Adobe Systems

PARAMUS, NJ—10/22/2007—NAPL (www.napl.org), trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP), a member of the NAPL Network, and The Graphic Communications Coalition for Open Competition have been notified by Adobe Systems that the latest releases of the company’s Acrobat and Reader programs (Version 8.1.1) no longer contain a “Send to FedEx/Kinko’s” link. The updated software is now available for manual download from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html The automatic update manager portion, which will notify current users of update availability, will not, however, be operational until early November. “We are happy

IS ANYONE else tired of reading about Adobe? You know exactly what I’m talking about (and if you don’t, Rip Van Winkle, just check your in-box for the past month). Everyone’s weighing in on the Adobe/FedEx Kinko’s deal these days, and I swore I wouldn’t add to the deluge, but now here I go. Really, all I want to say is this: A “Print at FedEx Kinko’s” button, by itself, is not going to kill your in-plant—unless you help the process by doing a terrible job marketing it (and a worse job producing work). Let’s face it, if your customers are pleased with

WITH A sigh of relief and a self-congratulatory pat on the back, commercial printers and their representatives, including leadership of PIA/GATF, NAPL and NAQP, welcomed the news that Adobe had agreed to remove the contentious “Print to FedEx Kinko’s” button from the current versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader. In-plant managers were also appreciative—but do they stand to benefit from Adobe’s action? That remains to be seen. Adobe leadership, in an August 1 conference call, lived up to the promise made at the company’s July 17 forum with printing industry leadership to “re-evaluate” the button and its contractual agreement with FedEx Kinko’s. Adobe announced

As promised, Adobe announced its decision last week on how it would respond to the concerns of the printing industry. To the surprise of many, the company said it would remove the “Send to FedEx Kinko’s” service and functionality from the latest versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. The decision followed a forum Adobe hosted in San Francisco during which a dozen industry representatives, including two from the in-plant sector, expressed their strong objections. An Adobe press release stated: “The versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat that are scheduled to be released in October will not contain the feature. We are implementing these changes as

In a letter to Adobe, representatives of the in-plant printing community asked for greater representation on Adobe’s print advisory board. Writing on behalf of the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP), the National Government Publishing Association (NGPA) and the International Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA), as well as in-plant print operations all over the country, Ray Chambers, CEO of Chambers Management Group, acknowledged with thanks Adobe’s prompt attention to their concerns regarding the “Send to FedEx Kinko’s” controversy. In his letter Chambers noted “We also applaud Adobe’s effort to listen to the print community as it moves forward in the development of Web-to-print functionality in

As promised, Adobe announced its decision on August 1 on how it would respond to the concerns of the printing industry. To the surprise of many, the company said it would remove the “Send to FedEx Kinko’s” service and functionality from the latest versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. The decision followed a forum Adobe hosted in San Francisco during which a dozen industry representatives, including two from the in-plant sector, expressed their strong objections to the FedEx Kinko’s link appearing on Reader and Acrobat. An Adobe press release stated: “The versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat that are scheduled to be released in

Adobe executives received a virtual slap in the face from the printing industry at a meeting in its San Francisco facility last week. Almost a dozen print industry executives, including two representatives of the university in-plant sector, made the trip to northern California for the forum, while about the same number participated via a conference link. Top management from most of the major quick print firms (excluding Kinko’s) took part. Adobe had organized the meeting to give the print industry a chance to air its grievances against the PDF creator for tacking a link to FedEx Kinko’s onto the latest versions of Reader and Acrobat.

PARAMUS, NJ—JULY 24, 2007—In a July 20, 2007, letter to Adobe Systems, Inc. CEO Bruce Chizen, Joseph P. Truncale, president and chief executive officer of NAPL (www.napl.org), the trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, and Steve Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP), stated that their position regarding the Adobe/FedEx Kinko’s agreement remains as follows: Adobe should extricate itself from the agreement and remove the FedEx Kinko’s logo and embedded link from Adobe software in a timely manner. The letter followed a July 17, 2007, Print Advisory Forum held in San Francisco, CA, and

As in-plants await the promised forum Adobe is holding next Tuesday in San Francisco—which will allow printers to speak their minds about the link to FedEx Kinko’s on new versions of its software—those who want to take action sooner can now do so. Adobe has published instructions on how to disable the link. A page on its Web site tells administrators how to disable the FedEx Kinko’s Print Service for Windows and Macintosh: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401726&sliceId=2#gpo As for whether or not you should break the Kinko’s link in your own version of the software, here’s something to consider: Richard L. Griffin, director of Campus Printing at

PITTSBURGH—July 2, 2007—PIA/GATF has always viewed Adobe as a company that offers high-impact digital solutions to the entire print community. Over the years, their products and services have transformed the printing process from an analog to a digital workflow. This partnership between Adobe and the printing industry has resulted in not only significant improvements to graphic communications, but also millions of dollars for Adobe. Despite this positive and loyal relationship, it was disappointing to learn of Adobe’s partnership with FedEx Kinko’s. “When it was discovered that Adobe had made the decision to include a ‘send to FedEx Kinko’s’ button in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader,