Adobe’s PDF Print Engine technology leap – the Muratore take

Q. Why is Adobe's new PDF Print Engine so ‘ground-breaking’?

“Effectively, this is Adobe's move away from its famous CPSI (Configurable
PostScript Interpreter) - the ‘core’ to all Adobe's OEM partners, Agfa included, when
they build RIPs or workflow products.

“In the early eighties PostScript was seen as a Page Description Language (PDL)
aimed at the desktop/laser printer market. This era is often described as ‘PS1’. Then
in the late eighties/early nineties when the industry started to see professional layout
packages like Quark and PageMaker, ‘PS2’ was released and we started to see
functionality beyond laser printing for engines such as imagesetters. This meant
‘PS2’ had to handle high resolutions, separations, screening, etc. The degree of
difficulty was increased and, in effect, an industry standard was born.

“In the mid-nineties vendors needed to do more with RIPs. Workflow products were
being built around the latest version of the CPSI (‘PS3’) and now the ‘system’ had to
do more than simply RIP - it had to handle imposition, trapping, normalisation, preflighting, etc. It also had to handle PDF efficiently as that format had become the
industry standard.

“From ‘PS1’ through to ‘PS3’ the CPSI remained on similar code - although
functionality was certainly added. With the CPSI approach, incoming files
(regardless whether they are PS, TIFF, EPS or PDF) are converted to an internal
format which is PostScript. During the rendering process, the PS file is turned into a
Bitmap for the device output (e.g. laser, proofer, CTP, etc.).

“Now, with the introduction of Adobe’s new PDF engine, OEM partners will develop
products that no longer use the CPSI. It is, in effect, replaced by totally new code -
being the PDF engine. Now when PDF files come into the system they won’t be
converted to PostScript. Instead, the PDF engine will have the ability to convert the
PDF immediately to device-specific bitmap. This will mean quicker file processing,
better colour management (as PDF is easier to colour manage than Postscript) and a
workflow architecture that has been developed to take advantage of current and
future PDF file formats and versions.”

Q. When will the new engine be available in Agfa’s products?

“Agfa is a major OEM of Adobe and we will make sure our larger and ever-increasing
user base of workflow customers will be able to take quick advantage of such new
technology. The new Adobe PDF engine will be integrated into both Delano project
management and ApogeeX automated workflow so customers who have invested in
Agfa's workflow architecture will not be left behind. They will have a current system
built from the ground up for file processing in the new millennium.

“The first incarnation of the new PDF Engine architecture for Agfa will be the next
major ApogeeX version revision - ApogeeX 4.0 - planned for commercially
availability in the second half of 2007.”

Q. Why will it take so long to integrate the new engine into Agfa’s products?

“Adobe is releasing the final code to all OEM partners at the same time, so no vendor
will have a commercial advantage over another. However, it’s important to
understand the work involved in a major revision change. Agfa’s ApogeeX is a total
end-to-end workflow product. It’s very complex and the new Adobe technology has
to be developed and tested with all features and functions of our system. Some
vendors offering less-complex systems, such as a RIP product to drive a single
engine like a colour plotter, may get their product to the market quicker simply
because they have to undertake less development and testing.”

Features of the new Adobe PDF Print Engine

• Common PDF technology across the workflow to improve end-to-end
  consistency and predictability of print output
• Pervasive JDF control that captures job ticket and process control information
  separately from the PDF file, enabling end-to-end, device-independent PDF
  files
• Native PDF and live transparency rendering with no flattening streamlines
  production of complex PDF artwork
• ‘What You See Is What You Print’ true-to-print onscreen PDF previews
• Fast rendering of sophisticated design elements to reduce processing times
  and improve system throughput; and
• Scalable architecture takes advantage of optimised processing in multicore CPUs and CPU environments.
  
  Contact Garry Muratore garry.muratore@agfa.com