New Canon Publishing Suite Offers Professional Power Without High Price, Learning Curve

COSTA MESA, Calif., (September 27, 1999) -- Canon Software Publishing (CSP), a division of Canon Computer Systems, Inc., today announced Canon Publishing Suite -- a complete set of publishing, illustrating and photo editing tools seamlessly integrated for maximum productivity. Canon Publishing Suite gives computer users the power of a professional design program without the high price or learning curve. The software suite is designed to grow with the user; its scalable designs let users get started right away, and its wealth of features provide for unlimited creativity. Canon Publishing Suite includes Canon Publisher, Canon Draw, Canon Photo Editor, Canon 3D Text, Canon Web Publisher and Canon Screen Grab.

"Canon realized the need for a desktop publishing program which provided more power and control than popular, but limiting, template-driven publishers which hinder creativity," said Kevin Reilly, senior manager of marketing at CSP. "Canon Publishing Suite brings the power and creativity of freehand publishing to novices and provides more features at an affordable price."

Canon Publishing Suite first presents users with three options to create unique documents - freehand publishing, templates and wizards called Page Pilots. Regardless of the approach, online help is always available in an adjustable on-screen help window which answers questions and walks users through common tasks. Users will not need to hunt for information they need to complete the task or project at hand. Topics include everything from "How do I create a text box?" to "How do I draw freehand lines?" The help screen anticipates a user's potential questions and presents items based on the current actions being performed.

For novice users, Canon Publishing Suite includes hundreds of templates. Finding the appropriate template is simple. Users can browse through categories, such as business cards, newsletters or Web pages, to find an appropriate starting point. In addition, Canon Publishing Suite contains a number of Page Pilots that walk users step-by-step through the creation of a document. Designed for teaching new users the principles and jargon of desktop publishing, these wizards include Web pages, flyers and calendars.

Canon Publishing Suite is a frame-based desktop publisher, meaning that each design element on a page exists in its own moveable "frame." In an effort to make desktop publishing more intuitive and simplify the creation of documents, Canon Publishing Suite does not rely on frame "modes" as most desktop publishers do. Canon Publishing Suite allows frames to contain either text or pictures or both. Additionally, when users click on a frame they can edit the content immediately without having to first select a specific text tool. Frames can be placed on a page in any shape (freehand shape tools are included) or color (including Pantone colors). Canon Publishing Suite lets users effortlessly manage the massive amount of choices as well. For example, one right mouse click on a frame will let users access Frame Properties, a single dialog box that controls the size, shape and background appearance of a frame.

Unlike most entry-level desktop publishing programs, Canon Publishing Suite will include textures or photographs as a backdrop to a frame, rotate photos and vector images and flip them to create mirror images, convert all white pixels in a bitmap to transparent and un-group vector graphics so that they can be edited and colored. For example, a realtor may use a property photograph as the backdrop to a house description and then change the white space around a clip art image to transparent so the property photo is visible behind it. And, Canon Publishing Suite boasts 50 levels of undo and redo controls. Canon Publishing Suite also creates Design Snippets, the ability to store and re-use design elements. If a business owner creates a customized map, the map can be saved as a Design Snippet to be used in the future without re-creating the map each time it is needed.

Text flow tools provide precise control when linking text through multiple frames in a document. Stories can flow to the next or from the previous frame, and a special tool will remove a frame from a flow sequence without deleting the text inside it. Text flow makes it easy to split stories onto different pages in documents like newsletters. Other text features include advanced header and footer tools, automatic date fields, page and frame breaks, drop caps, text numbering, automatic spell checking and a thesaurus.

Tables present information effectively but are often difficult to create and manage. Unlike most other desktop publishers, Canon Publishing Suite produces extremely versatile tables which can be linked across multiple frames and pages, colored with backgrounds and border styles, and edited by adding and removing rows and columns. Linking tables across multiple frames is a quick way to create items, such as a company directory, when there are too many rows to fit on a single page. Text within the tables can be effortlessly updated using paragraph editing tools and figures can be produced using auto sum fields.

Printing finished projects is simple with Canon Publishing Suite. Users have the option of printing multiple pages on a single sheet and can choose to print in reverse order or on both sides of the paper. Canon Publishing Suite fully supports mail merges; Microsoft Access, Excel and FoxPro files can be quickly imported and used in the Address Book. Using Canon Publishing Suite's Address Book will simplify tasks like mailing personalized holiday cards to a customer list. Canon Publishing Suite also has the ability to work with commercial printers; the software can convert files into four-color separations, the format needed for printing at a professional print shop. The Contents Box shows all the text and graphics files imported into a document as well so users can quickly identify and save all the elements included in their project.

Canon Web Publisher
Converting documents designed with Canon Publishing Suite into Web-based documents is simple. Export To Web converts entire Canon Publishing Suite documents into HTML Web pages. Export To Web places each graphic element and each HTML page into a folder which is ready for Web upload.

Using Canon Web Publisher, users can quickly send the finished document to a personal home page or as an e-mail attachment1. Canon provides each user with 5 MB of free, private, personal Web space². Canon Web Publisher also gives the user the ability to set up an address book with names and email addresses. The program will automatically inform the selected names on the address book that an item is available for them to see and give them the necessary URL to connect to the document.

Canon Draw
Canon Publishing Suite includes Canon Draw, a vector-based illustration program. Users can move seamlessly between Canon Publisher and Canon Draw. By integrating Canon Draw into the layout software, Canon Publishing Suite reduces the number of steps to complete a task and avoids interrupting the creative process by launching a separate program. With Canon Draw, users can draw and edit lines, shapes, text and graphics with a full range of control features including tools for rotation, skewing, coloring and alignment. Canon Draw supports 50 levels of undo and redo and includes many categories of clip art images.

Canon Photo Editor & Canon 3D Text
Canon Photo Editor and Canon 3D Text are seamlessly integrated into Canon Publishing Suite. Canon Photo Editor gives designers control over basic photo attributes including brightness, contrast, sharpness, smoothness, cropping and rotation. To help users achieve the effects they want, both "before" and "after" viewing are simultaneous in the editing window. Canon Publishing Suite includes Canon Screen Grab, an easy-to-use screen capture program.

The Canon 3D Text tools in Canon Publishing Suite give users complete control over the appearance of text in a document. Canon 3D Text can customize a headline or block of text by color, direction of gradient fills, highlight intensity and source, angle of view, shadow intensity and skew, kerning and leading.

Pricing & Availability
Canon Publishing Suite will be available in September 1999 through major retail chains for an estimated street price of $89.95³. A competitive upgrade mail-in rebate will be valid for 30-days after product purchase offering $40 to users of leading desktop publishing programs who opt to purchase Canon Publishing Suite.

System Requirements
Minimum system requirements for running Canon Publishing Suite include an IBM-compatible PC with a Pentium 120 MHz processor or better; Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system; a CD-ROM drive for installation; a minimum of 32 MB RAM; 125MB MB of free hard disk space; an SVGA/256 color display (800x600); and a mouse or other pointing device. Canon Publishing Suite works with most PC-compatible inkjet, Bubble Jet and laser printers.

Customer Service and Customer Technical Support
Canon Software Publishing offers a full range of customer technical support⁴ options: e-mail and Web Site (FAQ's) via the CSP Web site at www.software.canon.com. For 24 hour, 7 day-a-week technical support, a customer can call (757) 413-2855 for fax-back support or to talk with a customer care technician (8 a.m. - 10 p.m. Monday - Friday, EST). Regular customer support is free for the first 30 days. After 30 days, paid support is available.

About Canon Software Publishing
Canon Software Publishing (CSP) is a division of Canon Computer Systems Inc., which is a subsidiary of both Canon U.S.A. Inc. (Lake Success, NY) and Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). The division, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., was founded in 1998 to develop, publish and distribute computer software primarily in North and South America. CSP publishes titles from both independent third-party developers and associated Canon companies. Canon is recognized as the world's leading imaging technology company, a leader in printer technology and a top worldwide patent holder. As a global technology leader, Canon achieved $24 billion in worldwide sales in 1998.

Canon is a registered trademark and Bubble Jet is a trademark of Canon Inc. All other products and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
¹ Internet access must be purchased separately and may require a payment of a monthly fee.
² Currently items will be posted for 30 days at no charge.
³ Prices are estimates only. Dealer prices may vary and are subject to change at any time.
⁴ Support program specifics subject to change.
Product specifications and features subject to change without notice.