October 27, 2008 – Gent, Belgium – Enfocus and Alwan Color Expertise, leaders in PDF quality assurance, color optimization and standards compliance, have joined forces in the development of Alwan PDF Standardizer to bring simple, reliable PDF standardization and quality control to the graphic arts market. With the launch of Alwan PDF Standardizer, Enfocus and Alwan continue their industry leadership by creating a brand-new category of graphic communications software and standardization tools.

"Enfocus is a leader in bringing simplicity, reliability and accuracy to PDF workflows," said Peter Camps, Senior Vice President, Enfocus. "Alwan has played a similar role in the color space. This joint effort provides a missing link between our respective offerings. With PDF Standardizer, publishers, agencies and other content creators can produce predictable, problem-free PDFs, and print service providers can more easily preflight and normalize source PDFs before placing them into production."

In addition to leveraging the automation and advanced preflighting capabilities of Enfocus PitStop and Enfocus Switch, PDF Standardizer also provides out-of-the-box compliance with ISO 12647 and 15930 color requirements. This brings an innovative quality assurance process to global and print-on-demand digital workflows, simplifying production for both content creators and print service providers. It offers dynamic color management, flattening of transparencies, and normalization of PDF files, resulting in perfect workflow reliability. In addition, PDF Standardizer has the 2008 InterTech award-winning Alwan Dynamic Device Link technology embedded, and easily integrates with any existing workflow.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Enfocus to bring PDF Standardizer to the graphic arts community," said Elie Khoury, President of Alwan Color Expertise. "PDF producers and print service providers can not afford file interpretation and reproduction problems as margins and cycle times continue to shrink. PDF Standardizer is the result of two years of sustained development effort and collaboration with Enfocus. We believe this inaugurates a new generation of fully automated and reliable quality assurance solutions for the graphic arts industry."

Alwan PDF Standardizer will be available in January 2009, through both Enfocus and Alwan's distribution channels. The product will be priced at 8.000 Euro (10.000 USD).

Product Details
Alwan PDF Standardizer delivers the best of both worlds from two industry leaders and brings a new level of standardization and ease-of-use to graphic arts workflows. It is the first product in the market to deliver the promise of problem-free PDFs for any prepress workflow.

Key benefits include:
- Integrated PDF and color preflighting and standardization
- Brings simple PDF color management within reach for users at all skill levels
- A new level of reliability and quality assurance for global and print-on-demand workflows
- Ability to easily integrate with existing workflow and workflow systems
- Problem-free processing and conversion of source PDF files into reliable PDFs for printing in any environment
- Dynamic color management and dynamic management and flattening of transparencies for error-free PDF processing by both current and legacy workflow systems
- Automatic installation, and easy operating with a user-friendly wizard that enables fast set-up, including queues and system settings
- Instant compliance with ISO Standards 12647 and 15930