Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!autodesk.com!autodesk.com!apple.com!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!raffles.technet.sg!solomon.technet.sg!pgeorge From: pgeorge@solomon.technet.sg (George Philip) Newsgroups: comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia Subject: iView and iTools (Multimedia Publishing) Date: 29 Apr 1994 07:29:46 GMT Organization: Technet, Singapore Lines: 68 Message-ID: <2pqd1b$l8o@raffles.technet.sg> NNTP-Posting-Host: solomon.technet.sg X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0] WHAT IS iVIEW ------------- iView is an application for viewing page-oriented multimedia publications. Its most noticeable feature is the animated page turn, where both sides of a page are visible at the same moment. Enhancing the animation's realism is a sound effect of the turning page. Other features of iView are a layout which replaces the usual buttons and pull-down menus with directional borders, and an active cursor, both providing navigational cues. iView publications must be created using a multimedia authoring tool known as iTools, being developed by iMedia (S) Pte Ltd to meet the needs of desktop publishing in the '90's. iTools will include both automatic text indexing, and definition of hypertext links, such as those needed to jump from a contents page to a specific topic. iTools will be available to selected publishers in a beta-release program from October 94, and to end-users beginning in January 95. HOW DOES iTOOLS WORK ? ---------------------- iTools will support a package known as Common Ground from No Hands Software, Inc., one of the leading providers of 'portable document' technology. Using Common Ground, a publisher will output files from their page layout software (eg- PageMaker or QuarkXpress) into 'portable document' files. No Hands calls these files Digital Paper (a trademark), or simply 'DP'. iTools software has the ability to stitch together a variety of media objects, including page layouts in the form of portable documents. iTools will directly read the native DP files created by Common Ground. These files contain not only page layout images, they contain document text as well. iTools will be capable of automatically indexing this text. Once DP files have been imported into an iView publication, iTools provides page layout capabilities not present in even high-end applications: define a master template (eg- indicating page number position) place (any size of) multimedia objects in the pages capture keyframes for video and animation clips anti-alias selected images, and generat a standard palette define article (or chapter) and section breaks create hypertext links (eg- from the table of contents) script the order for automatic playback of multimedia objects The result of using iTools is a publication file which can be browsed with iView. To summarize, the process of creating a publication with iTools is: STEP #1: Layout & create a portable document STEP #2: Import the document into an iView publication STEP #3: Index text, add multimedia, and mix colour palette. CONTACT PERSON -------------- If any further enquiries or interest in this product, please contact: William Claxton Managing Director iMedia (S) Pte Ltd 331 North Bridge Road, #03-06 Odeon Towers Singapore 0718 Tel #: (65) 337-0700 Fax #: (65) 337-0400 Email: williamc@solomon.technet.sg