– MAPublisher software for Adobe Illustrator now includes easy export to Adobe Flash capability –

Toronto, ON, December 15, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce the inclusion of its new MAP Web Author Tool in the newest release of MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator, version 8.0. The MAPublisher Web Author Tool provides the ability to easily export map documents to intelligent, data-rich Flash SWF files for easy seamless publishing on the Internet and other Flash-based delivery mechanisms using Adobe Flash Player.

“It is now possible to build a map from GIS data in Adobe Illustrator and then immediately export it as a fully interactive Flash map complete with rollovers, layer control, pan and zoom controls and all the underlying GIS data attributes intact in a searchable manner.” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “This adds a wonderful new dimension to the output possibilities for map creation that anyone can easily employ without any special coding or Flash knowledge”, he added.

A special section of the Avenza website dedicated to the MAP Web Author (Flash Export) functionality, complete with examples and a full online tutorial can be found at https://avenza.com/mapublisher/mapwebauthor.

Features of MAPublisher 8.0 Export to Flash Functionality

• Export completed Adobe Illustrator map documents to Flash without any additional coding or software requirements
• All or some GIS data attributes can be effortlessly embedded as desired
• Easily create rollovers and popups without any special ActionScript or coding required
• Easily embed images, web-links and other custom information
• Ability to control layer visibility
• Search for and identify map features based on attributes
• Zoom and pan functionality included in exported Flash document
• Maintain map quality across multiple media from print to web

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 design capabilities of this leading graphic design software.

The MAP Web Author Tool is contained in MAPublisher 8.0 which is available for US$1249 or as an upgrade for US$549 and free of charge to all MAPublisher for Illustrator customers with a valid maintenance subscription. Educational, floating and volume licenses are also be available. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Full 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. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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

– Includes a host of new features including export to Flash maps and Adobe CS4 compatibility –

Toronto, ON, December 8, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce the release of MAPublisher 8.0 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 8.0 is the latest version of this powerful mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution.

MAPublisher 8.0 for Adobe Illustrator is a full product upgrade that is free of charge to all current MAPublisher Maintenance Program subscribers and replaces the current shipping version of MAPublisher, version 7.6.3, for all new customers using Adobe Illustrator CS2, CS3 or CS4

“MAPublisher 8.0 is by far the most powerful and exciting release since the concept of working with GIS files in the graphics environment was unveiled with the first version of MAPublisher many years ago. As with previous releases, we have responded to the requests of our users by quickly improving on existing functionality and including many new functions and feature enhancements,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza, “The Flash export capability, alone, is a reason to upgrade and is a tremendous new feature that we know many users will enjoy and find to be extremely useful.” he added.

MAPublisher 8.0 includes all the significant functionality introduced in earlier releases of MAPublisher as well as the following new features and enhancements.

New Features of MAPublisher 8.0 for Adobe Illustrator

• Support for Adobe Illustrator CS4
• MAP Web Author Tool for automatic creation of interactive Flash maps
• MAP Vector Crop Tool
• Dockable MAPublisher Toolbar
• New and improved MAP Point Plotter with Plot Centroids function
• Enhanced KML export support
• New format support for S-57 (import) & GML – Simple Features (import and export)
• Enhanced MAP Views Editor
• Enhanced MAP Attributes interface
• New and improved Simplify Line functionality
• New data import optimization with import times reduced by as much as 80%
• Improved MAP View and MAP Stylesheets panels
• New MAPublisher License Management system
• Various other user interface improvements and performance enhancements to improve usability

More about MAPublisher 8.0 for Illustrator

MAPublisher 8.0 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 8.0 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher for Illustrator customers with a valid maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance members at US$549. New licenses are US$1249. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Full 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. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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

– Cartography Design Annual #1 collection of maps to showcase top maps from Cartotalk.com –

Toronto, ON, July 22, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial imaging tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce that it has provided support to Springer Cartographics of Crosswicks, NJ towards the compilation and publishing of its Cartography Design Annual #1 collection of maps from some of the top cartographers in the world.

“We are delighted to help support this wonderful collection of maps,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems. “The Cartography Design Annual is an excellent demonstration of what can be done with modern-day map-making software and we thank Nick Springer of Springer Cartographics for putting it together for all to enjoy,” he added.

Compiled and edited by Nick Springer, The Cartography Design Annual presents a collection of a select group of maps published in the 2007 calendar year. The maps cover a broad spectrum of cartographic styles: classic terrain maps, road maps, hand-illustrated maps, black & white maps, and many more. The Cartography Design Annual is published by Springer Cartographics LLC in full-color, with an overview and detail view of each map. The book contains 36 maps from cartographers in the United States, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Australia. This is book #1 in what will be an annual series published by Springer Cartographics.

“The idea for The Cartography Design Annual came from all the really beautiful maps that cartographers posted on Cartotalk.com,” said Mr. Springer. “I thought that everyone outside of our industry would appreciate the kinds of amazing maps being designed and published in any given year. We thank Avenza Systems for their generous support of this project”, he added.

For more information about the book or to purchase a copy, visit: www.CartographyAnnual.com.
To inquire about next year’s Cartography Design Annual #2, email: info@cartographyannual.com.

More about Nick Springer and Springer Cartographics

Nick Springer is the Founder and President of Springer Cartographics of Crosswicks, NJ. Mr. Springer is also the founder of Cartotalk.com, the most popular online community for cartographers worldwide. He has worked for Microsoft Corporation as a Product Designer creating mapping applications. He studied Geography and Cartography at Syracuse University.

More about MAPublisher and Geographic Imager

MAPublisher is powerful, easy to use, map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics handling capabilities of these software packages. 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, the Company offers value-added data sets, product training and consulting services. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

For further information:
Avenza Systems ● 416-487-5116 ● info@avenza.com ● www.avenza.com
Springer Cartographics LLC ● 609-903-6333 ● moreinfo@springercartographics.com ● www.springercartographics.com

July 13, 2008 – Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems Inc., was interviewed by Jesse Rouse of VerySpatial, an online geospatial news site and information portal, during which he discussed Avenza’s current software and data products and plans for an exciting new release centering on Adobe Flash. All the details of Ted’s interview and VerySpatial podcast #156 can be found on the VerySpatial website at www.veryspatial.com.

– Powerful geospatial plug-in suite now supports scripting and spatial cropping –

Toronto, ON, June 12, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand as well as MAPdataUSA, MAPdataCanada and MAPdataWorld royalty-free GIS data sets, announces the release of Geographic Imager 2.0 for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3. Geographic Imager 2.0 is the latest version of this powerful software that adds geospatial functionality to Adobe Photoshop.

“Following the success and tremendous reception of the initial Geographic Imager releases we are delighted to follow-up with this much more feature-rich and versatile upgrade, said Doug Smith, Avenza’s Director of Sales. “The scripting and batch processing capabilities alone make this a very worthwhile upgrade for users but overall this is truly a major step forward for Geographic Imager and spatial image processing within Adobe Photoshop,” he added.

Geographic Imager enhances the already commanding Adobe Photoshop imaging environment by adding all the tools and technology necessary to support the import, edit, manipulation and export of geospatial images such as aerial and satellite imagery. In addition to allowing the use of Photoshop and its powerful native imaging functions such as cropping, transparencies, individual pixel editing and brightness/contrast control, Geographic Imager adds the ability to import and recognize GeoTIFFs and other referenced raster formats, automatically mosaic and tile images spatially, reproject and transform images, geo-reference images based on ground control points and re-export images with all spatial information intact.

Features of the Geographic Imager 2.0:

• New GeoCrop tool allows image cropping based on geographic coordinates
• Automated scripting allows for use of Geographic Imager tasks in conjunction with Photoshop’s automation tools
• New and improved control over spatial transformations, including support for multi-layer and multi-spectral images
• New and improved conversion to GeoTIFF functionality
• Custom co-ordinate system database file
• Support for previously unsupported Adobe Photoshop functions including Trim, Flip and non-angular Crop

Features and Benefits of Geographic Imager

• Allows the use of Adobe Photoshop native functionality without destroying the spatial properties of the image
• Import and export GeoTIFFs and other spatial raster formats along with all georeferencing
• Georeference non-referenced imagery with Ground Control Point (GCP) transformation
• Reprojection of spatial imagery
• Automatic mosaicking and tiling of spatial imagery
• Mac, Windows and floating licenses available

More about Geographic Imager

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.

Geographic Imager 2.0 for Photoshop CS2 and CS3 is now available free of charge to all Geographic Imager customers with a valid maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance members at US$319. New licenses are US$699 for a single-user fixed commercial license. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Educational and floating licenses as well as discounted MAPublisher/Geographic Imager bundles are also available. Full 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. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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

– Online groups now open to MAPublisher and Geographic Imager users and evaluators –

Toronto, ON, June 2, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce the inception of the Avenza Forums, a set of online message and information groups for all MAPublisher and Geographic Imager users, evaluators and other interested parties.

“We have again upped the ante on providing a comprehensive set of before and after-purchase services to our dedicated customer base around the world.” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza, “The new Avenza forums are a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week online resource from where MAPublisher and Geographic Imager users and other interested parties can collect additional product information and dialog with other users as well as Avenza staff.” he added.

The Avenza Forum can be found at www.avenza.com/forum and provides a three-tiered mechanism for asking and answering questions, for learning more about Avenza’s products and services and for sharing knowledge with other users. Each forum member’s initial status in the Avenza forum is dependent upon the current maintenance subscription held at the time of registration.

The forum’s three main sections are organized as follows:
1. Common Support Issues & FAQs – Available to all visitors regardless of account status, this replaces the current Avenza product knowledgebases and mailing lists for MAPublisher and Geographic Imager.
2. Evaluation Users – Available to all visitors with a valid forum account, this section is for evaluation users of MAPublisher and Geographic Imager where they can post and review common evaluation issues or questions.
3. Maintenance Users – Available to all visitors with a valid MAPublisher and/or Geographic Imager maintenance subscription, this section is maintenance subscribers only and allows users special maintenance-only access to product downloads (including betas) and to post and discuss Avenza product questions, workflows, issues, and feature requests at a higher level.

Features of the Avenza Forum

– Post questions to Avenza Support staff and product user community
– Convenient online database for common Avenza questions
– Check out new beta programs and initiatives
– Updated and expanding Avenza Knowledge Base
– Explore and learn about workflows and functionality from the Avenza user community

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 graphics capabilities of this graphics 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 and extends its functionality and usability into the spatial realm.

Full 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. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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

– Leading book and atlas publisher used Avenza’s product in its new, award-winning Atlas of China –

Toronto, ON, April 15, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop announces that the National Geographic Book Publishing Group in Washington, D.C., has chosen its MAPublisher software for the creation of maps for its newly released Atlas of China.

Multiple MAPublisher fixed and floating licenses have been purchased by the National Geographic Book Publishing Group, along with onsite MAPublisher training for its cartographic designers and technicians.

“MAPublisher played an integral role in the development of our China political map that we produced at 1:6,750,000 for our new Atlas of China. Avenza’s software is smart, powerful, and very effective in manipulating and organizing innumerable types of spatial data for a variety of thematic applications,” said Carl Mehler, Director of Maps for the Book Publishing Group. “The engineers and customer service group at Avenza continue to provide us topnotch support and innovative solutions for our cartographic pursuits. MAPublisher serves as the foundation to our desktop georeferencing applications and map production, and we utilize Avenza’s leading-edge program on a regular basis in our workflow,” he added.

“We are thrilled to have been such an important part of the production of this wonderfully rich and comprehensive atlas,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems Inc. “We work very hard to provide our customers with quality solutions and service and it is delightful to be recognized in this manner by such a prestigious organization,” he added.

More about MAPublisher and Geographic Imager

MAPublisher is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and Xtras for Macromedia Freehand, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics editing capabilities of these applications with the strength and power of GIS data. Full details and downloadable demo versions are available at www.avenza.com.

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. Geographic Imager enhances the already commanding Adobe Photoshop imaging environment by adding all the tools and technology necessary to support the import, edit, manipulation and export of geospatial images such as aerial and satellite imagery. Full details are available at www.avenza.com

More about The National Geographic Atlas of China

Boasting more than 300 full-color maps and illustrations, this essential new atlas dramatically highlights the tremendous changes occurring within China. National Geographic maps the entire country with sections covering all provinces, including towns, cities, and transportation networks, to provide rich, comprehensive, and meticulously researched coverage of China’s dynamic landscape. For the millions of spectators planning to visit or view China’s upcoming events, the many vacationers who tour the country each year, companies doing business with China, students of history and geography, and others interested in world events, this timely reference will prove indispensable. For more information and to purchase a copy of the atlas visit http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/202/3981/114.html

More about Avenza Systems Inc.

Avenza Systems Inc. is a privately held, award-winning supplier of powerful map-making software and affordable geodata products. Led by its flagship MAPublisher product for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand and new Geographic Imager suite for Adobe Photoshop, Avenza has brought GIS and geographic workflows to the mainstream graphics and imaging environments. The Company also offers product training and consulting services. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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

– Powerful mapmaking software for Adobe Illustrator now includes live GPS capabilities –

Toronto, ON, January 22, 2008 – Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce the release of MAPublisher 7.6 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 7.6 is the latest version of this powerful mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data.

MAPublisher 7.6 for Adobe Illustrator is a full product update that is free of charge to all current MAPublisher Maintenance Program subscribers and replaces the current shipping version of MAPublisher, version 7.5, for all new customers using Adobe Illustrator CS2 or CS3.

“Once again, we have responded to the requests of our users by quickly improving on the previous version 7.5 release and including many new functions and feature enhancements,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza, “The inclusion of live GPS data collection and drawing is a tremendous new built-in feature that we know many users will enjoy and find to be extremely useful.” he added.

MAPublisher 7.6 includes all the significant functionality introduced in earlier releases of MAPublisher 7.x including a new intelligent labeling engine, new grid, graticules and scalebar generators, a new and improved MAP attributes engine with expression builder, advanced selection filters and enhanced map index creation and image registration, as well as the following new features and enhancements.

New Features of MAPublisher 7.6 for Adobe Illustrator

• GPS data can be automatically drawn, joined, attributed and styled (or symbolized) on any projected plane in Adobe Illustrator in real-time while connected to a USB or Bluetooth GPS receiver
• Improved MAP Selection Filters functionality
• Improved Join Lines functionality
• Improved Map Location tool
• Highlighting map features when selected in the MAP Attributes window
• Zoom-To-Art functionality directly from the MAP Attributes window
• UTM Grid labeling functionality
• Various other user interface improvements and performance enhancements to improve usability including additional support for Unicode characters

More About MAPublisher 7.6 For Adobe Illustrator

MAPublisher 7.6 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. Avenza also offers MAPublisher 5.0 for FreeHand – a suite of Xtras that adds mapmaking functionality to Macromedia Freehand.

MAPublisher 7.6 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher for Illustrator customers with a valid maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance members at US$549. New licenses are US$1249. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Full 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. Visit www.avenza.com for more details.

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