Hewlett Packard Co has unveiled the latest incarnation of its OpenPix Internet Imaging software, OpenPix 2.1, boasting support for HP-UX, Java and ActiveX extensions and a new Netscape plug- in. The software is being billed as a set of tools for managing and distributing photo quality images over the web. Essentially it’s a piece of middleware that resides on the server, helping to boost the performance of graphic design and layout packages such as Adobe Photoshop, across the internet. The company is pushing a built-in Image Source Module, an extension kit which enables users to integrate multiple file formats. Hewlett-Packard currently supports JPEG and FlashPix formats and will offer support for others through partners. The package is being targeted at developers as a means of promoting growth of the internet imaging market and pushing HP tools. The newly unveiled 2.1 release also includes HP OpenPix Quickstart publisher, a new authoring application designed to enable users to publish image- rich content more quickly and creative features such as zooming and panning. The HP OpenPix software suite can be downloaded free at http://image.hp.com with customer redistribution licenses agreed on an individual basis. It’s available now on Windows 95, Windows NT and HP-UX with Unix versions to follow depending on customer demand.
