Stone Design announced on Wednesday new versions of Create, its three-in-one illustration, page layout and web authoring software, and PStill, its application for converting PostScript files to PDFs, shrinking and combining PDFs and more. In addition, the company has released StampInStone 2.6, the new version of the tool for watermarking PDFs, and TrueBlue 2.2, an update to a TrueType/OpenType to PostScript Type 1 font converter. All four are free upgrades for existing users.
Create 11.4.2 adds several new features, including the ability to create PDFs of graphics embedded invisibly with native Create format, so that you can import it back into Create for further editing. In addition, you can now drop Microsoft Word .doc files into a page layout to create a chainable text area, outline plain text and use other new styles and more. PStill 3.4’s new additions include the ability to create CMYK and spot color separation plates from a PDF, smaller and more uniform PDF output, support for EPS files created with Adobe Acrobat 6.01 and more.
Both applications are part of Stone Design’s Stone Studio, which includes several other tools aimed at graphics professionals. It retails for US$299 and all the software in the suite runs on Mac OS X v10.0 or higher. On their own, Create is $149 and PStill is $69.
StampInStone 2.6 and TrueBlue 2.2, however, are not part of Stone Studio. The former adds the ability to handle more non-conforming PDFs and better detection of a PDF’s actual first page. The latter now automatically installs into PStill and does a better job of converting such fonts as HelveticaNeue, Celtic Border and Dark Horse. StampInStone is a $49 application while TrueBlue is free. You can download 30-day trial versions of all Stone Design software from the company’s Web site.