Chartsmith v1.1 Now Shipping; All New for 2003, Popular Mac OS X Graphing Application has Something for Everyone

RESTON, Va., Jan. 6, 2003 -- Blacksmith(SM), developers of best-of-breed commercial and custom software for Mac OS X(R), today announced the immediate availability of Chartsmith(TM) v1.1.

With many new chart types, integration with Microsoft Excel(R), trend lines, and error bars, Chartsmith now, more than ever, is the one-stop charting and graphing solution for Mac OS X.

"Following the initial release of Chartsmith in 2002, Mac enthusiasts everywhere told us how excited they were to see a premium charting and graphing package like Chartsmith available for Mac OS X," said Tony Rennier, President and CEO of Blacksmith. "Our customers told us how much they liked Chartsmith and provided many suggestions for chart types and other new features that they would like to see added in upcoming releases. We are excited that we were able to address the majority of those requests in this release of Chartsmith".

Chartsmith v1.1 provides a rich set of chart types and features in an intuitive Aqua interface that is simple to learn and easy to use. Support for scientific and business chart types, presentation-quality graphics, and seamless integration with Microsoft Excel(R), are all included alongside powerful features like trend lines, error bars, and templates.

With its support for drag-n-drop features, Mac OS X Services and AppleScript, Chartsmith v1.1 has features that attract any user.

"Dating back to its initial release for NextStep(R) in 1993, Chartsmith has always benefited from a rich dialog between our development team and our users" said Tom Trainer, Senior Vice President of Blacksmith. "Our goal, based on customer feedback, has been to produce an application that provides lots of features without a lot of needless complexity. By leveraging the Mac OS X Aqua interface and incorporating many of the features requested by our customers, we believe Chartsmith v1.1 has achieved this goal."

Free evaluation copies of Chartsmith v1.1 are available at http://www.blacksmith.com. Fully enabled copies of Chartsmith are priced at $129US. Educational discounts are provided for faculty at $99US and students at $69US. Chartsmith v1.1 is provided as a free upgrade from Chartsmith 1.0.

Established in 1992, Blacksmith(SM), a division of Foundry, Inc. delivers best-of-breed, commercial software and provides custom development services for Mac OS X(R) and WebObjects(R). Blacksmith's first software product for Mac OS X is Chartsmith(TM).

Now in its second major release, Chartsmith is an enhanced version of the awarding-winning charting and graphing package produced for the NextStep(R) and OpenStep(R) operating environments. Chartsmith represents the first of many commercial software products that Blacksmith plans for the Mac OS X market.

In addition to developing a line of Mac OS X commercial products, Blacksmith also provides consulting services to companies and organizations developing commercial and custom software for Mac OS X and WebObjects. For more information, please visit www.blacksmith.com.

Copyright 2003 Blacksmith a Division of Foundry Incorporated. All rights reserved. Max OS X, NextStep, and OpenStep are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Chartsmith is trademark of and Blacksmith is a service mark of, Foundry, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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      CONTACT: Blacksmith
               Press/Analyst Contact
               Tony Rennier, 703/771-9440
               trennier@blacksmith.com