Helios Software GmbH has made available a beta version of a major upgrade to its suite of network and prepress server software with the final version due in September.
Helios' Unix-based file and print servers offer cross-platform compatibility serving Mac and Windows clients. It supports PostScript and PDF printing, OPI, and ColorSync/ICC color managed printing support.
PCShare (for PC and UNIX clients) and EtherShare (Mac and UNIX clients) can scale from one to hundreds of nodes on simple LANs, complex Internets and corporate Intranets. Also, Helios offers Unicode file character support, cross-platform file and record locking, and shared print queues, job names, user names and passwords.
All Mac-based Helios applications are Mac OS X native. The beta version of the network and prepress server software features advanced printing support over TCP/IP; simplified administration of Mac and Windows services; faster server performance for Mac and Windows clients; Server Fail Safety via three levels of service reliability; PostScript 3 Emulation in Print Preview; new print spool types; and PDF Handshake with complete PDF 1.3 support including PDF shadings. Also, the EtherShare OPI can generate Internet optimized images in PNG format and includes new scriptable image conversion functions.
Plus, Helios EtherShare OPI delivers image management tools as it enables networked users to repurpose images and provides automatic on-the-fly, ICC/ColorSync color-managed, image conversion for various outputs. See the beta software site for details.