BusinessWire
March 13, 2006 05:00 AM US Pacific Timezone

Public Beta of Adobe XMP Toolkit Now Available to Open Source Community on Adobe Labs; Complex Design and Publishing Workflows Made More Efficient Through Use of Metadata Technology Across Diverse Applications and Systems

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2006--Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the public beta of Adobe(R) XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) Toolkit Version 4.0, a pre-release of the company's industry-standard file labeling technology. Based on open source technology, the new beta toolkit contains Adobe XMP libraries that provide third party software developers and industry partners with standards-based building blocks to develop optimized workflow products, taking the heavy lifting out of metadata integration in a new generation of design and publishing applications and systems. By utilizing Adobe XMP, desktop applications and back-end publishing systems gain a common method for capturing, sharing and leveraging valuable file information for more efficient job processing, workflow automation and data rights management processes.

"The sophisticated file handler libraries in this prerelease version of the XMP Toolkit provide new elements required to power publishing automation workflows," said Mark Hilton, vice president of Creative Suites at Adobe. "Design and publishing is a collaborative process among the creatives and publishers who deliver content and companies like Adobe that create the products relied on across creative workflows. By integrating Adobe XMP, companies can deliver products and systems that reduce production costs, eliminate errors and improve production cycle times for their customers."

This beta of the Adobe XMP Toolkit provides the new ability to consistently add metadata to popular image, document and video file formats so that assets become more intelligent by carrying critical status and standards information. For example, these smart assets can deliver information, such as price and SKU data within a product photograph file and then deliver it into an automated page-layout system based on Adobe(R) InDesign(R) Server CS2. Here the product metadata can surface as a caption visible underneath the product image in the final print catalog layout.

The new file handling capabilities of Adobe XMP Toolkit Version 4.0 add features that enable consistent metadata workflow across Adobe products and partner solutions. With this beta version, developers gain a centralized view of XMP data through Adobe Bridge, the navigational control center at the heart of key Adobe creative solutions such as Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Adobe Production Studio.

"Many system vendors rely upon standards developed and maintained by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) -- including the IPTC Core which is based on Adobe XMP -- to capture metadata across their workflows," said Stephane Guerillot, chairman of the IPTC. "People have been asking about software tools that will allow them to read and write our metadata properties in XMP elements that are embedded in image files. The prerelease of the Adobe XMP Toolkit will make it easier for partners to be compliant when deploying our standard for use with Adobe software and partner solutions."

Pricing and Availability

The XMP Toolkit Version 4.0 Prerelease is available for Windows (Visual Studio 2005) and Macintosh (Xcode 2.2) platforms as a free download from the Adobe Labs Web site, at http://labs.adobe.com/xmp, where regular updates to the software will be posted. Additional information about Adobe XMP is available at www.adobe.com/xmp.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

(C) 2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, InDesign and XMP are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners