Quebec City (QC), September 19, 2023 — De Marque, a leading provider of ebook services based in Canada, announces the acquisition of the assets of France-based company Geo Comix. With its joint research laboratory with La Rochelle University (France), Geo Comix has been developing innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tools designed to analyze the content of illustrated books.
Geo Comix’s clients include a number of major publishing houses, who use its translation and lettering productivity services for comics, manga, graphic novels and webtoons. This acquisition by De Marque will not only contribute to simplifying ebook production for these publishers, but will also ultimately enable them to achieve the highest standards of reading accessibility, particularly for illustrated works.
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An accessible ebook provides everyone, whether they experience perceptual difficulties or not, with a range of flexible means to access its contents, such as text-to-speech, adjustable font size and spacing, background color, and so on.
Consequently, the significance of this acquisition for De Marque is rooted in this need for universal accessibility. The growth in AI research initiated by Geo Comix will be accelerated under the Cantook Labs banner, a division of De Marque that will consolidate its many advances in the field of digital publishing.
This effort will result in concrete improvements to the Cantook range of products, further strengthening De Marque’s commitment to promoting universal accessibility of digital content. One such example is the possibility for publishers to automatically identify the various elements that constitute an illustrated book (images, text, layout) and make these elements compatible with accessibility application features (such as text-to-speech or font adjustment, to name a few).
Therefore, Cantook Labs will play a key role in the De Marque Group’s overall mission of connecting creators to their audiences around the world, and thus contributing to the growth of culture globally.
“We are delighted to welcome the Geo Comix team to the De Marque family, which confirms our commitment to strengthening our research and development teams, particularly in the field of AI associated with books and their use towards universal accessibility,” commented Marc Boutet, President of De Marque.
“With so many synergies between us both, becoming part of the De Marque group is both a springboard for Geo Comix and an opportunity to integrate innovations into the group’s existing technologies.,” asserts Geo Comix founder Samuel Petit.
About De Marque :
Established in Quebec City (Canada) since 1990, De Marque is experiencing remarkable international growth through strategic acquisitions in line with its long-term plan to become a technology leader in the world of digital publishing and distribution, serving publishing houses, public and school libraries, bookstores, organizations and consumers. De Marque’s services include :
- The Cantook suite: at the heart of De Marque’s activities, the Cantook platforms form an integrated ecosystem for ebook distribution, from publishers to points of sale as well as library lending;
- Feedbooks: an online bookstore dedicated to serving libraries and consumers;
- Aldiko: the open mobile reading app, widely used by public library patrons;
- Cyberlibris: a subscription-based academic content platform;
- Geo Comix: a translation productivity tool for comics, manga and webtoons, at the forefront of artificial intelligence research and development for these genres.
For further information: www.demarque.com
About Geo Comix :
For over 10 years, Geo Comix has been developing AI-based technology for publishers of illustrated books, in particular comics, manga, graphic novels and webtoons, as well as a translation and lettering productivity tool, providing publishers and international studios with significant productivity gains.
For further information: www.geocomix.com.