Solimar Systems to Present ReadyPDF File Optimizer at PRINTING United

PDF (portable document format) files have been the basic raw materials of print production for decades now, but they’re still bedeviled by font errors, unwanted objects, and other issues that can slow processing and impair output. Solimar Systems says it has a makeover for “ugly” PDF in ReadyPDF, a new optimization and prepress module that it will present as part of its exhibit in booth 11248 at PRINTING United (Dallas, Oct. 23-25).

In a preshow media briefing, Jonathan Malone-McGrew, Solimar’s senior director, engagement, described ReadyPDF as a post-composition tool that both eliminates defects and reduces file sizes for improved throughput.

He said that the software, available to license as a stand-alone module or to use as a component of Solimar’s Print Director Enterprise workflow suite, addresses common PDF problems associated with fonts, color, images, objects, and file structure. Specific functions include:

• “Cleansing” PDFs to run more efficiently through smart print factories
• Improving inkjet press throughput
• Tuning and setting color profiles
• Consolidating and correctly embedding fonts
• Downsampling images for better delivery and archiving
• Automating PDF workflows for lights-out operation

Manipulating PDFs in these ways, said McGrew, can lead to notable reductions in file sizes. He presented an example of a 10,000-page transactional print job that, after optimization with ReadyPDF, became more than two and a half times smaller. The file size of another example, a job consisting of 4,003 pages, was reduced by a factor of nearly 10.

ReadyPDF’s key differentiators, according to McGrew, are its font handling capabilities and its ability to streamline file structures by removing off-page objects and flattening layer transparencies. Users of the software are already seeing “huge” benefits in job processing efficiency and cost savings, he said.

Solimar has aimed the initial launch ReadyPDF at the transactional space but foresees applications in other markets as well. McGrew said that as locally hosted software, ReadyPDF can accept PDF files created in any composition program and is integrable with customers’ existing workflows. It also can work within Chemistry, Solimar’s customer communications management (CCM) platform.

Specializing in PDF workflows since 1991, Solimar Systems is a leading developer of customer communication management and delivery solutions. Markets served include automotive, financial, gaming and entertainment, government, healthcare, higher education, insurance, non-profit, retail, telecom, travel and leisure, and utilities.

Solimar solutions give these clients visibility into their workflows and operations while driving costs down, track the lifecycle of jobs from receipt to multi-channel distribution, optimize and convert data and documents, manage and optimize production printing across facilities, and enable secure access and compliance.

The company also partners with print technology developers, including Xerox, EFI, and BCC Software, which will be joining Solimar Systems as exhibitors at PRINTING United.