Advent 3B2 Releases 3B2-FO XSL-FO Rendering Tool

Advent 3B2 Launches 3B2-FO, A New XSL-FO Rendering Tool, At Seybold San Francisco 2003

San Francisco, CA, USA. September 9, 2003.

Advent 3B2, a leading supplier of standards-based publishing software, is announcing a new, quality-oriented, Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Object (XSL-FO) rendering engine called 3B2-FO here at Seybold San Francisco 2003.

Advent 3B2-FO software has been singled out as a Hot Pick by the editorial staff of The Seybold Report: Analyzing Publishing Technologies, as a product that should not be missed on the show floor. A market preview release of the software is being demonstrated in the Advent 3B2 pavilion #1037 on the Seybold San Francisco show floor.

Advent 3B2-FO software supports both simplified yet flexible document production workflows for adding composition and page formatting information to XML documents so they can be printed. In operation 3B2-FO takes either ready-made XSL-FO files containing layout and formatting data, or files containing raw XML content plus an XSLT transformation script, and converts them into printable Postscript or PDF files.

Advent 3B2-FO software was developed in accordance with the W3C XSL 1.0 Recommendation of October 15, 2001. In addition to providing compliance with the W3C XSL-FO specification, the software engine includes a number of additional functions that provide extended composition and page layout controls. These will give users more versatile document formatting capabilities resulting in higher quality document aesthetics.

The additional capabilities in 3B2-FO include controls over vertical justification on a page, extensive hyphenation controls, and the ability to add crop marks and registration marks to a page. Hyphenation features include the ability to specify the number of characters in words that can be hyphenated, the ability to prevent hyphenation at the end of a block and to use caps to keep capitalized words together, spacing controls (plus and minus) for letter and word spacing of text. Advent intends to add additional extended functionality to 3B2-FO over time.

"We announced our intention to develop an XSL-FO rendering tool last year at our annual International Conference in Atlanta,"comments George Punton, President of Advent Publishing Systems. "We believe that publishers of XML documents will appreciate the advantages 3B2-FO delivers in terms of expanded functionality and the ability to produce higher quality documents compared to the other engines on the market. Should they eventually require even more comprehensive composition and pagination formatting capabilities, our high-end 3B2 software which is also fully XML compliant, is a logical upgrade path."

3B2-FO is based on the composition and pagination formatting capabilities of Advent's 3B2 professional publishing software which has been in use in high end STM journal, legal, financial, book, and technical documentation publishing environments worldwide for over 16 years. Because it is based on this mature foundation, Advent expects its 3B2-FO software will provide an unprecedented level of performance and reliability.

Pricing and Availability

A market preview version of 3B2-FO software is now available for downloading from the Advent web site http://www.3b2.com. Users are welcome to send feedback about this version to feedback@3b2-fo.com.

Advent expects to finalize and release 3B2-FO software on October 31, 2003, just prior to the opening of the Advent International Conference in Coral Springs, FL November 9-12, 2003. At that time Advent will release a free 30-day evaluation version of the software, plus a full, standard version priced at $150 ($75 for current Advent customers with paid maintenance agreements).

The 30-day trial version 3B2-FO will provide full functionality but will place a 3B2 logo watermark and footer on each page produced. Users of the evaluation version will be able to upgrade to the standard version within 30 days of initial download of the product for $100 ($75 for current Advent customers).

Both versions provide standalone, single user operation. In the future, Advent is considering developing a professional version of 3B2-FO with additional functionality as well as versions that support server and scaleable server operation.

The initial release of 3B2-FO supports both PDF and Postscript output formats. Further output formats such as SVG/TIFF/JPEG are being considered for inclusion in future versions of the product.

About Advent Publishing Systems

3B2, Advents cutting edge publishing software leads the way in embracing the latest SGML/XML standards. The incorporation of these standards complimented by the continual innovation of ground breaking new features makes 3B2 the preferred choice for the most demanding publishing challenges.

Advents global customer base includes The European Parliament, Boeing, GlaxoSmithKline, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Bertelsmann and the Canadian House of Commons.

The Advent Group consists of Advent Publishing Systems UK (the parent company), Advent 3B2 GmbH (Germany), and Advent 3B2 Inc.(USA).

More information about Advent 3B2 is available at www.3b2.com

Contact

Arlene E. Karsh
Kismet Marketing & Communications
57 Alma Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel: +1 (617) 489-1235
Fax: +1 (309) 414-2778
Mobile: +1 (781) 608-0726
Email: akarsh11@comcast.net

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See also (1) the FAQ document; (2) "XSL/XSLT Software Support."

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Advent 3B2-FO software has been singled out as a Hot Pick by the editorial staff of The Seybold Report: Analyzing Publishing Technologies, as a product that should not be missed on the show floor. A market preview release of the software is being demonstrated in the Advent 3B2 pavilion #1037 on the Seybold San Francisco show floor. Advent 3B2-FO software supports both simplified yet flexible document production workflows for adding composition and page formatting information to XML documents so they can be printed. In operation 3B2-FO takes either ready-made XSL-FO files containing layout and formatting data, or files containing raw XML content plus an XSLT transformation script, and converts them into printable Postscript or PDF files. Advent 3B2-FO software was developed in accordance with the W3C XSL 1.0 Recommendation of October 15, 2001. In addition to providing compliance with the W3C XSL-FO specification, the software engine includes a number of additional functions that provide extended composition and page layout controls. These will give users more versatile document formatting capabilities resulting in higher quality document aesthetics. The additional capabilities in 3B2-FO include controls over vertical justification on a page, extensive hyphenation controls, and the ability to add crop marks and registration marks to a page. Hyphenation features include the ability to specify the number of characters in words that can be hyphenated, the ability to prevent hyphenation at the end of a block and to use caps to keep capitalized words together, spacing controls (plus and minus) for letter and word spacing of text. Advent intends to add additional extended functionality to 3B2-FO over time. "We announced our intention to develop an XSL-FO rendering tool last year at our annual International Conference in Atlanta,"comments George Punton, President of Advent Publishing Systems. "We believe that publishers of XML documents will appreciate the advantages 3B2-FO delivers in terms of expanded functionality and the ability to produce higher quality documents compared to the other engines on the market. Should they eventually require even more comprehensive composition and pagination formatting capabilities, our high-end 3B2 software which is also fully XML compliant, is a logical upgrade path." 3B2-FO is based on the composition and pagination formatting capabilities of Advent's 3B2 professional publishing software which has been in use in high end STM journal, legal, financial, book, and technical documentation publishing environments worldwide for over 16 years. Because it is based on this mature foundation, Advent expects its 3B2-FO software will provide an unprecedented level of performance and reliability. Pricing and Availability A market preview version of 3B2-FO software is now available for downloading from the Advent web site http://www.3b2.com. Users are welcome to send feedback about this version to feedback@3b2-fo.com. Advent expects to finalize and release 3B2-FO software on October 31, 2003, just prior to the opening of the Advent International Conference in Coral Springs, FL November 9-12, 2003. At that time Advent will release a free 30-day evaluation version of the software, plus a full, standard version priced at $150 ($75 for current Advent customers with paid maintenance agreements). The 30-day trial version 3B2-FO will provide full functionality but will place a 3B2 logo watermark and footer on each page produced. Users of the evaluation version will be able to upgrade to the standard version within 30 days of initial download of the product for $100 ($75 for current Advent customers). Both versions provide standalone, single user operation. In the future, Advent is considering developing a professional version of 3B2-FO with additional functionality as well as versions that support server and scaleable server operation. The initial release of 3B2-FO supports both PDF and Postscript output formats. Further output formats such as SVG/TIFF/JPEG are being considered for inclusion in future versions of the product. About Advent Publishing Systems 3B2, Advents cutting edge publishing software leads the way in embracing the latest SGML/XML standards. The incorporation of these standards complimented by the continual innovation of ground breaking new features makes 3B2 the preferred choice for the most demanding publishing challenges. Advents global customer base includes The European Parliament, Boeing, GlaxoSmithKline, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Bertelsmann and the Canadian House of Commons. The Advent Group consists of Advent Publishing Systems UK (the parent company), Advent 3B2 GmbH (Germany), and Advent 3B2 Inc.(USA). More information about Advent 3B2 is available at www.3b2.com Contact Arlene E. Karsh Kismet Marketing & Communications 57 Alma Avenue Belmont, MA 02478 Tel: +1 (617) 489-1235 Fax: +1 (309) 414-2778 Mobile: +1 (781) 608-0726 Email: akarsh11@comcast.net Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See also (1) the FAQ document; (2) "XSL/XSLT Software Support."