A major new release of the Harlequin RIP, the print
engine that drives the industry’s highest performing digital presses, is launched
today by developers Global Graphics Software. It is the first major PDF RIP for
production printing to offer compatibility with the PDF 2.0 standard, which was
published in 2017 by the International Standards Organization and is billed as
the first “post-Adobe” standard. Harlequin Version 12 also contains a wealth of
features for high-speed digital printing, including Advanced Inkjet Screens™
that improve output quality, further additions for labels and packaging
applications, and new features for wide format and envelope printing.
The Harlequin RIP is used by HP Indigo in its newly
launched HP Production Pro for Indigo Labels and Packaging, driving five times
faster RIP power compared to the previous DFE version. It is also used in
Durst’s Symphony and Roland’s VersaWorks Dual RIP.
Reputed for the quality of its output as well as
its speed, the Harlequin RIP transforms design and pre-press data into a format
that can be printed and feeds those pages to the press at blistering speeds.
Martin Bailey, CTO and head of product management
at Global Graphics Software, says “The safest approach to the adoption of PDF
2.0 for press manufacturers is to ensure that all applications that consume
PDF, such as the Digital Front End for your press (DFE), are upgraded to
support PDF 2.0. Your DFE is the best place to start because if your customer
sends files for processing that contain some of the new features in PDF 2.0
they will usually be silently ignored by an older reader with unexpected
results in output.”
Yogev Barak, HP Indigo head of strategy and
business management, says “thousands of HP Indigo customers are using the
Global Graphics Harlequin RIP, as part of our Digital Front End solutions. The
processing speed, RIP quality and rich feature set are among the main reasons
the Harlequin RIP is the solution for our digital presses”.
Compliant
with the PDF 2.0 standard
Harlequin Host Renderer 12 supports all of the
features of the new PDF 2.0 standard that are relevant for production printing.
If your Digital Front End is not compliant with this new standard it will
silently ignore the new features available with unexpected results in output.
Upgrading your DFE and continuing to consume PDF 1.7 files is safe; not
upgrading, and trying to consume PDF 2.0 files may not be. Martin Bailey, the
CTO of Global Graphics Software, has authored a White Paper The impact of PDF
2.0 on print production which is available for download.
In-RIP
bar-code generation
This new feature allows barcodes to be created in
the RIP. Many symbologies are supported for mailing (Postal barcodes such as
those used in the US, UK, Germany, Korea, Japan, Australia etc), customer
engagement (QR Code etc), process control (code 128 etc), logistics
(datamatrix, Aztec etc). Barcodes can be snapped to the correct size for the
output resolution in use to maximize readability.
Dynamic
overlays for variable data
Some applications such as packaging, labels,
envelopes and industrial print, require a simple form of VDP support. This
might be where a single background page is combined with overlay graphics that
are selected using data from a file supplied in a format like CSV. Serial or
batch codes can be added using dynamic counters without writing values to a CSV
first. Support has been added to apply overlays on top of a single page PDF
file to add text and barcodes for serial numbers, QR codes for personalized
URLs, postal barcodes and addresses on envelopes and many other use cases.
Improving
inkjet quality
A set of new software screens that add the “final
polish” to output produced on inkjet presses is available in Version 12.
Advanced Inkjet Screens smooth out imperfections caused by the physics of
jetting ink onto substrate. There are two variants: the Pearl screen is
designed to avoid the streaking that’s common on more or less absorbent
substrates, whereas the Mirror screen is ideal for non-absorbent and
poorly-wetting surfaces such as tin cans and flexible packaging, and also areas
of dense metallic ink, where it greatly mitigates “orange peel” mottling.
Two editions
Harlequin Version 12 is available in two editions:
the Harlequin Host Renderer SDK, which powers the Digital Front Ends used in
high-volume digital production environments; and, Harlequin MultiRIP for
conventional and light digital production printing.
