Global Graphics-HP Extend RIPs To New Indigo 5000

Global Graphics Software has extended its relationship with HP by partnering with it to provide the Harlequin RIP as the standard on-board RIP supplied with every HP Indigo 5000 digital press.

Global Graphics Software has extended its relationship with HP by partnering with it to provide the Harlequin RIP as the standard on-board RIP supplied with every HP Indigo 5000 digital press.

The Indigo 5000 - due for release in late 2004 or early 2005, is HP's new printer for medium-sized and large-sized commercial print service providers.

Global Graphics first announced its collaboration with HP to provide printing software technology in 2002 with the introduction of HP Production Flow, a digital systems platform.

It contains multiple Harlequin RIPs that Global Graphics said boost the processing power of HP's Indigo digital presses by adding expanded, scaleable performance.

Jim Freidah, Global Graphics Software's president and chief operating officer, said: "We are excited that HP has standardised on the Harlequin RIP for the Indigo 5000 because it further strengthens our relationship with them in the digital print market.

It also underlines our increasing success in deploying our core technologies, that have an established reputation in the high-end graphic arts market, into the growing print on demand segment." Mike Neuffer, product marketing manager for the imaging and printing group at HP said: "Global Graphics has offered us tremendous support to adapt the Harlequin RIP to embed into our Indigo digital presses.

The RIP's high-performance processing capability is a valuable addition." Global Graphics said that Harlequin RIP consumes print jobs fast enough to run HP Indigo digital presses at full speed even when processing large or complex files where the content may vary page by page.

It interprets PDF files directly (without the need to convert them to Postscript first) allowing for a faster and more accurate rendition of the file.

It also provides numerous colour management options, including support for industry standards on colour as well as custom controls.

The Harlequin RIP is based on a distributed architecture (called SOAR - Scaleable Open Architecture RIP) which means that Global Graphics' customers can combine one or more Harlequin RIPs into a high-performance engine that can adapt to a wide range of printing output devices said the company.

HP Production Flow consists of a bank of Harlequin RIPs that give scalable performance helping to automate and manage the production workflow process.

If the print service provider has a large PDF or variable data file the bank of RIPs will parse and process the file across multiple RIPs and reassemble the document, or it will parallel process Postscript jobs, sending one job to one bank of RIPs and the other to a second bank of RIPs added Global Graphics.

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