14 DAY TRIAL // Although desktop publishing, also known as DTP, is not a field that I was thinking to be populated with a large number of software solutions, it seems that I was wrong. Only a day after iCalamus got an update, it seems that another related software application is being improved.
This time, we're talking about SoftCare K4, a powerful and flexible editorial system for magazines and newspapers, creative agencies, as well as book and corporate publishers. The purpose of this application is to organize the work of graphic designers and editors, enhancing the functionality of Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy, as well as providing a transparent editorial workflow and a convenient method of monitoring production progress.
The new version, labeled 5.7, comes with a major improvement that enables functions specific to the K4 system to be accessed automatically through scripts such as JavaScript, AppleScript or Visual Basic, improving speed and efficiency by allowing the automatization of certain tasks within the editorial workflow. The scripting interface has been updated to fit all the automatic customer-specific processes, an optional K4 Web Editor, version 2.0, has been added to enable users to create and modify articles to fit in a Web browser, offering more flexibility than before when work processes must be performed by more people.
When using SoftCare K4, all jobs are presented in a convenient hierarchical list view and multiple users can edit content in the same layout simultaneously, greatly increasing work efficiency, while keeping the working environment customizable for every user, so that each person working on a collective project uses the view that suits better its style of work.
On the production support side, production tracking is done in a Web browser using K4 Overwiev, XML export is available for cross-media production and archiving, while the K4 Web Editor that I mentioned earlier allows easy connection for remote editorial offices.
At last, you should know that SoftCare K4 can be administrated remotely, supports Mac OS X and Windows clients in mixed-platform environments and the server software is available for Mac OS X Server, Linux, Sun Solaris and Windows.
Unfortunately, there is no demo version available, and pricing as well is not available, depending on your needs, so feel free to contact SoftCare and ask for details or check our details page here.