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Product category: Printing Pre-Press Systems and Materials (Repro, Platemakers, CTP, Workflow, Document Management, Design Software, etc.)
News Release from: Pageflex (A Division of Bitstream Inc) | Subject: Pageflex
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial Team on 22 May 2006

New High Volume Variable Data Web-Print
Software

Bitstream has unveiled its Pageflex software for variable data, web-to-print and cross-media publishing.

Bitstream has unveiled its Pageflex software for variable data, web-to-print and cross-media publishing The new product - Pageflex - is claimed to bring all existing Pageflex capabilities together in to a single, modular application, and adds scalability for server clusters, multi-platform interactive on-line editing (including Java applet, Adobe, Flash and Ajax interfaces), print production automation features, document manipulation capabilities for advanced users and enhancements to make the product easier to use

The company demonstrated portions of the new Pageflex application on stand 2262 at the On Demand Conference and Expo in Philadelphia (USA).

Costas Kitsos, vice president of engineering at Bitstream, said: "The Pageflex release is truly a powerful next generation application that raises the bar for all variable data server applications on the market.

Companies with high-volume, web-to-print implementations will benefit from enterprise-level, mission-critical features and centralised administration.

Whilst customers interested in giving their users the ability to interactively edit text, images and layout elements from within their web browsers will have the flexibility to deploy their editing interface using Java applets, Adobe Flash, or Ajax." The company added that the announcement also marks a shift in how it will present its Pageflex business.

Bitstream is 25 years old this year and has specialised in fonts, font technologies, browsing and publishing software.

Given the importance of the Pageflex product line to Bitstream's overall business and growth strategy, the company said it begin promoting the Pageflex product line as an integral part of the Bitstream family of software products.

Anna Chagnon, Bitstream's president and chief executive officer, said: "People who know Bitstream often are surprised that we are a worldwide leader in the booming variable data segment.

By naming our newest product 'Pageflex' and using 'Pageflex by Bitstream' in our marketing efforts we expect to capitalise on the name recognition of both Pageflex and Bitstream." Previously the company has sold separate server-based products for data-driven document customisation, cross-media publishing, interactive on-line editing of documents, and web-to-print document customisation portals.

Some customers owned one application, whilst others owned multiple applications to accomplish an array of variable publishing projects.

The new Pageflex application brings all of those capabilities in to one application.

Chagnon added: "Our customers now will be able to install a single application and turn on or off features based on their changing requirements.

As their businesses grow, one application now will scale to meet their low-to-high variable data needs for personalisation, template design, customisation, cross-media publishing, on-line editing, and web-to-print." The Pageflex application includes all existing functions that currently are available from Pageflex for data merge, web form driven document production, and interactive on-line editing of variable documents.

In addition, there are also enhancements to support companies with high volume, multiple server requirements.

New capabilities include built-in load balancing and fail-over across multiple systems, support for multiple job queues enabling concurrent job processing, batching, and priority processing and centralised server administration with logging and reporting improvements, said the company.

There is a multi-platform interactive on-line editing tool that supports Adobe Flash and Ajax-based interfaces, in addition to the Java applet interface currently available, in both Windows and Macintosh web browsers.

A number of features supporting streamlined print production workflows are also featured.

They include the ability to batch jobs with many variable records in to a series of smaller jobs, the ability to assign paper trays on a press to individual document pages so that multiple stocks or pre-printed sheets can be co-mingled within a document and step-and-repeat and cut-and-stack imposition options.

The latter is said to enable one record or multiple records to be automatically imposed on a press sheet.

The company added that the ability to manipulate the look, feel, and content of a variable document through scripting beyond what can be accomplished by using variables is also possible.

The so called 'document actions' are claimed to enable users to write scripts that can be run before or after variable data is merged with the template design as the Pageflex application enables every aspect of the document to be manipulated on a record by record basis.

Document actions can query and modify variable values, content, attributes, pages, shapes, and text.

Pageflex said that the ability to copyfit multiple text containers in relation to one another is also important.

When variable text is copyfitted the same format setting can be used on all specified text boxes, which is claimed to ensure a consistent look across the entire document.

There are also graphic design enhancements for both the desktop Pageflex Studio application, which is used to design templates, and the interactive on-line editing interface.

The enhancements include the ability to have static or variable text on a path, a hand tool for panning the page, and snap-to-grid editing, as well as the addition of guides and grids to the interactive on-line editing interface.

The company said the system also incorporates improvements in response times when using the on-line interactive editing interface - speed increases when a template initially appears in the interface, and when interactively modifying shapes and text.

Companies using the interactive on-line editing module will now have support for all Pageflex long document features and the ability to ingest subsets of variables.

The system supports Adobe PDF Library 7, direct PDF export from the Pageflex Studio design tool, and the ability to embed hypertext links in PDF output.

There are optimised PostScript and Optimised PDF drivers, which are specifically intended to benefit jobs involving single-file output with multiple records and recurring images.

Results will vary depending upon individual projects, but most users should see a reduction in times for output generation, as well as file sizes.

The drivers join the list of existing Pageflex output drivers - PostScript, PDF, EPS, HTML, GIF, JPEG, PPML, JLYT, VPS, VDX, and VIPP.

Anna Chagnon commented: "Pageflex users will be able to take advantage of our patented 'flex' technology, unique on-line interactive document layout and editing abilities, on-the-fly document resizing and on-line store creation and management features.

They will also value the variable-length document and automatic table of contents creation capabilities, as well as powerful cross-media features that can drive coordinated variable print, email and microsite campaigns, all from a single scalable and modular software application.".

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