First introduced in April 2006, Adobe PDF Print Engine today powers products from the print industry's biggest names, with Agfa Graphics, Dainippon Screen, FUJIFILM Electronic Imaging, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Kodak Graphic Communications Group, and RIPit all showcasing products utilizing this key print technology

Adobe today announced that major OEM printing partners will be demonstrating the integration of Adobe PDF Print Engine into printing systems at Adobe's booth and partner booths at Graph Expo, October 15 to 18 in Chicago.

Adobe today also announced version 1.1 of Adobe PDF Print Engine software technology, a comprehensive design-to-print solution that leverages Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and Job Definition Format (JDF) to deliver control, consistency and efficiency throughout the entire print workflow. The new version leverages common PDF technology across the Adobe Creative Suite and Acrobat to allow creative and print professionals to efficiently create, collaborate on, and automate the output of Adobe PDF files. New features include support for Mac OS X, PDF 1.7, PDF layer-management and enhanced color management.

"The Adobe PDF Print Engine is a major evolutionary step for the media industry," said Bernd Zipper, technology and strategy consultant of ZIPCON Consulting Germany and author of Seybold Reports, USA. "The loose ends are now finally tied up so that manufacturers, as well as users of workflow systems, are given the opportunity to use the full scope of PDF. The option for the output side to more effectively use PDF layers in the future opens up totally new perspectives for users in the prepress industry."

"The partner demonstrations at Graph Expo illustrate the growing industry support for the Adobe PDF Print Engine," said Don Walker, senior director of Product Marketing and Business Development for Adobe. "As PDF Print Engine-based systems become available, users will benefit from the more consistent, flexible and profitable workflows made possible with native PDF and JDF technology."

The Adobe PDF Print Engine combines the strengths of content definition in Adobe PDF and JDF to control print systems, allowing PDF print jobs to stay device-independent across the workflow. Print workflow systems powered by the Adobe PDF Print Engine easily allow late-stage content corrections, enable repurposing jobs for output on different printing systems - making "unified" or "hybrid," offset-to-digital workflows possible. Additionally, on-screen, high-resolution previews can be driven by the same rendering engine as final stage Raster Image Processors (RIPs).

Users of the Adobe PDF Print Engine can easily fix problems early in the workflow by using the same PDF technology included in Adobe Creative Suite. During pre-flight reviews in PDF, users can also create JDF job tickets with Acrobat, the starting point of electronically managed PDF and JDF workflows. Support for common PDF creation presets and common PDF rendering technology further enhance Adobe PDF and JDF-based print workflows. The architecture of Adobe PDF Print Engine also allows OEM printing partners to quickly support changes to the PDF specification, enabling their customers to support the most current PDF files much more quickly than before.

The new version of the Adobe PDF Print Engine includes a number of added features including support for PDF 1.7 and Mac OS X. The software also offers improved proofing workflows that support standards-based blending of process with spot colors as well as proofing devices with extended color gamuts and RIP-centric PDF Layer management, to help improve the efficiency of processing layered PDF files.

Because of its impact on the graphics communications industry including facilitating touch less workflows, the Adobe PDF Print Engine was recently awarded the 2006 PIA/GATF InterTech Technology Award. The Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) instituted the InterTech Technology Award in 1978 to honor innovative excellence.

OEM implementations of Adobe PDF Print Engine version 1.1 are expected to be available beginning December 2006. For more information about the Adobe PDF Print Engine, please visit: www.adobe.com/products/pdfprintengine.