Adobe Systems has been working to improve your Internet image lately.

The San Jose, Calif.-based Web graphics company says content managers usually have ways to regularly update the text of their site, but when it comes to pictures, most have to revert to doing it manually.

So the company Monday announced the upcoming release of its Adobe AlterCast, an image server software it says will automatically keep your .jpgs and .gifs as fresh as your text.

The software can repurposes content, from thumbnails to low-resolution monochrome images, for use in any application or device including PDAs and cell phones. There is also a color mode conversion, which supports ICC color profiles.

For example, images in CMYK mode created for print publication can be converted to RGB for Web output. "All companies with high-volume, image-rich environments have essentially the same challenge," says Burntsand director of partner channel sales Christian Pease. "In the world of Network Publishing, they need to reuse images on the website, newspaper ads, or collateral distributed to customers. With AlterCast, skilled graphics artists can spend their time on high-value activities like creating templates instead of reformatting or resizing. By giving our clients the ability to repurpose their images, we can offer an attractive value proposition in terms of time to market, value and cost."

For marketers, special coding in the program allows layers in an Adobe Photoshop image to be linked to entries in a customer database. When a customer with a history of buying certain products visits your site, AlterCast software can instantly rebuild the photo collage on your home page to reflect that persons individual interests.

And if you want, you can change prices on a price tag graphic instantly and automatically for every product on your site.

The program can be meshed into databases such as SQL and Oracle; homegrown or commercial CMSs such as Documentum; and application servers such as IBM WebSphere. The open architecture makes AlterCast easily extensible, and AlterCast supports APIs for use in Java, Perl, Visual Basic, COM and .NET environments.

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Pricing is based on a CPU-based model. Processor packs range from $7,500 for a one-CPU system to $60,000 for high-performance enterprise applications. The software is expected to go on sale in January 2002.