Park City, Utah - December 19, 2005 -- Chronos LC today announced the release of SOHO Print Essentials, the fastest way to produce professional-looking documents on Mac OS X. It is also a member of the new SOHO Organizer personal and business productivity suite and bears the "SOHO" moniker which identifies Chronos' acclaimed small office/home office series.

SOHO Print Essentials is the easiest way to design and print labels, envelopes, letterhead, fax cover sheets, invoices, address books, etc. It integrates seamlessly with both the Mac OS X Address Book and SOHO Contacts so users' contacts are always at their fingertips. Mail merge is a snap and its amazing design tools make customizing documents with company logos, graphics, fonts, et cetera easier than ever.

ELIMINATES HEADACHES

SOHO Print Essentials' next generation design eliminates the headaches typically associated with printing certain types of documents like labels, envelopes, invoices, etc. Four class-leading features make it easy to achieve perfect results the first time:

1) Fluid Preview creates a natural working environment for users by letting the user make changes to individual labels, envelopes, invoice lines, or pages 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 documents. This means SOHO Print Essentials not only integrates with the Mac OS X Address Book and SOHO Contacts, but other applications including Microsoft Excel, FileMaker, Microsoft Entourage, PIM products, etc.

A COMPLETE DOCUMENTS KIT

SOHO Print Essentials is compatible with over 1,500 popular label and envelope stocks including those from Avery®, PaperDirect®, DYMO®, APLI, Formtec and more. It ships with ready-made designs including those with photos and artwork right up to the edge of the stock (full bleed). Users may customize a ready-made design for a designer look or create their own.

SOHO Print Essentials produces a wide variety of labels including address labels, 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.

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 Print Essentials 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 documents 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 Print Essentials 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 image masks which can be used on both shapes and images to create fades, soften edges, add texture, etc.

SOHO Print Essentials 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 Print Essentials 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.

CONTACT AND PHOTO INTEGRATION

Use over 350 smart-fields to automatically place information from the Mac OS X Address Book, SOHO Contacts, 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 document designs. 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.

TIGHT SOHO ORGANIZER INTEGRATION

SOHO Print Essentials is also a member of the new SOHO Organizer suite which consists of four applications: SOHO Contacts, SOHO Calendars, SOHO Notes, and SOHO Print Essentials. As a member of this suite, it integrates seamlessly with the other members. This means, for example, that users can produce professional-looking documents for selected contacts in SOHO Contacts.

ABOUT THE SOHO SERIES

The SOHO Series is an integrated series of software solutions that are designed and written specifically for small office and home office users. Each product in the series is designed to work on its own and be "best-in-class." However, the true power of the SOHO Series shines through when the products are used together to create solutions that are greater than the sum of their individual parts.

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 Print Essentials has been attractively priced at $49.99. SOHO Print Essentials is also available in the new SOHO Organizer suite for $99.99.

An optional clip art add-on called SOHO Art Pack is available for SOHO Print Essentials to help users create stunning designs. SOHO Art Pack is a commercial-grade collection of 40,000+ photos, photo objects, and vector clip art images. It is available directly from Chronos for $29.99.

SOHO Print Essentials requires Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later; 30MB of available disk space; 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