Adobe Announces Adobe Photoshop 3.0 for Silicon Graphics Workstations and Sun SPARC/Solaris Workstations; New Version Allows Designers to Utilize the Power of their UNIX Systems Throughout the Entire Image Editing and Production Process.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 1995--Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop(TM) 3.0 for Silicon Graphics(R) and Sun(TM) SPARC(R)/Solaris(R) workstations. Adobe Photoshop 3.0 software offers significant enhancements to the world's leading photo design and production tool while taking full advantage of recent enhancements to both the Silicon Graphics IRIX(R) and Sun's Solaris operating systems. It also delivers extensive compatibility and integration with other Adobe(TM) products, as part of the complete Adobe publishing solution.

Design professionals continue to demand the ability to perform computationally intensive image processing tasks more efficiently. Now these professionals can utilize the enhanced features of Adobe Photoshop 3.0 while taking full advantage of the power of their UNIX(R) systems, resulting in shorter production cycles and significantly lowered costs. Additionally, UNIX systems are optimized to handle large images reliably, so designers can work in one place assuring data integrity throughout the production process. This is especially important to users working in high resolution images and graphics, publishing, film and video, Internet authoring, prepress and computer-aided design (CAD). The UNIX operating environment also provides faster file sharing over the network and the ability to multi-task between projects, which is especially meaningful when working in collaborative production teams.

"Silicon Graphics workstations running Adobe Photoshop 3.0 offer the ideal computer environment for creative professionals to merge their imaging work with the world of 3D and the world wide web," said Tom Furlong, V.P. and General Manager of the Digital Media Systems Division at Silicon Graphics. "Not only is the Indigo Magic user interface graceful and intuitive, but the Indy and Indigo 2 workstations are especially well suited to render efficiently complex images created with Adobe Photoshop 3.0."

"Any user will see substantial benefits running Adobe Photoshop 3.0 on Sun's multi-processing desktop workstations," said Bob Pearson, Director of Workstation Marketing for Sun Microsystems Computer Company. "There is a growing tier of customers with demanding requirements who can't wait to experience Photoshop's new features with the added boost in productivity and throughput of Sun's Solaris multi-tasking environment -- all at an affordable total system cost. Uncompromising digital imaging functionality and performance make Sun workstations the ideal open platform for Photoshop users."

Version 3.0 offers users the ability to work cross-platform since the UNIX, Macintosh(R) and Windows(R) versions of the product share a common feature set, user interface and set of file formats. Production teams in multi-platform environments can freely exchange files without conversion issues. Version 3.0 for UNIX also takes advantage of system scalability, so that users who invest in enhancing the power and value of their hardware system will be rewarded with enhanced performance of their software as a result.

"Photoshop 3.0 for Sun offers the best features of the Macintosh and Windows versions, while taking advantage of the multiprocessing power of UNIX -- all on a platform that is ideal for Internet publishing," said Edward Avila, Vice President of MemoRandom, a Rochester, N.Y., company which specializes in publishing information and advertising on the World Wide Web.

New Features Dramatically Enhance Professional Results

Adobe Photoshop 3.0 software offers UNIX users a broad variety of new features and utilities that provide stronger creative control, improved production capabilities and an even friendlier user interface. Multiple layers greatly increase creative control by allowing users to manipulate elements of an image on separate layers. This feature adds speed and flexibility to the creative process and enables users to experiment more before committing to an image or design idea. Other important new features include an improved interface, customized menu arrangements, color masks to quickly access or edit selections on an image and new filters such as lighting effects to offer more creativity.

"Layers truly do make a tremendous difference in creating interactive worlds on the Internet," said David Marvit, Vice President of Production at Worlds Inc., San Francisco, a leading developer of 3-D interactive multi-user environments on the Internet in a multi-platform environment that includes Silicon Graphics workstations. "The layers in Adobe Photoshop Version 3.0 for Silicon Graphics allow us to generate texture maps that lead to more convincing environments while still maintaining low real-time rendering costs."

License Pricing and CD-ROM Bonus Give High Value

The software package includes the Adobe Photoshop 3.0 program as well as a library of complimentary applications, including the Adobe Acrobat(TM) Reader, and Adobe Show PS(TM). The CD also contains Adobe Photoshop Extras, which include online documentation and technical notes, over 40 plug-in filters, sample textures and backgrounds, and stock art and photography.

New licensing options make Adobe Photoshop more flexible and more affordable for all sizes and types of working environments. For the first time, users can purchase one individual license for $995, a single-user floating license for $1,895, a five-user floating license for $7,595 or a 10-user floating license for $13,495. Registered owners of any previous full retail version of the program may purchase a Version 3.0 single user upgrade for $495. Those purchasing Adobe Photoshop Version 2.5.2 for Sun or Silicon Graphics through the retail channel after Aug. 8, 1995, will receive a free upgrade to Version 3.0. Further information on puchasing is available by calling Adobe Sales at 800/477-8830.

Adobe Photoshop 3.0 for Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations is expected to ship in early Fall 1995.

Optimized for Both Sun and Silicon Graphics Platforms

Silicon Graphics' IRIX operating system, Adobe Photoshop Version 3.0 takes full advantage of the real-time capabilities of the MIPS R4000 processor. Asynchronous I/O allows for direct throughput of data between disk and memory. This substantially enhances performance on large files and other computationally intensive graphic operations.

On Sun SPARCstations, Adobe Photoshop Version 3.0 offers continued support for multi-threading and multi-processor capabilities. In single processor Sun systems, the multi-threaded architecture provides maximum CPU utilization and efficiency by overlapping I/O requests with computational tasks. In multi-processor configurations, Adobe Photoshop software provides near-linear performance gains for most operations with the addition of each processor.

The Company

Adobe Systems, founded in 1982, is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. Adobe develops, markets and supports computer software products and technologies that enable users to create, display, print and communicate electronic documents. The company licenses its technology to major computer, printing, and publishing suppliers, and markets a line of applications software and type products for authoring visually rich documents. Additionally, the company markets a line of powerful, but easy to use, products for home and small business users. Adobe has subsidiaries in Europe and the Pacific Rim serving a worldwide network of dealers and distributors. Adobe's 1994 revenue was approximately $598 million. -0-

Note to Editors: Acrobat, Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Show PS are trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries, and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc., Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Sun is a trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc. Solaris is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc., which has not tested or approved this product. SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International Inc. Silicon Graphics and IRIX are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. All other product and company names are the trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Adobe Systems, Inc., Mountain View

Carol Sacks, 415/962-4989

http://www.adobe.com

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William Boehlke, 415/772-8411

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