Rochester , NY - February 13, 2007 - PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announces a new release of the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML), the interoperability standard for variable data print production. PPML 2.2 increases interoperability across the components of digital printing workflow, including those using JDF, the Job Definition Format. “With Version 2.2, PPML users can fully participate in the new era of workflow automation,“ said James Mekis, PODi Director of Technology. “PPML 2.2 brings more value to digital printing workflow with great strides in interoperability and consistency across the widest range of applications.“ The new version tightens the relationship between producers and consumers of PPML, including digital print systems, document composition tools, variable data applications and output management systems. Print service providers (PSPs) benefit from the ability to share data across software and hardware from different vendors. PSPs gain more flexibility in selecting technology partners and in building workflow unique to their operations. PPML 2.2 also establishes a sound, uniform foundation for growth, ensuring future technology and applications that support PPML are backwardly compatible. Thus, users can be more confident in the long-term viability of their capital and application investments. As digital production workflow incorporates additional elements like JDF, PPML 2.2 keeps pace with the advances. JDF is a major standard in the printing industry for automated job management, and PPML 2.2 adds the ability to manage variable data within JDF workflow. As a result, the market is better prepared to leverage two significant trends “ personalized variable output and increasing workflow automation. The PPML standard has attracted the involvement of a broad consortium within the digital printing industry. Supporters of PPML are committed to maintaining the standard at the leading edge of digital production workflow. "Oce' is committed to standards like PPML that help our customers achieve breakthrough performance in their document workflow. It benefits the entire industry when strong standards like PPML get even better," said Joyce Virnich, vice president of marketing, Oce' Commercial Printing Division. “Our customers greatly benefit from interoperability among the solutions they use, thus EFI is a driving force for industry standards adoption in general and for PPML in particular,“ said Margaret Motamed, Director, Software Platforms, Fiery Products, EFI. “With Version 2.2, PODi has made significant strides that allow more companies to successfully implement the specification and enable increased interoperability.“ "This latest version of the PPML Specification (version 2.2) removes barriers to achieving industry interoperability for PPML,“ said John Czudak, VI Systems Engineer, Workflow Business Unit, Xerox Corporation. “Many ambiguities that still existed in prior versions of the specification have been clarified leaving no room for erroneous interpretation by companies looking to support the standard." “HP applauds PODi“s work on the development of PPML and more importantly, standards that will drive the growth of the industry. It is through the visions of such critical organizations that the transformation from analog to digital will continue to accelerate,“ said Yishai Amir, Director, Strategic Marketing, Indigo Digital Press Division. "Quark customers appreciate our support of open standards such as PPML, which help them drive their digital printers efficiently.“ said Nick Howard, Director of Quark Enterprise Products. “PPML comes standard in QuarkXPress 7 and QuarkXPress Server 7 enhancing our customers' productivity by plugging into existing digital printing workflows and streamlining variable data publishing.“ The PPML standard is generally available to the marketplace. It can be downloaded at www.podi.org.