Cambridge UK : Global Graphics Software, a Hybrid Software Group company, has been granted a US patent for “Methods and systems for indicating and replacing missing element(s) in print job files prior to printing” (United States Patent No. 11334302B1) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Global Graphics Software is a developer of innovative software components for digital print including the Harlequin RIP®, the Direct range, and ScreenPro™, the fastest solutions on the market for driving data through digital presses and ensuring high quality output.

The invention describes how a PDF file may be delivered containing placeholders for data that is not available at the time at which that PDF was created, or not available to the person creating the PDF file. The placeholders may be specified using patterns, spot colors or specific color values.

The method may therefore be used in a variety of use cases including:

• placeholders for variable data, especially in cases where the jobs should be streamed and the full set of data is not available when the print run starts, or where the variable data is generated dynamically on the fly during printing, e.g. serial and batch numbers, expiry dates, etc.
• placeholders for secure data that is only made accessible during the printing process, e.g. for security documents, ID cards, lottery or entry tickets etc.
• placeholders for data that could be damaged if processed through a regular PDF creation and prepress workflows, such as digital watermarking

“There are times when a design delivered to a prepress workflow or the digital front end for a digital press needs to mark some areas to have additional data added later, comments Martin Bailey, distinguished technologist, Global Graphics Software. “Examples include the print job or document rendering time or date, the print job or document rendering location, batch or serial numbers, a customer’s order number, customer name, a job name, a printer/converter/manufacturer’s job number, or a product identifier such as a Universal Product Code or European Article Number product code.

“We work hard to deliver value and innovation to our OEM customers. This is one of a cluster of patents that highlights how the day-to-day work of our engineering and R & D teams is focussed on delivering productivity and efficiency to print workflows,” he concludes.