Adobe Systems and 26 OEMs unite to develop high performance production printing architecture; Adobe SUPRA architecture to set standard for high-end printing.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 1996--Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) today furthered its commitment to the high-end printing and emerging demand printing industry by announcing a new production printing architecture, code-named SUPRA.

Adobe has formed an unprecedented technology team of twenty-six industry leading printer original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate on the evolution of SUPRA. SUPRA will integrate the Adobe(R) PostScript(R) language and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) standards for OEMs developing products for customers in the high-end, production print market. Customers, including a range of high-end print system end-users, will benefit from Adobe's SUPRA alliance with products based on a standard high-performance print architecture combined with the benefits of PDF.

Adobe will work initially with some of the industry's most successful OEMs to develop Adobe SUPRA. OEMs announcing their support for Adobe SUPRA include: Agfa-Gevaert Group; BARCO Graphics N.V.; Colorbus, Inc.; Crosfield Electronics Ltd.; Digital Equipment Corporation; DuPont Printing & Publishing; Eastman Kodak Company Office Imaging; Electronics for Imaging, Inc.; Escher-Grad Technologies, Inc.; IBM Printing Systems Company; IPT, Inc.; Indigo N.V.; Lincoln & Co.; Linotype-Hell AG; Management Graphics, Inc.; Monotype Systems Ltd.; PrePRESS Solutions; Scangraphic PrePress Technology GmbH, Germany; Screen and Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.; Scitex Corporation; Silicon Graphics, Inc.; Splash; Sun Microsystems Computer Company; Tektronix, Inc.; Ultimate Technographics Inc.; and Xerox Corporation.

"The publishing industry is at a critical turning point as the technologies for traditional commercial printing, digital printing, and distributed printing over the Internet are all melding," said Charles Geschke, president, Adobe Systems. "As we accomplished with Adobe PostScript technology, we plan to drive a new era in printing and publishing with new technologies such as SUPRA. SUPRA is expected to meet the requirements of today's transitioning printing and publishing market while also offering the flexibility to meet future demands. Adobe and our OEM team members together plan to deliver a solution that meets emerging high-end printing requirements and sets the pace of performance for the global printing and publishing industry."

SUPRA is expected to offer OEMs and customers the most powerful demand printing architecture available. Designed to dramatically improve print system performance, SUPRA intends to allow OEMs to develop high-end printing systems that offer high page rates, handle varying content and integrate prepress and finishing operations. Production printing systems based on Adobe SUPRA will be optimized for the high-end printing needs of a range of customers and will include OEM-developed products such as digital presses, demand printers, color copiers, large format imagesetters, digital proofers and platemakers. The SUPRA architecture will be modular and extensible, and is expected to optimize the high performance capabilities found in the new generation of OEM-developed digital output devices and high-end printing systems.

"The need for a high-end printing standard is very apparent with the overwhelming support Adobe has received from the industry's leading OEMs. We and our OEMs recognize that users are moving towards an on-demand printing scenario, meaning users want to print documents at will," said Geschke. "This new on-demand print scenario is redefining traditional high-end printing, defining digital printing, and shaping how we will utilize tools, such as the Internet, available for printing. As with the Adobe PostScript language and PDF, we plan for SUPRA to become an industry standard for demand printing and will work in alliance with visionary OEMs to push high-end printing to new levels."

The multi-platform SUPRA architecture is comprised of key components including Adobe PostScript software, PostScript language file normalization, page multiprocessing, personalized printing, prepress integration and post-prepress/finishing integration. SUPRA's multi-raster image processor (RIP) system will provide users with dramatic printing system performance enhancements. In addition SUPRA will be based on Adobe Acrobat(R) technology and the industry standard PDF. Adobe's enhanced version of Adobe Acrobat, code named "Amber," plans to offer high-end PDF capabilities and will serve as a critical component in the print production architecture standard of the future. Based on Adobe PDF, SUPRA will offer users new capabilities such as page independence. With the availability of "Amber," prepress, finishing and personalization capabilities will be enabled, along with the ability to view, edit and archive Adobe PDF files.

Based in Mountain View, Calif., Adobe Systems Incorporated is the world's third largest personal computer software company, with 1995 revenue of $762.3 million. The company develops and supports products to help people express and use information in more imaginative and meaningful ways, across all print and electronic media. Founded in 1982, Adobe helped launch the desktop publishing revolution. Today, the company offers a market-leading line of application software and type products for creating and distributing visually rich communication materials; licenses its industry- standard technologies to major hardware manufacturers, software developers, and service providers; and offers integrated software solutions to businesses of all sizes. For more information, see Adobe's home page at http://www.adobe.com on the World Wide Web. -0-

Note to Editors: Adobe, PostScript, and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

CONTACT: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View

Jennifer Polanski, 415/962-2197