Marlborough, MA, USA/Birmingham, UK – Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc. and a leading developer of enterprise variable publishing and web-to-print solutions, announced today support for PDF/VT ("V" for Variable, "T" for Transactional) the emerging ISO standard for exchanging variable data publishing jobs. PDF/VT will be available with all Pageflex products with the next release coming this summer.

PDF/VT is a PDF-based document-description format that is optimized for production of variable-data documents. The goal of this standard is to define a PDF-based format for describing variable-data documents in a way that will allow faster and more efficient production and consistent quality in the production of variable-data documents. The PDF/VT standard is currently under development by a committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

"For many years, our Pageflex product line has enabled digital printers to utilize PDFs as an integral part of their variable data printing workflows. PDF/VT brings users all the benefits of a PDF workflow–including reliable visual proofing, standardized preflight tools, and a superb imaging model for printing graphically-rich documents–while advancing the final critical step in VDP workflows: the efficient RIPing and printing of VDP jobs," adds Jeff Perk, Director of Product Management.

Pageflex initially previewed PDF/VT at Drupa 2008. Recently, Pageflex PDF/VT output was tested on HP's SmartStream Production Pro Print Server. In this testing, HP confirmed that the Pageflex PDF/VT ran successfully, demonstrating that the benefits of a PDF workflow can be applied to printing variable data jobs.

"We are proud to have been the first to run a Pageflex PDF/VT file with our HP SmartStream Production Pro 4.0 Print Server," said Alon Gazit, director R&D HP Indigo. "We're confident our customers will expand their use of VDP using the advanced VDP feature set within HP SmartStream Production Pro 4.0 that supports the exciting new PDF/VT standard."

"Having our PDF/VT output run by HP Print Server supports the work we are doing with this important standard.  We are delighted by the results of HP's testing and to be among the first VDP software producers to incorporate PDF/VT into their products," says Anna Magliocco-Chagnon, President and CEO, Bitstream Inc.