Editors:

KRT Graphics will begin posting its infographics in Adobe Illustrator CS2, the current version of Illustrator, beginning July 5, 2006. As of that date, graphics will no longer be posted in Macromedia FreeHand 9, the software KRT is now using.

At that time, KRT's infographics will also be available in PDF format for clients who want to view and publish the files without using drawing software.

"We recognize this will be a big change for many of our clients, as well as for us, and the long lead time before the changeover is meant to ease the transition," said Wes Albers, director of KRT Graphics.

"We think the inevitable 'growing pains' are outweighed by the advantages of working in the latest version of a drawing program, one that works seamlessly with many of the other programs our clients use."

KRT Graphics has continued to post graphics in FreeHand 9, software that is two FreeHand generations old, while Macintosh clients move to computers running the OS X operating system.

"Our most recent survey shows that the vast majority of our clients are now on OS X and can run the latest versions of drawing software," Albers said. "We see a trend to move from FreeHand to Illustrator and to move to the latest version of Illustrator."

PC clients can use Illustrator CS2 on machines running the Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems.

Several factors weighed in the decision:

* Adobe's pending purchase of Macromedia

* the popularity of Illustrator in international markets and among non-newspaper publishers

* the compatibility of Illustrator with other Adobe products commonly used in the publishing world (PhotoShop, InDesign, Acrobat, etc.)

KRT's 32,000+ graphics archive will not be converted to Illustrator. Customers will be able to edit archive graphics in either FreeHand or Illustrator as they do today. Albers added: "Moving forward, the archive will become an Illustrator archive as we post new files and remove outdated files."

Clients who prefer to continue working in FreeHand can convert Illustrator CS2 files by opening them in CS2, saving them as Illustrator 8 files, then opening them in FreeHand 9 or later.

Macintosh and PC versions of Illustrator CS2 are available. The Mac and PC versions are fully portable, meaning that a CS2 file created on a Mac can be opened on a PC and vice versa.

Illustrator CS2 is available in U.S. English, International English, French, German, Swedish, Polish and many other languages. Versions in Dutch, Danish, Chinese and Korean should be available by late August 2005; Hebrew and Arabic versions are slated for release in December 2005.