Park City, Utah - August 17, 2004 -- Chronos LC today announced the release of SOHO Labels & Envelopes, the fastest and easiest way to produce labels and envelopes on Mac OS X. SOHO Labels & Envelopes is the second in the series of Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) products Chronos will be releasing this year--SOHO Business Cards was the first and more SOHO Series products will follow in 2004.
THE NEW STANDARD FOR LABELS & ENVELOPES ON MAC OS X
SOHO Labels & Envelopes is the fastest way to design and print professional labels and envelopes on Mac OS X. Its next generation design eliminates the headaches typically associated with label and envelope printing. The product can produce address labels, envelopes, letterhead, zip disk labels, audio tapes, file folder labels, floppy disk labels, color coding labels, video labels, automated labels, multi-use labels, name badge labels, permanent ID labels, warning labels, product labels, inventory barcode labels, name tags, gift tags, and office equipment labels.
FOUR EXCITING SURPRISES
Four exciting features were excluded from the original pre-announcement of SOHO Labels & Envelopes. Together, these features set a new standard in label and envelope printing on Mac OS X and any platform.
1) Fluid Preview creates a natural working environment for users by letting the user make changes to individual labels and envelopes on-the-fly and see the outcome in Preview mode in real-time. For example, the user can create a series of video cassette labels using a single design and then change the video title for each label right from within the print preview.
2) One-Click Formatting allows the user to switch return and delivery address formats on-the-fly without setting complicated preferences. Likewise, it only takes one-click to use a home address instead of a work address for a batch envelope job.
3) Perfect Balance guarantees that text is perfectly balanced on a label or envelope regardless of how much or little text the label contains. No more labels with all the addresses jammed in the upper left corner so long addresses will still fit.
4) Data Syphon sucks data from standard tab delimited files to populate labels and envelopes. This means SOHO Labels & Envelopes not only integrates with the Mac OS X Address Book, but other applications including Microsoft Excel, FileMaker, Personal Organizer, other PIM software, etc.
A COMPLETE LABELS, ENVELOPES, & LETTERHEAD KIT
SOHO Labels & Envelopes is a complete kit and includes everything the user needs to design and print impressive labels, envelopes, and even letterhead. It comes with 13,000+ designer-quality photographs, photos of objects and vector clip art images. This high-quality collection sports high resolution (300 dpi) photos, scalable EPS vector clip art and photos of objects that are pre-masked for transparency around the object. The entire graphics collection can be filtered by category and searched by keyword to find the perfect image. It also ships with 50 Bitstream® commercial-grade fonts so users can obtain the perfect look for their branding.
SOHO Labels & Envelopes is compatible with over 1,500 popular label and envelope stocks including those from Avery®, PaperDirect®, DYMO®, APLI, Formtec and more. SOHO Labels & Envelopes ships with tons of ready-made designs including those with photos and artwork right up to the edge of the label or envelope (full bleed). Users may customize a ready-made design for a designer look or create their own. As an added bonus, the product ships with a stunning collection of matching label, envelope, and letterhead sets.
Users may print their designs on virtually any inkjet, laser or color laser printer including DYMO Labelwriters. Alternatively, users may submit their design to an online commercial print shop via SOHO Labels & Envelopes and have their project delivered right to their doorstep.
15 BARCODES INCLUDING POSTNET & AUTOMATIC NUMBERING
Users can easily add POSTNET, PLANET, U.K. Royal Mail, and Japan Post barcodes to envelopes and address labels to expedite shipping and ensure proper delivery. Users may also choose from over 11 industry barcodes for inventory and equipment labels including UPC A, UPC E, EAN-13, EAN-8 , Industrial 2 of 5, Interleaved 2 of 5, Modified Plessey, Code 39, Code 39 Extended, Code 128, and Codabar.
A powerful automatic numbering or serial number feature can be used to create raffle and admission tickets or to create numbered groups of shipping cartons such as Carton 1 of 3, Carton 2 of 3, etc.
POWERFUL DESIGN TOOLS
An unprecedented suite of tools is included to help users get professional results. Simple, one-step tools let users quickly draw shapes, add graphics, arrange and align objects, rotate objects and add designer special effects. There are more than 30 shapes with individual controls to help users create logos and custom design elements. Built-in rulers, project grid lines, snap-to-grid, real-time alignment guides and full zoom capabilities make positioning objects a breeze.
SOHO Labels & Envelopes comes with an array of special effects once reserved for graphic artists. Some of the more familiar effects include shadows, transparency and linear and circular gradients. Plus, users can easily create more advanced special effects like tinting an image with any color to any degree, clipping an image to any shape and filling text with any image. The software ships with 100+ image masks which can be used on both shapes and images to create fades, soften edges, add texture, etc.
SOHO Labels & Envelopes can import logos, photos and clip art in popular formats. A built-in Scrapbook lets users store favorite graphics, shapes, and text for quick and easy future reuse. The Scrapbook even remembers any special formatting or attributes applied to an object such as font, stroke color, transparency, masks, etc.
SOHO Labels & Envelopes incorporates two precision printing tools for exact results. First, a simple and unique printer calibration feature ensures perfect stock alignment. Second, optional crop marks can be added to assist commercial printers in making precise cuts for regular and full bleed designs.
INTEGRATION
Use over 350 smart-fields to automatically place information from the Mac OS X Address Book and other sources directly on designs. Smart-fields take care of the details like name, address and phone number formatting so information doesn't have to be entered a certain way in advance. Plus, there are smart-fields for almost everything including logos, initials, one-line addresses and more. Eight powerful text fitting options can automatically shrink or expand text as necessary or modify letter spacing for full justification effects.
Users can choose from over 20 pre-formatted return address and delivery address blocks to place on their label or envelope design. Plus, the One-Click Formatting feature allows the user to switch formats on-the-fly without fussing with complicated preferences or dialogs.
Pictures and albums from iPhoto are automatically loaded and accessible from the built-in Graphics Drawer so users can simply drag a photo right onto their design. The Clip Art Drawer is designed to be very fast and is capable of scrolling through tens of thousands of images in seconds.
AVAILABILITY & REQUIREMENTS
Chronos believes users should have the opportunity to try the software for free before they purchase. A fully functional 30 day trial version can be downloaded from Chronos' web site at <www.chronosnet.com>. SOHO Labels & Envelopes has been attractively priced at $29.99 and is available directly from Chronos. It will also soon be available at major Apple retailers.
SOHO Labels & Envelopes requires Mac OS X v10.2 or later (v10.3 or later required to use vector clip art); 30MB of available disk space (1.2GB for full clip art collection); CD-ROM drive (software comes on multi-CD set); inkjet or laser printer optional (great results from popular inkjet, laser, color laser printers including DYMO, HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, et cetera).
COMPANY INFORMATION
Chronos has been developing award-winning Macintosh software since 1993 and is based in Park City, Utah, home of the 2002 Winter Games.
PR CONTACT
marketing@chronosnet.com
