Atex is releasing “Matik” to the market. The new image tool allows editors to easily combine pictures and publish them immediately in digital and print.

Desk is the multichannel content production system used by news publishers such as JPI Media, GEDI, Mediahuis, Newsday and many more. Providing a unified environment to create and deliver content for digital and print, Desk allows the newsroom to managing the entire workflow in just one system.

The new image collage tool Matik adds a popular feature for image editing: the ability to combine one or more pictures into one.

Image composition is a powerful way to tell a story and allows editors to enrich their home page slots with creative ideas and more interesting messages.

Some of the popular features available in Matik include:

  • Combining two images side by side, for example, to create an effect “before/after.”
  • Creating a mosaic with multiple photos, for example, combines numerous people or locations in one single picture.
  • Picture in picture: headshot of a speaker on top of the image of the audience
  • Colour effects: using grayscale helps to highlight some details.
  • Text effects, superimpose text on a picture.

The new tool is available in the Desk interface: it allows the user to pick the source images directly from the digital asset manager and drag them into any available templates. Users can also edit the template design or create entirely new ones, providing the flexibility needed to achieve the best result.

The tool is seamlessly integrated with the Atex home page editor, Frontpage. The user can open Matik while preparing a teaser for the home page with the right image size already selected. Once the desired composition is complete, it can be pasted inside the teaser with one click!

Picture: Matik allows Desk users to select multiple styles and drag images directly into the editor from the toolbox or the local file system.

“We are always looking at innovative ways to simplify editors’ work. By adding this new tool, a task that previously would require 15-20 minutes can now be completed in 5, without leaving the familiar production environment,” commented Gian Camillo Vezzoli, Head of Content Business Unit at Atex.