterns, neon, and special graphics and text effects.
  • PhotoToWeb 1.3.32 manages digital photographs and produces Web sites from albums of images. It can produce thumbnails, do slide shows, and annotate, crop, rotate and scale images to produce configurable Web sites. Users can set the background and navigation bars and can save album styles for future use.
  • SliceAndDice 2.4.2 lets the user create navigation bars, Javascript rollovers, image maps, and mosaic tilings from any image. It features full control over image production. By dragging SliceAndDice files into Create, the user can create Web pages with image maps and rollovers.
  • PStill 1.8 converts EPS/PS and other conforming PostScript to the Portable Document Format (PDF). Its EPS filter allows viewing EPS directly on Mac OS X in any application as antialiased PDF.
  • PackUpAndGo 2.1.2 creates compressed archive files (.tar.gz) from dragged in files and folders and automatically uncompresses archived files.
  • TimeEqualsMoney 1.3.8 tracks time spent for clients, and produces invoices and reports automatically.
  • GIFfun 3.1 creates Web animations using drag and drop technology. The source code to GIFfun is also available online.

    • “The true power of OS X shows when you use the apps together,” Stone said. “Drag SliceAndDice and GIFfun documents into Create to make dynamic Web pages. Use Create to make background patterns for PhotoToWeb pages. Install PStill and then drag EPS files directly in Create. Generate your website in Create or PhotoToWeb and drag the resulting folder into PackUpAndGo to make an archive that can be easily transferred to a Web server. It’s all seamless.”

    Stone Studio is available online at the Stone Store. Stone Design has extended its introductory pricing of US$299 through November 22.