BeatWare Brings Professional Graphics Capabilities to the BeOS(r)
For Immediate Release
Monday, March 8, 1999
Contact: Karen Cassel
BeatWare, Inc.
karen@beatware.com
650-556-7906
Redwood City, CA - March 8, 1999 -- BeatWare, Inc., the leader in
software development for the BeOS(r), today announced e-Picture(tm),
its professional solution for creating dynamic web graphics.
e-Picture is the first professional graphics application to be
developed for the modern Be Operating System. Under development for
the past eighteen months, e-Picture has been created to meet the
specific needs of graphic designers producing content for the Web.
"The heavyweight tools currently used to produce web graphics were
originally designed for the print publishing industry and simply
aren't the right tools to create small, animated, color-safe images
efficiently," said Karen Cassel, VP of Sales and Marketing for
BeatWare, Inc. "Designers waste hours moving files back and forth
between multiple publishing applications in order to achieve the
desired effect in a form suitable for the web. e-Picture cuts
production time in half by bringing together all the elements of web
graphic production, including drawing, painting, text manipulation,
animation and compression into one professional tool."
Seamless Integration of Vectors and Bitmaps Provides Greater Editing
Flexibility The choice between creating original artwork using vector
or bitmap tools has troubled graphic designers for years. Both have
their advantages. Because vector graphics are described to the
computer rather than actually drawn, changing the size, shape,
placement, and color is fairly easy. Bitmaps, while not easily
edited, offer the advantage of being able to receive photographic
type filters.
With e-Picture, BeatWare has achieved something other companies have
failed to attain for years, the seamless integration of bitmaps and
vectors. This modern technology provides users with the ability to
create original artwork with the editable properties of vectors, and
the photographic properties of bitmaps. Users can draw and edit
shapes, objects and text with any one of e- Picture's customizable
brushes or drawing tools, apply a number of built-in filters, and
return to edit the underlying object. No other graphic application
available today has this power.
Broadcast Quality GIF Animation
e-Picture 1.0 includes advanced technology which empowers designers
to quickly and intuitively create broadcast quality GIF animations
from just two original frames. Replacing the tedious frame by frame
approach currently used, e-Picture offers designers the luxury of
creating animations by simply noting an object's initial and final
positions. e-Picture will automatically generate any number of
intermediate frames, depending on the user specifications for final
file size.
"e-Picture takes the tedium out of producing, and updating animated
web graphics. Because e-Picture includes a complete set of both
vector and bitmap tools, designers have the freedom to edit, change
or replace any object in any animation at any time," said John
Barman, BeatWare's Director of Product Marketing. "Before e-Picture,
even a simple text change forced the designer to recreate the
animation from scratch. Now, it can all be done from within e
-Picture in just a few seconds."
Imported 3-D Models Add Perspective and Dimension to Animation A
designer's job is to make their banners and graphics rise above the
noise on the web. One way to grab a viewer's attention is to create
an animation so life-like, the viewer can't help but be drawn in.
e-Picture is the only web graphic application that enables a designer
to import, transform and animate Lightwave 3-D models. The final
output is a compressed animated GIF that can be easily viewed under
any web browser.
Multiple Views and Live Updating Facilitate File Compression One of
the biggest challenges of creating web graphics is finding that
optimal balance between file size and image quality. Since print
publishing is concerned about image quality but not file size, the
existing tools do little to help the designer with this dilemma. The
only option designers have had is to relinquish control of file size
and image quality to a file compression utility. e-Picture uses the
live updating capabilities of the BeOS to enable designers to create
an image and simultaneously view it in various color depths and file
formats. Control of color reduction and dithering are put back into
the designer's hands, at the beginning of the design process.
Automatically Generated JavaScript Enhances Web Pages with Visual
Interactivity Rollover buttons and other visual feedback enhances a
viewer's experience and facilitates site navigation. Before
e-Picture, designers had to create multiple states for each button,
and hand write the JavaScript code to produce the interactivity. With
e-Picture, designers need only create one button, select a
second-state effect such as glow or dim, and drop the automatically
generated code right into their HTML script. The result is an
interactive web page in a fraction of the time.
Short Learning Curve with Customizable User Interface Designers
experienced with other print or web publishing software applications
will immediately be able to transfer their skills to e-Picture,
thanks to a revolutionary gesture recognition technology from
Sensiva, Inc. Integrated with e-Picture, Sensiva(tm) allows designers
to execute commands simply by drawing symbols with their mouse or
graphic tablet. Draw an O to open a document, sketch a Z to zoom,
scrawl an S to save, etc. The immediate results are a very short
learning curve and ultra fast access to e-Picture's features. Users
can also customize Sensiva and easily create their own macros and
symbols.
Pricing and Availability
e-Picture, which requires the BeOS Release 4 or better, will be available in
May, 1999, for an estimated street price of $149. A beta version of e-Picture
will be available for download from the BeatWare website at http://
www.beatware.com in April, 1999.
About BeatWare
BeatWare, Inc. specializes in the design and development of essential
productivity and creativity software applications for the modern Be
Operating
System. Additional information on BeatWare and its products is available on
the company website at http://www.beatware.com, via e-mail at
info@beatware.com, or by calling BeatWare's Redwood City headquarters
at 650-
556-7900.
About Be
Be, Incorporated, founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gasse, is a software company
focusing on building new foundations for the next generation of
digital content and media design tools. With a team of
industry-leading engineers and
business executives in the United States and Europe, the company is dedicated
to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and
delivering a new level of price performance on both personal
computers and internet appliances. In 1997, Be published the first
public release of the Be Operating System (BeOS(r)), the core product
of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is
available online at http://www.be.com/. Be, Inc. is headquartered in
Menlo Park, California.
About Sensiva
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Sensiva, Inc. is a
software company focusing on intuitive control of PCs and intelligent
appliances. Its
mission is to provide the best solutions for enhancing the speed and
the pleasure of controlling PCs and electronic devices. Additional
information on
Sensiva is available on line at http://www.sensiva.com.
