NetStudio Targets Non-Artists

NetStudio introduced NetStudio 1.0, a Web graphics creation tool designed to enable non-artists such as sales managers and HR specialists to create sophisticated graphics for their Web sites.

With NetStudio, users can mix colors, fonts, effects and layout to create a
custom look; create buttons, navigation bars, fancy text, banners, photographs, backgrounds, and shapes; and produce special effects such as color changes, shadows, washouts, transparency fades, fade fills, picture fills, and embosses.

The product is tightly integrated with Microsoft FrontPage and works with other leading Web page editors including Netscape Composer, Adobe PageMill, and NetObjects Fusion.

Manish Vij, NetStudio’s CEO, said: “While tools to simplify the publishing of
web documents are available today, non-artists traditionally have had three
choices when it comes to creating web graphics: hire an expensive professional graphic designer; suffer through weeks of learning the basics of a complicated, high-end graphics tool like Photoshop; or create an amateurish site using clip art to convey important messages and branding.”

The vendor noted that the Web site creation market is expected to reach $10.3 billion by the year 2000, according to a report from Forrester Research.

A beta version of NetStudio is available now. The final version will be
shipped in the third quarter of 1998, when the price is expected to be $149.