Duesseldorf, Germany, May 28, 2008 – Bitstream announced today that Heidelberg is demonstrating connectivity between Pageflex Storefront, the award-winning Web-to-print product, and Prinect, an integrated production workflow offering of the Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. This connectivity reflects Heildelberg’s commitment to meeting the needs of customers who are using the Internet for online commerce, and is based on the industry standards JDF and PDF.  A prototype demonstration can be seen at drupa 2008, May 29-June 11, Düsseldorf, Germany, in the Heidelberg Booth in Hall 1.
 
Pageflex Storefront is a turn-key software product that enables customers to define, create and manage attractive Web-to-print document customization sites. Service providers use Storefront to provide their clients with a catalog of customizable document products, and corresponding email and cross-media campaigns. 
 
Orders that are placed by print buyers online in Pageflex Storefront can be sent to the Prinect JDF connector along with the customized PDF document that has been created for the job. Prinect automatically creates a production job and starts the processing of the PDF to prepare the print production.  Prinect is able to send back status information to Pageflex Storefront using JMF messages to update online customers.
 
“We continue to seek out partnerships that enable Pageflex to be integrated to a wide range of systems and look for ways to advance our growing position in Europe. This partnership with Heidelberg helps us accomplish both goals,“ states Anna Chagnon, president and CEO of Bitstream Inc.  “We are excited to be able to work with Heidelberg at Drupa to show the powerful role Pageflex Storefront can play in a hybrid workflow in which Web-to-print supports automated production of versioned offset runs, in addition to personalized digital print.”
 
“Many customers have implemented Internet storefronts to extend their services to print buyers. With the openness of Pageflex Storefront and of Heidelberg’s Prinect production system we show how these customers can be connected for more automated, faster and more secure production workflows to produce jobs that are created over the Internet. This connectivity proves the power of JDF as an open standard to support the cooperation between systems to the benefit of our customers,” says Peter Leu, head of product management, Prinect Prepress Workflow.
 
About the Pageflex Platform
Pageflex offers unparalleled design control with powerful graphic design features created specifically for variable publishing. The platform produces rich, creative, award-winning document designs that look like they were given the individual attention of a graphic designer but were, in reality, created on-the-fly with Pageflex variable publishing technology.