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My company makes high-end graphics conversion software. I'd appreciate it if
you could give me your opinion on the following concept, related to your
postings on enterprise technical document management (6-29, 7-2):
Our software converts PostScript input to a number of editable vector
formats and bitmap image formats. As you may know, PostScript is a very
robust vector-based metafile format that can be created in virtually every
application there is (since it's a printer file language). This makes it an
ideal format for storing and archiving graphics. One of the advantages is
that you can view and print PostScript graphics without having to open any
specific source application.
So, if a company would store all the technical graphics it creates in a
PostScript archive (including viewing and printing capabilities), they could
use our software to convert them to
- MIF for use in FrameMaker (technical writers are a major customer group
and mostly need to get CAD designs into Frame)
- WMF/EMF for use in MS applications like Word/PowerPoint
- WPG for use in WordPerfect
- HPGL for HP plotting devices
- EPS for use in Photoshop, Illustrator and more
- CGM, which is the ISO-standard in industries like defense, aerospace,
oil&gas
- TIFF for high-quality printing and faxing (and also a defense standard)
- GIF for publication on corporate intranets and websites
(and we'll develop an internet vector format for our next release)
Depending on control issues, our interface could run on every desktop (Win &
Unix) and users in various disciplines could use it to retrieve the
technical drawings they need from the PostScript database and (batch)
convert them to the format they need for their application environment.
My questions:
- is this a concept that companies could base their technical document
management on (or at least the graphics part of it)
- could this exist as a solution by itself (considering that our software
only does the conversions and doesn't have a lot of 'Management' functions)
- if not, what kind of things would need to be developed around our software
to manage workflows, processes etc.
- would some of the vendors you named in your posting benefit if they could
integrate our technology into their solutions
TIA. Contact me off-list if you want. Other reactions are also quite
welcome.
Jeroen Dekker
The Graphics Connection
jeroen -at- square1 -dot- nl
