Graph Expo, Chicago, IL: Sept 9, 2007:  The Font Emulation feature in the Harlequin RIP that has been singled out for a 2007 PIA/GATF Intertech Technology award will be on show on the Global Graphics booth at Graph Expo (5451).
One of the many features built into the Harlequin RIP, it provides font emulation for time critical applications, such as print on demand, newspapers, magazines, jobs where artwork or advertising is supplied independently of the paying customer, digital print and other applications where output must leave on time.  The Harlequin RIP will make a typographically acceptable match to missing fonts with no text overflow and with appropriate character spacing, weight and width.
Martin Bailey, Global Graphics' chief technology officer explains, "Printers often have to find a way around the recurrent problem of customer files being supplied without the required fonts. If a printer can't source an original font they face some stark choices. They could miss the print slot, re-set the job at their own cost or buy the fonts themselves. With these choices in mind, a problem job with missing fonts is going to cost the printer valuable time and money.  Alternatively the printer could just let the job run as it is and hope the standard substitution is adequate. Or they could try and match for style, weight and width from their own font collection. If this is a new or demanding account where the customer will be examining the job carefully, then the job needs to be accurate. Using either of these methods could lose the account.
"By making a typographically acceptable match to missing fonts with no text overflow and with appropriate character spacing, weight and width, Font Emulation in the Harlequin RIP is ideal for time critical applications where output must absolutely leave on time."
With in-RIP font emulation, problem files are simply sent to the RIP as usual, and the RIP will construct a suitable replacement on the fly. Emulated fonts have the correct width for every glyph in the font, so that letter and word spacing will be correct, and justified text will continue to be justified, with a straight edge to the text block. 
The emulated fonts will also be slanted at the right angle, allowing oblique and italic fonts to be correctly displayed. In addition, italic faces will be slightly more ornate than emulations of the roman faces from the same family.  The emulation won't cause any re-flow and there won't be any changes to line-ends and page breaks.
Using Font Emulation, efficiencies in the pre-press department can be achieved in many scenarios including display ads for newspapers and publications, print on demand, jobs where artwork is supplied independently of the paying customer, where output is required before the originator can be contacted and when submitter's skill level makes fixing difficult.
"Recipients of this prestigious award not only have a major impact on the graphic communications industry, but are also consistently successful in the commercial marketplace." said Dr. Mark Bohan, vice president, research and technology, PIA/GATF. "Award recipient technologies distinguished themselves with unique capabilities that offer real value for their respective markets."
The Harlequin RIP is sold exclusively through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) who add value to the software and market the RIP under a variety of different brand names.  Global Graphics was nominated for the PIA/GATF Intertech Technology award by Fusion Systems (Fusion Production RIPs, Fusion ColorRay Proofing RIPs,  ColorRay SiLK screening printing RIPs) HighWater Designs (TorrentConnect, TorrentDI, Torrent ProofReady, Python CtP System, Cobra CtP System) , Polkadots Software (NEWSflo, Adflo, PLATEflo and RIPflo) and Xitron (Navigator GPS workflow solutions):
Logan Herbert, director of business development, Fusion Systems comments, "Font Emulation is remarkable in its ability to accurately and correctly reproduce a missing font's leading and kerning characteristics, including ascenders and descenders, and never over-flow or distort  the original document layout. With built-in Font Emulation, clients are now able to instantly and automatically fix jobs that are missing fonts, which is common in jobs submitted in PDF that do not have the fonts embedded. This is especially valuable in eliminating potential print errors within client supplied advertisements, which in turn eliminates ad rebates as associated credits."
Robert Dumas, VP sales and marketing, Polkadats Software, says, "we have found that Font Emulation has been particularly well received by some of our newspaper customers. Prior to Font Emulation becoming available advertising prep departments had to search for a suitable replacement font for supplied ads that were poorly created and often missing the necessary fonts. Font Emulation has made life so much easier in these instances when the actual font used is not as critical as preserving the look and feel of the piece. Many of our NEWSflo and ADflo customers love the fact they can create a workflow queue where if a font is missing the job can be held and then if the font is not critical to the production of the document the file can be automatically processed through a queue with Font Emulation active."
Jim Thrush, president, Xitron, says,  "Font Emulation technology further enhances Xitron's Navigator GPS workflow solutions with yet another production enhancing standard feature. Font Emulation is perfect with Xitron's recently announced PRISM short-run digital press which features the Navigator GPS Select RIP based on Harlequin core RIP technology."
Jack Makowski, managing director, HighWater Designs, "as a standard technology in our Torrent RIP solutions all our customers may now enjoy the benefits of Font Emulation.  It only takes one job with missing fonts that would have missed a deadline without this technology for our customers to see the clear benefits in time, profitability and in the good will they gain from their customers by meeting that deadline once again."
Other implementations using Font Emulation in the Harlequin RIP are available from ECRM and RTI.