From products for advertising layout to integrated solutions for cross-media publishing, MEI offers the technology and services that enable publications to remain competitive in a constantly evolving industry. Contact News-Net for more information

Ad Layout Systems

         Page Director® Ad Layout System (ALS)
Page Director ALS is the fast, intelligent ad dummying software used by more newspapers worldwide than any other system. ALS dramatically simplifies the ad layout process by interpreting information from a front-end booking system and automatically placing ads on pages, allowing control over gravity, editorial and advertising requirements, color press configurations, conflict management, and much more.

         Page Director® Magazine Layout System (MLS)
An automated ad layout solution built specifically for magazines, Page Director MLS provides the automatic integration of digital advertising to editorial pages. Take advantage of electronic issue planning and ad mapping and eliminate laborious, manual processes.

         AdForce™
AdForce is an easy-to-use advertising layout and issue management system designed for small to midsize publications. Available for the Macintosh and Windows, AdForce reads ad information from most front-end booking systems, and builds a runsheet of ads. Users can quickly build ad pages either by drag-and-drop or automatic flow tools. Using the included XTension, finished sections can be opened into QuarkXPress to finalize pagination.

Classified Layout Systems

         Page Director® Classified Layout System (CLS)
Page Director CLS, using a customizable, rules-based pagination engine, automatically creates fully-paginated classified sections. CLS reads advertising text and image files, builds a runsheet of the classified items, examines the liners and display ads against user-defined rules, then automatically flows them to pages. CLS offers multi-directional flow, automatic page-squaring options, automatic header placement, automatic vertical justification of elements, and auto-selection and insertion of fillers.

         ClassForce™  NEW VERSION!
ClassForce is an easy-to-use classified pagination system designed for small to midsize publications. Available for the Macintosh, ClassForce reads advertising text and image files from most front-end booking systems, and builds a runsheet of the classified items. Users then quickly create complete classified pages through point-and-shoot pagination tools. New features of version 3.0 include dockable palettes, support for breakable liners and double truck ads.

Add-on technology

         PressZoom™
MEI now offers a Press Control Suite that works with ALS to deliver a customized ALS issue description to your press control system. Since ALS tracks the overall construction of the issue, including the physical sectioning and requested color positions, the full blueprint of the publication is augmented with press-specific and customer-defined data and the information is uploaded via FTP to the press control system, where press planning can occur. The connection gives publishers the key link between the planning and manufacturing groups of their operations.

         SawMill ™
SawMill 1.0 is a powerful PostScript file parsing utility that allows users of MEI's Page Director Classified Pagination System (CLS) to import the EPS classified liners that are generated by many front-end classified booking systems. Sawmill reads and interprets a sort file from the front end classified system, and then uses this information to parse the ads file that contains all the PostScript content for the items. Sawmill rips through large PostScript classified dump files and spits out small, individual files that can be imported to CLS and paginated with the powerful, rules-based placement engine that is at the heart of CLS.

         FiFi™ XT
Quark XTension. FiFi XT takes the work out of finding late ads and graphics by quickly updating all link information.

         Rules™ XT
Quark XTension. Rules XT automates the time-consuming process of drawing vertical and horizontal rules around ads.

         MultiBox™ XT
Quark XTension for use with Page Director ALS and Page Director CLS. MultiBox XT lets you easily build display and multiple-element ads directly in QuarkXPress. Perfect for real estate guides and trader directories.

         XTs and Plug-ins
Enables layouts created with MEI's Page Director products to be integrated into QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign.