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Monday, September 23, 1996
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[Image] MAC SMART / CHARLES PILLER
NEXT STORY The Web and the Future of Desktop
[Image] Publishing
[Image]AP By CHARLES PILLER
BUSINESS
ÊÊÊÊÊJudging from Seybold San Francisco,
INTERNET the premier trade show for the desktop
ACADEMY publishing and pre-press industry held
this month, the Internet is well on its
TIMES PICK way to seizing control of desktop
publishing from print. But is it a
SPECIAL friendly takeover or more like the
REPORTS invasion of the body snatchers?
ÊÊÊÊÊ Conference sessions featured a
FRONT PAGE spate of "how to cash in on the Web"
[Image] advice--sorely needed, given how few
NATION & businesses (particularly publishers)
WORLD have cashed in yet. Such technicalities
[Image] aside, just about every product on the
STATE & show floor--from computers to graphics
LOCAL software to scanners to printers--had to
[Image] be Web-ready (perhaps meaning it doesn't
SPORTS crash your system while you're surfing
[Image] the Net) to capture any mind share. Or
BUSINESS & maybe the vendors' minds have been taken
TECHNOLOGY over by cyberspace pods.
[Image] ÊÊÊÊÊ Actually, the Web's hold over
LIFE & Seybold may have a more down-to-earth
STYLE explanation: Netscape and Microsoft. One
[Image] of the few things on which these two
CALENDAR leading browser vendors agree is that
[Image] the future of publishing is the Web.
COMMENTARY That's a shock. To Netscape's hammer,
[Image] every nail looks like the Web; as for
WEEKLY Microsoft, it has never been able to
SECTIONS take control of print publishing from
Apple, so the Web looks promising.
ORANGE ÊÊÊÊÊ
COUNTY ÊÊÊÊÊ In his keynote address, Jonathan
Seybold, the show's founder, anointed
SAN Netscape and Microsoft as the two
FERNANDO leaders of the desktop publishing
VALLEY industry. He may have jumped the gun a
bit. Then again, he could be
VENTURA experiencing anxiety about presiding
COUNTY over a Mac-dominated show in a
Microsoft/Netscape world.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Skeptics raised a few eyebrows
about embracing the Web wholesale, sans
any coherent business plan. But in
fairness, the potential is real; even if
they don't make millions, many
businesses will soon at least save money
by moving operations to the Web.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Where does the Mac, the computer
that created desktop publishing, fit
into all this? It still enjoys the
largest presence in the pre-press and
graphic design worlds, by a wide margin.
Apple has joined the Web joy ride too,
albeit more recently and with less
marketing muscle and clarity of
direction than Netscape or Microsoft.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Apple's approach so far has been
good for you and me. It logically begins
with content creation. The Mac's
traditional superiority--in color
management, typography and support for
output devices--translates well to the
Web. At Seybold, Apple released a faster
version of its ColorSync system
extension--the best way to get
predictable colors across a range of
devices, from digital camera or scanner,
to screen and printer. And Pantone
released its ColorWeb software, a
Mac-only utility that lets you specify a
color for a Web page and know that color
will be represented accurately on any
computer or screen used to view the
page.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Apple is also supplying the Mac
with great Internet navigation and
development tools, such as Cyberdog--a
compilation of small applications that
can browse or search the Web and Usenet
groups; handle e-mail and Internet file
transfers; and manage and organize
sound, pictures and QuickTime movies on
your Mac or over a network. And other
companies' products, such as Adobe's
excellent PageMill Web publisher and
QuarterDeck/StarNine's WebStar server
software, have given the Mac an initial
edge over similar Windows products.
ÊÊÊÊÊ So almost without trying (judging
by Apple's lackadaisical presence at
Seybold; its biggest push on the show
floor, inexplicably, involved advice on
digital branding), the Mac has grabbed
an early disproportionate market share
in Web creation and Web servers.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Even so, the Windows presence in
San Francisco was notable. For the first
time in ages, no one from Apple
participated in the keynote panel. And
in a move that's symbolically troubling,
Adobe will soon release Windows
PageMaker 6.5--a Web-enhanced version of
the seminal product of desktop
publishing--about a month ahead of the
Mac equivalent.
ÊÊÊÊÊ Still, Windows' cyberpods have a
ways to go before they acquire the
publishing franchise. Microsoft Vice
President Brad Chase seemed a little
taken aback when he asked how many
people at his keynote use the Mac.
Nearly every hand went up.
ÊÊÊÊÊ
- - -
Charles Piller (Cpiller@macworld.com) Is
Senior Editor at Macworld Magazine
Copyright Los Angeles Times
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