Global Signs Jaws RIP Deal With Sharp

Global Graphics Software has signed a multi-year agreement to provide its Jaws RIP technology for Sharp colour multi-function digital printers and copiers.

Global Graphics Software has signed a multi-year agreement to provide its Jaws RIP technology for Sharp colour multi-function digital printers and copiers.

Sharp's AR range, now shipping in Japan, the US, the UK and Europe, uses the Jaws RIP on its embedded controller board option to provide PostScript interpretation for high quality color printing.

The news is the second far-reaching announcement that Global has made in recent weeks as it reveals the first results of its strategy to market its high end graphic arts technology into the distributed digital print sector of the growing print on demand market.

The PostScript Language Level 3 and PDF 1.4 compatible Jaws RIP is a high-performance kernel interpreter with a small code footprint.

It has a highly developed and very flexible Application Programming Interface (API), which means that it can be readily integrated into any controller board environment, offering manufacturers a cost advantage in a price sensitive segment, in terms of engineering time to market.

The flexible design of the interpreter allows OEMs to add best-in-class option modules so that they can choose to add on technologies that best fit their products and markets.

Global Graphics worked closely with the Sharp engineering team, who required high quality PostScript interpretation and printing, good quality colour output as well as high performance and speed.

They needed a flexible engineering partner whose technology could accommodate the pre-defined parameters set by Sharp for the board design and the color management module.

Under the agreement, PostScript is an option for the Sharp AR-C260M copier and printer model, and the AR-C260P printer, both of which can print or copy 26 colour pages per minute or 32 in monochrome.

The Global Graphics team developed a software layer around the Jaws kernel - the Jaws Interface Layer - to interface with the controller board management software.

The kernel, interface layer and management system are embedded onto the controller board.

The engineering teams worked closely together on implementing the specific requirements of the AR system including support for the Agfa colour management and screening that were integrated into the embedded system.

Jim Freidah, Global Graphics Software's chief operating officer commented: "This is a further milestone for us that underlines the success of our long-term strategy to increase our revenues from the digital print market.

We make a considerable investment into research and development each year and our developers have worked hard to ensure that our technology meets the needs of OEMs and board designers in this market." Global Graphics said it has built its reputation on supplying high performance RIPs, PDF workflow and colour technology to the commercial print and print on demand sectors but during the past two years it has optimised its software for embedded use to position itself as a serious player in this growth market.

It claimed its success stems from the reliability of its components and the strong engineering relationships that it nurtures with the OEM and the controller board designer and provider.

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