NEWS
For Immediate Release
For more information, please contact:
Katie Graunke
505-345-4800
Stone Design Ships C R E A T E (tm) 5.0
San Jose, California - May 11, 1998 - Longtime OpenStep and now Rhapsody developers, Stone Design, announced that Create 5, the powerful draw studio and web page maker has shipped for Apple Yellow Box, Rhapsody Developer Release and OpenStep today. This release (B5) incorporates numerous new features and bug fixes.
Create is the all-in-one drawing and web page production application that has been shipping on NeXTSTEP for over 8 years. Create has the power and features that graphic designers need to make professional web pages, flyers, letterheads and much more.
Stone Design is offering a 180 Day free trial period on this release (good through February 8th, 1999), beginning today. Downloading is available now.
Some of the new features in Create 5 include:
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* Automatic antialiasing of graphics and EPS files (Rhapsody)
Create ultra-smooth JPEG graphics using the antialias feature.
This can be set on a per graphic basis, and a new preference
switch can determine whether new objects have the
smoothing or not.
* Animator now produces GIF movies which can be turned into animated GIFs
automatically with a new, included Applet called "GIFfun"
You can edit the animations parameters in GIFfun, and
quickly include these movies into your Create HTML docs.
* More HTML options:
- Option to output current page only
- Option to inhibit production of graphics
- Source and destination anchors
- Control-click a graphic to go to its URL or local addres
- Option to produce larger/smaller fontsizes
- Clean HTML which works perfectly on IE and Netscape
- Drag URLs from OmniWeb as new graphics with links
- Drag URLs into rich text to add that link to the text
- Float graphics in a self-centering table option
- Bigger/smaller fonts switch
- Open local image to be used in HTML production
* A Name Browser to edit all the names of graphics and pages and what
images and web addresses are used in web page production has been
added: Tools->Name Browser...
* SERVICES: convert RTF or ascii from other apps instantly into HTML:
- If you write something in Edit, select it, Services:
Create->Convert to HTML, it replaces your RTF with HTML
* Smart names: Graphics names are now more comprehensible
- Graphics name appears in statusField to show selection
* Option to print background graphics at any transparency
* Drag an image onto the Inspector's "view button" to
automatically load it as the tiled background image.
* Drag out document as RTF file
* See who's using up all the Create licenses on your network:
- use of the updated Licenser Kit has network usage information.
* Updated Icons
* Hundreds of bug fixes
Create 5 has a list price of $695, but is being offered Pre-Customer Release 1 for $249, furthermore, Stone Design offers academic pricing. To upgrade from Create 4.x, please contact Katie Graunke at Stone Design. If you purchased Create 4.x after Feb 12th, 1998, you receive a FREE upgrade. For others, the upgrade price is $59 for regular end users, $39 for academics and students.
For more information about Create, please visit the Stone Design web site.
To reach a human, please call between 9:00am and 5:00pm, MST: 505-345-4800, or try us anytime via email: info@stone.com
Create Features:
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Tools:
* Drawing tools include: Line, Straight Line, Curve,
Arc, Rectangle, Oval, Rounded Rectangle, Bezier Spline,
Spline-Line, Poly Line, Freehand, Brush, Polygon Star,
Interface "Box", Video, Rich Text and Super Text.
* Other types of graphics include: Text bound to a path,
EPS and TIFF images, Groups, Box "Button" Groups, Mask Groups,
Date & Page Markers.
Effects:
Each graphic can contain some or all of the following PostScript effects:
* Outline - set the width, color and visibility of the stroke of an object.
* Neon - Stone's unique Neon feature makes splashing, 3D lines.
* Multiple - each object can be repeated any number of times at any offset.
* Skew - torque and twist objects.
* Shadow - set the color, direction and offset of the object's shadow.
* Shaded Fill - fill objects with blended colors or lines:
across, down, radially.
* Pattern Fill - PS Level II patterns that you create with Pattern Editor.
* Group - Manage complexity by grouping objects. See also Levels below.
* Mask Group - Clip any number of objects to the object on top of them
e.g., fill Super Text with a picture of a sunset.
* Box Group - a grouping technique which puts an interface box
around objects: Make instant WEB BUTTONS!
* Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical.
* Scale - set the vertical and horizontal scaling separately or together.
* Rotate - Using Stone's rotational slider, precisely rotate objects.
* Copy and Paste effects from one graphic to another.
* Color blends: transparent colors, CMYK, RGB, HSB, and Grayscales.
* Name - you can name graphics for ease of selection & editing HTML
* Each graphic can link to a web address
* Store the Effects for instant visual retrieval in the Effects Palette
Precise Design:
* Zoom: Unlimited zoom and custom zooms are remembered.
You can zoom in on an area with CONTROL-SHIFT drag.
* Undo: as many levels of undo and redo as you like - 30 by default.
* Object layering: Bring To Front, Bring Closer, Send to Back,
Send Further, Lock and Unlock.
* Grids: control grid spacing, color, visibility
and "snap-to" independently.
* Rulers: Work in points, picas, inches or centimeters.
* Layers: Each page can be composed of independently nameable,
hideable, lockable layers
* Layout Guides for easy placement of objects.
* Alignment: Align objects to top, bottom, middle, left, center and right.
* Distribution: Distribute objects evenly left to right
and/or top to bottom.
* Nudge: using arrow keys or Nudge inspector, move objects precise amounts.
* Each page can have a background image for tracing or presentation.
* Define default colors of an object's effects.
Text Handling:
2 Text types available: Super Text and Paragraph Text
* Paragraph Text has full support for Rich Text Format:
multifont, multicolor, multi paragraph text.
Sub and superscripting, ligatures, kerning and line spacing.
Spell Checking.
Underline, italics, bold.
Rulers, tabs and indents.
* Super Text: can have all of Create's effects applied to it.
Instantly place along rose, circle, upper or lower arc.
Optional background color.
Support for 2-byte fonts, like Kai-Su.
Convert Super Text to splines.
Place along any path: bind Super Text to Splines or Spline-Lines.
* Convert Super Text to Paragraph Text and vice versa.
Multiple Pages:
* Add, Copy, Paste, Duplicate or Delete pages.
* Reorder pages with easy interface.
* "Play" (continuously loop through) pages.
* Automated pagination with Page Marker.
Splines and Lines:
* Add and delete handles, Join and separate splines and lines.
* Turn objects into splines. Tighten, Loosen and Animate splines.
* Reverse path of splines and polylines.
Automated Web Page Production:
* Document can create a single web page or a group of interconnected pages.
* Automatically builds graphical Table of Contents.
* Creates easy to read HTML which can be edited by hand.
* Optional navigation bars on top and/or bottom of web pages.
* Set the color of the background, text and links
with simple user interface.
* Specify a background image URL.
* Specify any image (local or net) for destination HTML
(such as Animated GIFS)
* Custom HTML:
- Document titles can have a custom prefix, such as the site name,
- add your own custom header and/or footer to each page.
* Set the quality of the JPEG images created for export.
* Automatic use of GIF if preferred or if transparent images are required.
* Configure HTML Preferences per document and per page.
* Drag & drop URL's from OmniWeb for instant links
* Command-Click in any graphic to load the HTTP address or local page
* Anchors: both destination and source anchors are supported.
* Name Browser to quickly name objects & pages.
Import/Export
* Instantly drag out images via Create's unique "Data Well"
* Import EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PICT and native file formats.
* EPS files can be automatically antialiased (Rhapsody)
* Autotrace: converts scanned images to editable graphics.
* Export as EPS, PS, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, Ascii, RTF, HTML,
CreateImage and Create.
* TIFF export: control bit depth, alpha and compression method.
* PNG import/export on Rhapsody
Linking
* Exported EPS can be reimported and edited.
* Embed Create graphics in other documents with Object Linking (MACH)
* Paste and Link other application's graphics and text into Create (MACH)
* True object links with no redundant storage (MACH)
Online Help, Sample Art and Custom Art:
* Context sensitive help
* Online Create Manual
* Online Tutorial
* Sample art provided.
* Your custom art and group art gets loaded as menu items.
* Save your Effects and drag and drop them on other graphics
* Entire searchable manual in HTML available at www.stone.com.
* Suggestion Box to email Stone with your bug reports and suggestions.
* License the product directly from the Application
Expert Features:
* Preferences: customizations that control every aspect of Create.
Configure Create just the way YOU want!
* User PostScript Editor - an environment where you can
write and execute PostScript programs:
Open, execute, modify and save PS files.
Visually set the bounding box of any PostScript.
* Templates: You can create new documents from existing
ones for stationary, forms, etc.
Automatic access to your private and group directories.
* Plug-In Tools Add Dynamically Loaded Plug-Ins as they become available
Video is an example of a Plug-In.
* Animator Module: The animator module allows you to create movies.
- gifAnim: a sequence of GIFs for use in "GIFfun"(TM) by Stone.
- tiffAnim: a sequence of TIFFs for use in various Movie.apps.
* Pattern editor: Create PostScript Level II patterns using all
of the effects and tools. Embeds patterns in your document
for use by others.
And there are more features, but we ran out of room!
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Stone Design Corp. in Albuquerque, New Mexico was formed in 1984 and was the first developer to ship a product on NeXT Hardware in 1989 with the release of TextArt. Since then, Stone Design has been a leader in innovative shrinkwrap software in the NEXTSTEP/OpenStep/Rhapsody marketplace. Create(TM) - the high end drawing and web page making package - is Rhapsody and Apple Yellowbox's first application. All other names are trademarked by their respective companies.
