The latest version of the “digital” Harlequin RIP, has been chosen by Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho (TKS) of Japan to drive a new inkjet newspaper press that will be launched in the second half of 2012. The web fed JETLEADER 1500 will be used for high-speed, full-colour digital newspaper production, printing 600 x 600 dpi duplex at 150 metres per minute. Version 3 of the Harlequin Host Renderer, recently unveiled by Global Graphics ahead of drupa ( Hall 7.0 Stand A21) will be the core of the digital print workflow feeding the presses. 

TKS selected the Harlequin Host Renderer for its speed and flexibility. “The big advantage”, says Mr. Hashimoto from TKS, “is the dramatically increased performance gained by using Harlequin Parallel Pages™ which greatly accelerates the page processing time. 

“We also found the Harlequin Host Renderer easy to configure and customize to meet our specific requirements - such as our variable print solution and to accommodate the requirements of our customers. For example, the in-RIP simple imposition feature was very flexible and we could customize it to handle complicated page layouts with PostScript® features. We also opted to licence Global Graphics’ in-RIP color management and trapping solutions.”

A number of significant new features in the Harlequin Host Renderer 3 increase processing power so that pages pass through the RIP at a faster pace than ever before. Harlequin Parallel Pages™ allows the RIP to interpret one page while it’s still rendering the previous one. This allows print shops to take maximum advantage of multi-core computers. 

The Harlequin VariData™ feature accelerates the processing time of regular PDF files containing variable data including, but not only, PDF/VT files. 

The Harlequin Host Renderer is also available as a 64-bit build to access additional memory when it’s needed for pages with large amounts of data.