SoftCare today announced the availability of version 5.1 of the K4 Publishing System, the most widely used professional publishing solution for InDesign-based workflows. The new version includes improved support for regional editions and multi-language publications, email notification of assignments, improved deadline management and much more. With virtual layouts for issue planning integration and object rules for connecting digital asset management systems, version 5.1 expands the range of workflow setups with K4 and provides better overall integration into publishing enterprise environments.
(PRWEB) January 26, 2005 -- SoftCare today announced the availability of version 5.1 of the K4 Publishing System, the most widely used professional publishing solution for InDesign-based workflows. The new version includes improved support for regional editions and multi-language publications, email notification of assignments, improved deadline management and much more. With virtual layouts for issue planning integration and object rules for connecting digital asset management systems, version 5.1 expands the range of workflow setups with K4 and provides better overall integration into publishing enterprise environments.
In K4 version 5.1, each frame in an InDesign document can contain multiple variations of text, images, ads or multimedia content, dramatically increasing the flexibility of K4 and its adaptability to different types of publications. All variants share the same layout geometry, making it easy to manage multi-language publications or regional editions and to keep file sizes small. Each text variant can be checked out and edited by a separate user in InCopy. When it is necessary to create different versions of the overall design for the same content, K4 allows InDesign layers to be used to create design variants.
"Today, ad agencies maintain several layout files for the same brochure in order to handle different language versions. Or they keep all language versions on different layers of the same file, leading to bloated file size", explains Andreas Schrader, managing director at SoftCare. "With K4 version 5.1, we provide a mechanism that allows them to bring down file size and save tremendous amounts of time. Changes to the position or size of a frame need to be executed only once, instead of once on every layer or on several files. This will be very important to agencies in a competitive environment as well as for newspapers and magazines that publish regional editions."
K4 version 5.1 allows data from ad layout, page planning, and asset management systems to be sent to K4 directly via XML as object rules. K4 can read and interpret these rules to build layouts and/or place objecty dynamically, then send back information about the placed files and page status—as well as JPG previews of InDesign pages—to the integrated system. Object rules for images or multimedia objects can be sent to K4 from asset management systems or image databases in exactly the same way. K4 saves metadata on the use of an image—including ist scale, rotation, offset and shear—and can transfer this information to other systems. Page and object rules can be used to automate an almost unlimited number of layout tasks in K4, such as controlling page counts and auto-populating layouts with specific image objects from other databases.
Creation of PDF files, preflighting, packaging or printing of InDesign files can be automated with a third-party tool. Jobs are triggered automatically based on status or other metadata information. After document processing, the result is sent back to K4, including any error messages. This way, K4 users can see whether a job was processed successfully directly in InDesign.
Other new features include:
- K4 Query palettes can now show the number of characters, words, lines, and amount of overset or underset for every text object
- For every number, date or time metadata field, up to three colors can be associated with a speficic value or value range for highlighting metadata fields in K4 palettes, e.g. for deadline management
- K4 supports automatic email notification of assignments with customized message content to users
- Override checkout allows users to undo checkout of a file by another user
- User names and colors for the Notes and Track Changes features in InDesign and InCopy automatically set per user login
- K4 Query palette contents can be exported for printing or other uses
- Enhanced layout preview in K4 Query palettes displays all pages and corresponding InCopy articles, text objects and variants
- Optional checkout of InCopy files without geometry for fast check-out
- Optimized check-in process of layouts for greater speed
- A time stamp can be used to automatically advance previous, current and next issue to the next values
A more detailed list of new features is available at http://www.SoftCare.de.
Availability
K4 Publishing System 5.1 is available now for Mac OS X and Windows. Its versatile, TCP/IP-based SQL database can run on OS X server, Windows XP/2000/2003 server, Linux and Sun Solaris. A list of K4 integrators in Europe and the Americas can be found at:
http://www.K4PublishingSystem.com.
About K4 Publishing System
The award-winning K4 Publishing System has become the standard for professional publishing workflows built around Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy. With its multilevel security controls, ease of use, and robust customization options, K4 supports a transparent and secure production workflow for individual workgroups or entire publishing enterprises. K4 offers full support for template-based text-driven and layout-driven workflows, simultaneous workflow between layout and editorial, workflow routing, status tracking, remote access and much more. K4 provides workflow capabilities for images and ads, as well as for other file types such as word processing or spreadsheet files. One of the hallmarks of K4 is its open SQL interface, enabling other systems such as asset management or automated prepress to be linked to K4 within the enterprise. Articles are stored in XML format and can be easily repurposed for use on the Web. K4 has been successfully implemented at magazine, newspaper and book publishing sites ranging in size from 10 to more than 250 users.
About SoftCare
SoftCare was founded in 1990 and is a leading developer of workflow solutions for the publishing industry, helping magazine and newspaper publishers work more efficiently. SoftCare's flagship product is the award-winning K4 Publishing System, the first editorial system for professional publishing workflows based on Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy. SoftCare teams up with trained K4 System Integrators throughout Europe and the Americas to ensure high-quality services and support for the system on a local level.
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