Ghent (Belgium), September 29, 2006 – Gradual Software, specialists in software solutions forautomating the publishing process, announces a partnership with Markzware, developer of the award-winning FlightCheck series of pre-flight software. The partnership allows Markzware's pre-flight toolsto seamlessly integrate with Gradual’s SWITCH product line:

PowerSWITCH accepts jobs that have been submitted through FlightCheck Online, andautomatically processes those jobs based on the contents of FlightCheck Online’s job ticketand pre-flight results. FullSWITCH (and PowerSWITCH) feature a built-in configurator for FlightCheckProfessional, which allows to setup and perform automated pre-flight on virtually any desktopor server at minimal expense.

Coinciding with this announcement, Gradual Software today releases Update 4 of FullSWITCH andPowerSWITCH 06, offering these features in addition to other enhancements and fixes. As a result of this partnership, users will gain the ultimate level of efficiency in professionalpublishing, combining accurate pre-flighting of various file formats with robust automationcapabilities. SWITCH offers the capability to easily design and edit document flows. The newconfigurator allows adding FlightCheck Professional to the flow via a simple drag-and-drop process.FlightCheck Professional is a powerful quality control application for pre-flighting PDF and sourcefiles. It can inspect over 45 layout application formats and many image formats.Patrick Marchese, CEO of Markzware, says: “Gradual Software has a great market potential for theiradvanced publishing automation tools. This is in part due to the 100% focus on automation and theirquick development turn-around in adding new features to their SWITCH software line, such as theintegration with Markzware FlightCheck Online and Professional.”

Peter Camps, CEO of Gradual Software, comments on the new partnership: “Markzware has a leadingposition in pre-flight tools for all file formats. The combination of FlightCheck and SWITCHtechnologies provides users with an integrated solution, automating even more tasks and creating asingle streamlined flow for checking, submitting and processing jobs.”

defined by the receiving side (printers, publishers, etc.). The checking is performed on the sender’sdesktop before the job is transmitted. When preflight is completed, FlightCheck Online automaticallycollects all relevant files, including fonts and images, and the collected job is compressed anduploaded to the receiver's FTP server.
At the receiver’s end, PowerSWITCH automatically detects and decompresses incoming jobs. It alsopicks up the job ticket information entered by the sender using FlightCheck Online and the pre-flightresults generated by FlightCheck Online. PowerSWITCH then sorts and processes jobs based on this“metadata”, allowing users to establish intelligent job flows. For example, if requested by the sender, ajob may be automatically taken through correction or conversion processes (using third-partyapplications controlled by PowerSWITCH), and placed in the appropriate folder for manual review.
FullSWITCH and FlightCheck Professional
FullSWITCH (and PowerSWITCH) feature a built-in configurator for FlightCheck Professional. Thisallows setting up FlightCheck Professional easily from within SWITCH, and it turns the FlightCheckdesktop tool into a fully automated application.
David Dilling, Director of Markzware’s European office, concludes: “The synergy betweenFlightCheck and Gradual's SWITCH products is obvious. Automating FlightCheck Professional’s pre-flight capabilities offers substantial benefits. Things get even more exciting when, by linkingFlightCheck Online to SWITCH on the server side, a printer, publisher or advertising studio can offera true, end-to-end, web-to-print solution. All of the important checking is done before FlightCheckOnline transfers the approved job via FTP to Gradual's PowerSWITCH – the sky is the limit!”

Bundle promotion
Gradual Software and Markzware have created a bundle promotion that will be available until the endof 2006 through selected distribution channels in Europe:

FullSWITCH and FlightCheck Pro are offered at a special bundle price of 2700 Euro
(compared to the normal combined price of 2999 Euro).

Registered users of FlightCheck Professional are offered a free upgrade to the latest version ofthis application when they purchase FullSWITCH (2500 Euro).

About Gradual Software
Gradual Software was established in November 2004 to develop and deliver software for fullautomation across the numerous stages of professional publishing. Gradual’s automation solutions aredesigned to benefit all participants in the publishing workflow, including content originators (authorsand designers), content processors (editors, designers and layout artists), brand owners (publishers andmarketing departments) and service providers (printers). Gradual offers the SWITCH family ofworkflow automation software consisting of three modules: LightSWITCH, an entry-level tool forautomation of file reception through FTP; FullSWITCH, a mid-range product that adds configuratorsto allow third-party applications to be integrated seamlessly in the workflow; and PowerSWITCH, thetop-of-the-line package offering extensive scripting and metadata tools to build smart workflows,together with a bundled workgroup client. Gradual Software is privately held by its management team,and is located in Ghent, Belgium. For more information, please visit www.gradual.com

Copyright © 2008 Markzware. All rights reserved. US Patent # 5,963,641.