Adobe has announced version 5 of the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE). The Adobe PDF Print Engine is a software development kit that converts PDF job content (graphics, text, and images) to rasters for driving digital presses, wide-format printers, label printers, and platesetters. APPE is the leading rendering technology at the heart of prepress workflows in the $900 billion print industry.
The new version extends PDF Print Engine’s reliable color reproduction with new capabilities to harness the full potential of today’s digital and conventional presses. Ongoing innovations in inks and inkjet heads are creating opportunities to print on new surfaces. PDF Print Engine 5 will maximize color impact in the coming generation of textile presses, industrial print stations, and digital presses for label and packaging production.
The Adobe PDF Print Engine is deployed as part of prepress solutions developedd by Adobe print-solutions partners such as Agfa Graphics, Caldera, Canon, CGS, ColorGATE, Dalim, EFI, Epson, Esko, Fujifilm, GMG, Heidelberg, HP, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Océ, Riso, Screen, Sharp, Xanté, Xeikon, and Xerox.
From Creative Design to Remarkable Prints
The latest functionality in Adobe Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and InDesign CC, enable designers to push the creative envelope in terms of colors and special effects.Many designers produce graphically rich files that are increasingly complex to print. PDF Print Engine 5 is optimized to precisely render these complex jobs for printing on flat and contoured surfaces including paper, plastic, fabric, metal, ceramic, glass, and food products.
The new color features in PDF Print Engine 5 strengthen support for Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) digital presses with inksets that go beyond the traditional four-color base of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to magnify the visual and tactile effects of brand messaging.
New Features
Some of the new features in Adobe PDF Print Engine include:
High-speed edge enhancement. Anti-aliasing technology renders visually smoother edges on graphic objects, even at lower resolutions. It also reduces processing times to a fraction of the time of alternative and post-rendering methods.
Enhanced Unicode support. Control parameters, file paths, and passwords now include multi-byte characters from non-Roman character sets. This increases the ease-of-use in printing text in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
PDF 2.0 print feature support. Black-point compensation (BPC) to preserve details in image shadow areas during conversions; CxF-defined spot colors (Color eXchange Format) to enable spectral-based color management; HTO (Half-Tone Origin) to align pre-imposed objects to the device pixel-grid, ensuring identical line-screens.
Page-level output intent. Color conversions for multi-page PDF 2.0 jobs can be managed on a page-by-page basis, enabling greater flexibility and automation in prepress workflows.
“Brand managers count on accurate reproduction of vibrant designs to connect with customers,” said Adil Munshi, vice president and general manager, Print and Publishing Business Unit, Adobe. “Print jobs that are authored in Creative Cloud, reviewed in Adobe Acrobat DC, and proofed and output by Adobe PDF Print Engine 5 will now deliver the fastest rendering, best-of-breed color imaging and predictable results every step of the way.”
PDF Print Engine 5 is now available to new and long-standing Adobe solution partners who are working to integrate it into their product lines. Adobe collaborates closely with market-leading equipment vendors in commercial printing, publishing, signage, CAD/GIS, photography, packaging/labels, direct mail, textiles/garments, and other manufacturing applications that want to optimize the Adobe PDF print experience.
When deployed in the Mercury RIP Architecture on multi-core, networked or cloud platforms, PDF Print Engine 5 can be scaled to drive high-volume production on a single press or across multiple presses. Print-service providers can buy (or upgrade to) products built on the Adobe PDF Print Engine 5 later this year.
Agfa Announces Apogee 11 with PDF Print Engine 5
In July, Agfa Graphics announced that Apogee 11 prepress solution will be the first product to incorporate Adobe PDF Print Engine 5.
“When Adobe launched the PDF format in 1993, Agfa immediately recognized that is robust imaging model was well-suited for the graphic arts and developed our PDF-based prepress workflows, an industry first.”” said Erik Peeters, marketing manager, Agfa Graphics. “Print has changed dramatically over the last 25 years, but the new releases of Apogee and Adobe PDF Print Engine reaffirm the value and power of PDF for predictable reproduction of complex graphics.”