New Products Give Substantial Production Timeline and Economic Advantages As Evolution to Paperless Workflow Gains Momentum

CHICAGO, IL, (PR Newswire) Sept. 29, 2003 - The next generation of barcode technologies is offering graphics and print professionals vastly more efficient production tools as the industry goal of a totally "paperless workflow" nears.

In a key announcement made at GRAPH EXPO® that will have global impact on the design and print production industries, FineLine BarCode Technologies, Inc., today launched SymArt 6, a revolutionary new prepress barcode generation software package that interacts with Adobe’s Illustrator and Acrobat products and other software running on Apple’s Mac OS X and Microsoft’s Windows XP to allow users to create Digitally Verifiable Codes (DV Codes)™. This unique technology revolutionizes prepress printing & proofing workflow and quality control, according to Richard Stamper, president of the Atlanta-based company.

GRAPH EXPO®, being held September 28-October 1, 2003 at McCormick Place South in Chicago, is the nation’s most comprehensive trade show and conference for graphic design, digital prepress, printing, publishing, converting and digital equipment professionals. (FineLine BarCode Technologies, Inc., will be in Booth #5072 on the convention floor.)

"We have shortened to an absolute minimum the prepress production process by allowing users to digitally check barcode quality, on-screen, without a cumbersome proof and expensive hardware verification device," Mr. Stamper said of the new Digital Verification Tool (DVT)™, a companion product (patent pending) that works together with DV Codes™ created by the SymArt suite of software products. "This advantage alone will save millions of dollars in now unnecessary expensive proofs, short print runs and labor costs, as well as allowing faster and seamless interaction between designers and print production centers often located a ‘world away’ from each other," Mr. Stamper said.

FineLine developed this new technology, Mr. Stamper offered, through an intensive product development process and a rigorous testing protocol to uniquely answer needs for greater cost efficiencies expressed by design, prepress and other print production clients. The company’s products support a universe of industries and consumer products segments which are moving in growing numbers to direct-to-press, computer-to-plate, digital and paperless workflows.

Additional benefits include increasing workflow efficiency, decreasing the chance of barcode errors and the ability for all involved in the production process (including end users) to scan the barcodes on-screen from any location worldwide. The company said that users may instantly measure barcodes to obtain the encodation, bar and space measurements, magnification, bar width adjustment, as well as additional quality control information including, time and date created, created by, a line of description, and company of origin.

"Professional graphic artists have relied on SymArt software programs for over 15 years to create high quality barcodes," Mr. Stamper continued. "SymArt 6 allows users to create popular barcode symbologies, including all of the major linear symbologies as well as RSS and Datamatrix codes, with digital verification technology. The unique features and benefits of SymArt 6 are unparalleled throughout the printing, publishing, and packaging industries."

FineLine BarCode Technologies, Inc. is a leader in barcode software and printing technologies. The company is recognized across a universe of industries—including pharmaceutical, packaging, premiums and coupons, apparel and other consumer goods for innovative products and services--which are on the leading edge of technology development. With over 15 years of experience and industry knowledge, FineLine is noted for its leadership role in customer service and in developing barcode printing and creation solutions that are accurate, simple to use and efficient to manage. With offices in the United States, Canada and Asia, FineLine provides global support for advanced, state of the industry barcode products and services.