Cambridge, UK and Centreville, US 06/21/2005 -- Global Graphics, the technology experts in open document and print solutions, has broadened its long-standing relationship with Morisawa, the Japanese font and layout software specialist, in a new agreement to license its PDF conversion technology for the latest release of Morisawa’s market-leading application, Morisawa Variable Print (MVP) version 2.0. Morisawa has used Global Graphics’ Harlequin RIP for the past ten years in digital front-end systems to drive high-resolution devices. MVP is its auto page layout and imposition package that uses Japanese fonts and combines variable data from a database for the production of personalized documents such as bank or insurance statements or direct mail promotions. Following an extensive evaluation period, Morisawa chose to base a new feature in MVP on Global Graphics’ Jaws PDF Library software development kit (SDK) which provides the ability to convert PostScript files into the Portable Document Format (PDF) and vice versa. During Morisawa’s trials the conversion speed and overall performance of Global Graphics’ SDK, including its ability to handle Japanese fonts, outperformed competitive technologies. Global Graphics were rated highly by Morisawa’s development team for the level of local technical support they provided from their Japanese office. The significance of MVP version 2.0 lies in the fact that in Japan, application software offering support for variable data printing is rare. Morisawa needed very robust components on which to base its new feature: the files that Global Graphics’ technology converts into PDF from PostScript are used to output the file in PPML (Personalised Print Markup Language), the standard developed by the Committee for Graphic Arts Technology Standards (CGATS). The PDF file converted using Global Graphics’ technology can be outputted in PPML because this file format allows electronic publishing software to use PDF files as containers for the information needed to produce variable data print jobs. Yoshiyuki Hagiwara, Global Graphics KK’s representative director, said, “Morisawa is a loyal and valued customer. We are extremely pleased that they have further endorsed our substantial expertise in page description languages in extending their business relationship with us. They join a growing number of customers in Japan, such as Fuji Xerox and JustSystem, for whom this particular expertise is a major factor in their selection of technology partner.”