New York (April 22, 1997) -- Imation Corp., the imaging and information company recently spun-off from 3M, and its wholly owned subsidiary Luminous Technology Corporation today announced that the companies are adapting four of their market leading products to support various features of the Adobe® PostScript® 3 language, Adobe's new PostScript Extreme multi-Raster Image Processor (RIP) architecture -- formerly code-named "Supra" -- and Portable Document Format (PDF)- based production workflows.

The Imation and Luminous products slated to support the new Adobe technologies are the Imation™ Rainbow™ Color Proofing Systems, Luminous™ PressWise™ page imposition software, and Luminous™ Media Manager™ digital asset management software. Additionally, Luminous™ OPEN™ 1.1 (Open Production Environment) software today automates several workflows for PDF-based production.

"Imation and Luminous are at the forefront of delivering products essential to achieving digital end-to-end workflow," said Jim Stephens, vice president of marketing, Adobe Printing and Systems Division. "Our combined expertise will enable the delivery of leading-edge production printing solutions."

Over time, Imation and Luminous plan to add native PDF support through the companies' suite of digital production tools.

"We see PDF implementation as a major step in the industry's progress," said John Feikema, director of digital solutions for Imation's Printing and Publishing Systems. "As Imation provides productivity enhancing products and services that touch customers from design to production, we're pleased to incorporate efforts such as Adobe's to simplify and speed the workflow."

Imation Rainbow Color Proofing Systems

Imation plans to implement Adobe Postscript 3 features in its controller and RIP software for Imation Rainbow™ Color Proofing Systems. The new features are planned for introduction in October 1997 as part of Imation's Rainbow™ Controller software version 5.0. With full-featured support for proofing PDF files, Rainbow⌠ Controller software version 5.0 will be designed to facilitate a start-to-finish PDF digital workflow solution.

With an increasing number of customers running remote proofing from Microsoft® Windows NT® servers and workstations, cross-platform digital proofing takes on growing importance. Giving end users -- from the design shop to production -- the ability to use and create digital color proofs from a common file format is expected to simplify and speed workflows in distributed proofing or remote proofing situations.

Luminous PressWise Software

The next version of Luminous™ PressWise™ software, the market leading page imposition software, will support PDF natively, thus enabling PostScript 3-based devices such as Imation Rainbow™ color proofing system to take advantage of prepress workflows that are based entirely on PDF. The next version of PressWise software, expected to be announced in third quarter 1997, is expected to have the ability to add PDF pages to any PressWise imposition process and produce job tickets for the Adobe PostScript Extreme architecture.

Taking advantage of the inherent benefits of PDF such as page independence, small file size and the ability to produce consistent and predictable output results, the next version of the Apple® Mac® OS-based PressWise software will increase digital production workflow productivity by imposing jobs faster and virtually eliminating printing errors. Luminous PressWise software is a critical piece needed to gain the production benefits that a PDF-based workflow brings.

Luminous Media Manager Software

Luminous Media Manager software, scheduled to ship in second quarter 1997, will help publishers track PDF files and other digital assets or use PDF as the primary archiving format. As production operations migrate to PostScript 3- based systems and RIPs such as the Adobe PostScript Extreme RIP, they will be able to use Luminous Media Manager software to catalog, preview and navigate PDF files from within a Media Manager database. Thus, digital assets such as images, graphics and PDF files can be cataloged, tracked and retrieved from on-line, near-line or off-line storage devices.

Luminous OPEN Software

With Luminous OPEN 1.1 software as a bridge from any PostScript-based workflow, users can migrate immediately to PDF-based workflows. Luminous OPEN 1.1 software automates the creation of PDF files from desktop applications such as QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator®, or Macromedia FreeHand, and automates the creation of PDF files from PostScript-based documents. OPEN also automates the separation of PDF files, the processing of PDF files in prepress applications, the optimization of PDF files for web viewing, and the cataloging of PDF files into multimedia databases such as the Luminous Media Manager database.

Company Information

Luminous Technology Corporation is wholly-owned subsidiary of Imation Corp. Based in Seattle, Wa., Luminous develops software products, services and technologies for the prepress, print production, and graphic arts industries that support the shift to digital prepress and printing, as well as to expand media production for business intranets and the World Wide Web. Luminous serves its customers from regional sales offices and distribution channels around the world.

For more information about Luminous software, including PressWise, Media Manager and OPEN, or Luminous Technology Corporation, customers should call (800) 685-6736. International customers should call (206) 689-6700. Luminous' website is located at www.luminous.com.

Imation Corp. supplies a variety of products and services worldwide for the imaging and information industry. The company manufactures and markets digital and conventionl proofing systems, including the industry-standard Matchprint™ color proofing system, imagesetting materials, printing plates, graphic arts films, digital prepress software, digital communications services and carbonless paper products to customers worldwide. In 1996, the company generated revenues of $2.3 billion. Imation employs 9,400 people and is based in Oakdale, Minn.

Additional information about Imation is available on the company's website at www.imation.com, by calling Imation toll-free at (888) 466- 3456, or through the company's toll-free shareholder information line at (888) IMN-NYSE (466-6973).

PressWise, OPEN, Media Manager and Luminous are trademarks of Luminous Technology Corporation. Imation, Matchprint and Rainbow are trademarks of Imation Corp. All other brand or product names are trademarks or service marks of their respective holders.

Note to Editors: Screen shots and beta or customer site referrals are available upon request. Please have any reader information cards or sales leads sent to Matt Cannard at Luminous Technology Corporation, 316 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle, Wa., 98104.

Find out more about Postscript 3 on Adobe's web site.

Copyright 1996 Imation. All rights reserved.