– Updated support for ArcGIS geodatabases and ArcMap document files for use with powerful cartographic tools –

Toronto, ON, March 24, 2011 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of the PDF Maps app for iOS and geospatial plugins for Adobe Creative Suite, including Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop, is pleased to announce updated support for Esri ArcGIS 10 geodatabases and ArcMap document (MXD) files in MAPublisher 8.4.1 for Adobe Illustrator. The latest version of this mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution can use its import tools to connect to Personal, File and ArcSDE geodatabases as well as MXD files. MAPublisher can make use of a geodatabase’s spatial and non-spatial relationships, subtypes and attribute domain information during the import process.

“The demand for using ArcGIS 10 files and geodatabases in MAPublisher and the Adobe Illustrator environment is very strong,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems. “Providing this functionality in MAPublisher further promotes interoperability and strengthens the cartographic workflow that many users employ to visualize GIS data and produce high quality maps,” he added.

To fully import Esri geodatabases or to fully access an ArcSDE server using MAPublisher import tools, valid Esri software must be installed and licensed; at minimum, ArcGIS Engine Runtime. More commonly, an ArcView, ArcEditor or ArcInfo license may be used. Windows and Mac users without an ArcGIS license can still import data using the Basic Personal Geodatabase Reader in MAPublisher.

More about MAPublisher for Illustrator

MAPublisher for Illustrator is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics capabilities of this graphics design software for working with GIS data and producing high-quality maps with efficiency.

MAPublisher 8.4.1 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher customers with an active maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance users at US$599. New licenses are US$1399. Academic, floating and volume pricing is also available. Prices include one year of full maintenance. Visit www.avenza.com/mapublisher for more details.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services as well as the PDF Maps app for using geospatial PDF files on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

– Geospatial PDF reader updated with new features and tools –

Toronto, ON, March 16, 2011 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher® cartographic software for Adobe® Illustrator® and Geographic Imager® geospatial tools for Adobe Photoshop®, is pleased to announce an updated version of PDF Maps, the popular geospatial PDF reader for Apple iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

“We are very excited about this update for PDF Maps. It improves on the previous version by adding new features and tools to make the experience of navigating and viewing geospatial PDF maps on Apple iOS devices even better” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “Since its initial release, we have received a lot of feedback about the app and much of it have been feature requests. We’re listening to our users, developing new and exciting features, and pushing them out as the product evolves,” he added.

This release of PDF Maps offers many features including:

• A new tool to easily find the coordinates of any location in the map; including the ability to type in a coordinate to search.
• A new option to display coordinates as Lat/Long (WGS84), Lat/Long (Map Default), Northing/Easting, or Military Grid Reference System (MGRS)/United States National Grid (USNG)
• New support for GeoTIFF files; create tiles similar to how a geospatial PDF is tiled
• A new option to render a map in higher resolution
• Improved map processing speed
• Minor bug fixes and usability enhancements

PDF Maps complements MAPublisher and Geographic Imager, the only available methods for authoring geospatial PDF documents within the Adobe Creative Suite. PDF Maps is available now on the iTunes App Store free of charge. For more information about PDF Maps, visit the Avenza website at www.avenza.com/pdf-maps.

More about geospatial PDF

With the release of Adobe Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9, a new geospatial feature set was introduced to the Adobe PDF specification. Geospatial PDF files are PDF documents that contain geospatial information such as real world location and/or GIS attributes. Geospatial PDF documents can be created in some GIS applications such as ArcGIS and Mapinfo and from within Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop with the aid of the MAPublisher and Geographic Imager plugins, respectively. The geospatial data contained in a geospatial PDF document may be accessed and used (for example to locate a specific point or measure distances) without the aid of any additional plugins, using tools found natively within Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9.

More about MAPublisher and Geographic Imager

MAPublisher for Illustrator is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, MAPublisher leverages the superior design capabilities of this leading graphic design software. Geographic Imager is powerful software for working with spatial imagery in Adobe Photoshop that leverages the superior image editing capabilities of this raster-based image-editing software.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services. For more information visit the Avenza website at www.avenza.com.

For further information contact:
Tel: 416-487-5116 ● Email: info@avenza.com ● Web: www.avenza.com

– Open Cartographica-generated Adobe Illustrator® files using MAPublisher –

Toronto, ON, March 9, 2011 – Avenza Systems Inc., producer of PDF Maps for iOS devices and geospatial plug-ins for Adobe Creative Suite®, including Geographic Imager® for Adobe® Photoshop®, is pleased to announce new support for Cartographica-generated Adobe Illustrator files in MAPublisher 8.4. Cartographica, produced by ClueTrust®, is a geographic information system (GIS) for Mac OS® that contains geospatial tools to explore, analyze and present data.

“We collaborated with ClueTrust to give users more options when working with geospatial data,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems. “MAPublisher recognizes geographic information from Cartographica exported Adobe Illustrator files. Users can now seamlessly work with data manipulated in Cartographica in familiar MAP Views, MAP Layers, styles and colours in Adobe Illustrator.” he added.

MAPublisher 8.4 also includes new support for thematic mapping. Create graduated colour maps, dot density maps and maps with charts easily using MAP Themes.

More about Cartographica

ClueTrust re-launched commercial GIS on the Macintosh in 2009 by releasing Cartographica, a fully Mac OS X native GIS which is available at www.macgis.com for $495. Cartographica contains an impressive library of import and export tools, integrated projection management, intuitive exploration tools, and powerful analysis tools. Academic, and volume pricing is also available. In January 2011, ClueTrust brought interactive GIS and geospatial field data entry to the iPhone and iPad with Cartographica Mobile which is available in the iTunes store for $79.99.

More about ClueTrust

ClueTrust is a leading developer of GIS software solutions for the Mac OS X and iOS platforms. With a long history of developing high-tech solutions for a number of sectors, ClueTrust products have won recognition and market leadership status over the past two decades. Their flagship product family, Cartographica, has made geospatial data intuitive. More information is available at www.macgis.com.

More about MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator

MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a set of geospatial tools, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphic design capabilities of Adobe Illustrator for working with GIS data and producing high-quality maps with efficiency.

MAPublisher 8.4 is available free of charge to all customers with an active MAPublisher maintenance subscription and as a $599 USD upgrade for non-maintenance users. New licenses are $1399 USD. Academic, floating and volume pricing is also available. Prices include one year of full maintenance. Details are available at www.avenza.com/mapublisher.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services as well as the PDF Maps app for using geospatial PDF files on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

– Powerful cartographic suite with new thematic mapping tools –

Toronto, ON, March 3, 2011 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of geospatial plugins for Adobe Creative Suite, including Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop, is pleased to announce the release of MAPublisher 8.4 for Adobe Illustrator. The latest version of this mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution now includes a powerful thematic mapping feature called MAP Themes. Like the name implies, it produces dot density maps and uses stylesheets to symbolize choropleth maps based on various types of data classification. In addition, it can easily create custom charts using data attribute values.

“We went back to the drawing board and redesigned how styles are implemented in MAPublisher,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems. “MAP Themes is an exciting way to help you visualize GIS data. It offers a lot of flexibility in mixing graphic styles, swatches, symbols, rules and attributes. In addition, we’ve introduced support for new import formats including ArcGIS map documents and personal geodatabase for Mac OS. This has expanded the use of MAPublisher as a premiere cartographic and map-design platform.” he added.

New features and enhancements of MAPublisher 8.4 for Adobe Illustrator

• New thematic mapping features including support for pie and bar charts and dot density maps
• New import services: Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Map Service (WMS)
• New support for import formats including GPX and Microsoft Excel
• Import support for Esri ArcMap documents (.mxd) (Windows only. ArcGIS license required)
• Esri Basic Personal Geodatabase format support is now available for Mac
• A new MAPublisher Image feature type makes importing georeferenced raster imagery easier
• New Text Utilities feature that performs many text actions such as correcting upside down text, separating multiline text into single line and cropping text path to text length
• New Join Areas geoprocessing feature that dissolves multiple areas into larger ones and still retains data attributes
• A new option to customize scale bar labels; override labels for units, scale ratio, map scale with custom text
• A new MAPublisher Tool called MAP Contour Tagger to quickly add labels to contour lines
• Import support for data-rich Adobe Illustrator files exported from Cartographica (http://www.macgis.com/)
• MAP View Editor enhancements and optimizations
• Various other user interface improvements and performance enhancements to improve usability

More about MAPublisher for Illustrator

MAPublisher for Illustrator is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics capabilities of this graphics design software for working with GIS data and producing high-quality maps with efficiency.

MAPublisher 8.4 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher customers with an active maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance users at $599 USD. New licenses are $1399 USD. Academic, floating and volume pricing is also available. Prices include one year of full maintenance. Details are available at www.avenza.com.

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is an award-winning, privately held corporation that provides cartographers and GIS professionals with powerful software tools for making better maps. In addition to software offerings for Mac and Windows users, Avenza offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services as well as the PDF Maps app for using geospatial PDF files on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

For further information:
Avenza Systems ● 416-487-5116 ● info@avenza.com ● www.avenza.com