PDF/VT is an international standard published by ISO in August 2010 as ISO 16612-2. It defines the use of

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

as an exchange format optimized for variable and transactional printing. Built on top of PDF/X-4, it is the first variable-data printing (VDP) format which ensures modern International Color Consortium-based (ICC) color management through the use of ICC Output Intents. It adds the notion of encapsulated groups of graphic objects to support optimized efficient processing for repeating text, graphic or image content. Introducing the concept of document part metadata (DPM), it enables reliable and dynamic management of pages for High Volume Transactional Output (HVTO) print data, like record selection or postage optimization based on metadata. While PDF/VT-1 always consists of a self-contained file, other variants of the standard support the use of external graphic content (PDF/VT-2) as well as streaming through the use of multi-part MIME packages (PDF/VT-2s). In addition to being a digital master for VDP printing, it can be shared, viewed and interactively navigated by human operators using a normal

reader, though completely accurate rendering requires a PDF/X-4 or PDF/VT conforming viewer. A number of vendors announced their support for PDF/VT upon publication of the standard in 2010. Over the subsequent few years various other PDF/VT-consuming and -producing products also reached the market: * ''PDF/VT producer:'' The vendor PDFlib joined the ranks of producing vendors in April 2011 with PDFlib 8 VT Edition which is able to generate valid PDF/VT data. The vendor PrintSoft (now Objectif Lune) since late 2013 provides PReS 6.3.0 which is able to generate valid PDF/VT data. * ''PDF/VT validator:'' callassoftware has upgraded its

Pre-flight (printing) {{Unreferenced, date=October 2008 In printing, Preflight is the process of confirming that the digital files required for the printing process are all present, valid, correctly formatted, and of the desired type. The basic idea is to prepare the f ...

application "pdfToolbox" version 5 with the option to check for PDF/VT conformity. * ''PDF/VT consumers:'' Adobe have upgraded their

Raster image processor A raster image processor (RIP) is a component used in a printing system which produces a raster image also known as a bitmap. Such a bitmap is used by a later stage of the printing system to produce the printed output. The input may be a page d ...

software Adobe PDF PrintEngine (APPE) to add support for efficient PDF/VT processing. APPE is embedded and built into many high speed printers made by different vendors.

Global Graphics Global Graphics PLC is known for its digital printing and document technology including the Harlequin and Jaws RIPs and the gDoc digital document software. The Company supplies its software under license to Original Equipment Manufacturers and so ...

have supported PDF/VT in their

Harlequin RIP "Harlequin (software)" is a raster image processor first released in 1990 under the name ScriptWorks running as a command-line application to render PostScript language files under Unix. It was developed by Harlequin, a software company based in ...

since v8.2, which was launched at Ipex in April 2010 by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

in the DFE driving the Indigo Digital Press. The ubiquity of

, as well as the fact that PDF itself now is an ISO standard (ISO 32000-1:2008) clearly work in favor of PDF/VT. Nevertheless, it is currently difficult to predict where in the industry PDF/VT will be adopted and how fast that will happen, and how it will be positioned vis-à-vis other formats and architectures for variable data printing. The practical requirements and benefits of PDF/VT are explained in more detail, along with related recommendations, in a guide from

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:PDF VT ISO standards Digital press Page description languages Computer file formats PDF standards

See also

References