MARCH 19, 2002 -- Braintree, MA -- The latest release of PrintNet software from GMC Software Technologies, Inc. brings greatly enhanced productivity and control to a broader range of digital document design and production processes. GMC's PrintNet software is a modular suite of capabilities for creating and producing variable imaging documents on all high-speed digital printing systems. PrintNet 3.15 offers improved design and productivity features, greater color support, data management and proofing advances, and throughput enhancements. "The newest release of PrintNet anticipates the need for greater control over information presented through digital documents," said Jeff DeVoyd, director of technical services for GMC Software Technologies, Inc. "It updates and enhances the core software's capabilities to keep pace with the market's evolving needs, and the wider range of capabilities give users more choices for their document workflow." Improved Design Features PrintNet 3.15 improvements touch every aspect of document creation and composition. Fields in a data file can be defined visually, making document design easier and faster for average users without requiring advanced programming skills. Improved integration allows the user to configure any application, GMC or otherwise, to launch from within PrintLayout. Layouts and document resources can be protected against unauthorized changes by password protection, and version tracking consistently and continually enhances security. The history of a file also is recorded to track changes. Increased User Productivity New and enhanced features such as Search & Replace, dynamic font and color changing, and a label wizard save time, while helping even novice users create sophisticated documents. Fonts and their attributes can be changed dynamically to give users more flexibility and faster responsiveness. With Search & Replace, users can replace content in all text objects in a layout at one time, or replace one font with another in a single text object or in all text objects at once. With the Repeat, Copy & Paste functionality, users can create and position multiple objects at once to save time when creating tables and other objects. Definable macros offer greater convenience by allowing users to easily switch between applications from one screen. Plug-in technology makes it simpler to set up, use and update PrintNet capabilities from a desktop. Greater Color Support The new PrintNet release supports the increasing need for more color in documents, without making this more complicated to achieve. Full color support for all objects lets users place color anywhere on a page. Support for ICC Color Management has been added to improve the consistency and accuracy between screen, proof and production output. The AutoFit/AutoScale capability automatically makes images the correct resolution and size for the destination printer. The new release helps IPDS and AFP environments achieve greater flexibility and control while avoiding costly delays. Full CMYK/RGB support is now available for AFP, IPDS, and EFI Fiery color devices, in addition to improvements in PPML and Postscript/VPS color support. On-the-fly positioning allows an object to be adjusted during IPDS production, without changing a layout. The release targets the Scitex market with a number of features, including the ability to use one design across several print heads, eliminating the need for multiple versions of a design for each printhead. Data Management Improvements Document operations now require the ability to retrieve, read, merge and print images and data from multiple sources to handle a variety of customer jobs, and PrintNet 3.15 delivers these capabilities automatically. A new option eliminates the extra programming required to reformat data as fixed files for variable imaging applications. Direct accessability to data files now includes ODBC, DBASE, CSV and fixed length formats. Data accessed via ODBC can be manipulated with standard SQL commands, which greatly increases the program’s power to manipulate data without requiring source file reprocessing. Until recently, most data files for variable applications were stored on a mainframe and presented size limitations, and the new release accommodates more than 7 million bytes per record to accomodate the shift towards larger data records now common with PC-based database applications. Proofing Enhancements Proofing has always been a strong advantage of PrintNet software, and now these capabilities are even richer. As the industry moves to online applications, full-featured Internet proofing makes production management faster and more convenient. Jobs placed elsewhere can be checked, reviewed and authorized via Internet using a standard web browser. Users can easily find and view a specific data record when proofing a document. For instance, the software can automatically find and set up for proofing the longest address in a data file with one million records. A new two window split display makes it easier to compare an onscreen proof with and without its data or view error messages for smoother productivity. N-up and N/S-split functionality support proofing for a greater variety of document applications. With the pre-flight check, users can catch errors before spooling or printing, as well as generate statistical information. Throughput Advantages Variable imaging applications make it more challenging to maintain throughput, and PrintNet 3.15 helps customers keep up with increased productivity requirements. The new spool file splitting capability eliminates hours spent waiting on large data files to spool to a printer. This gives users the option of spooling multiple small files instead of one large input file, so one file is printing as the next batch is spooling. Vector font support provides a throughput advantage by allowing fonts to be spooled more efficiently and built at the printer. Font and image compression support result in better performance and smaller spool files. Users can also capture information after spooling, such as which records are in certain ZIP code or what states were mailed. The PrintNet 3.15 spooling engine allows a data stream to be spooled as email or a printed document for greater output flexibility. The new release allows fixed monchrome pictures to be stored once on the printer as part of the overlay, a time-saving advantage over loading images once for every page. Full PPD support for Postscript printing eliminates manual or other offline intervention to track down information about printer capabilities. PrintNet 3.15 automatically locates the appropriate PPD file that describes printer capabilities such as simplex or duplex, resolution and number of trays. "With PrintNet 3.15, our customers gain valuable capabilities that will help them operate more efficiently and profitably," said DeVoyd. "The new release removes limitations and offers more choices so users can maximize their document workflow."