Harlequin RIP

The Harlequin RIP is a raster image processor first released in 1990 under the name "ScriptWorks" running as a command-line application to render PostScript language files under Unix. It was developed by Harlequin, a software company based in Cambridge, England.

History

The Harlequin RIP started off life in 1986 as the final year University project of Andy Cave, now CEO of Hamillroad Software Limited. The project was to build a subset of a postscript interpreter that could preview the result of converting TEX/LATEX files to PostScript (so that the PhD students wouldn't waste so much paper on the new LaserWriter). Although only a subset was required, Andy ended up creating quite a complete implementation. In 1987 Andy joined Harlequin Limited, founding the RIP division and bringing with him the work that he'd done at Bath University. Several years hard work then began on turning a university project into a professional product.

In the early 1990s Harlequin was commissioned by Xenotron to develop a raster image processor (RIP) to run on Macintosh computers to drive their Ultre-based image setters, exposing onto film and resin-coated (RC) paper. The Macintosh version proved successful and Harlequin signed up a number of other Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners to sell it, including Pongrass, ECRM, Autologic, Xitron, Koronix, Purup, Graphic Enterprises and Compose.

In 1992 a DOS variation of the same core RIP was developed and was also sold through OEM partners before being replaced by a version running under Microsoft Windows in 1993.

In 1999 The Harlequin Group went into receivership (despite the Harlequin RIP division being highly profitable) and was bought by Global Graphics. The Harlequin Group, including all staff and assets, was renamed to Global Graphics Software Limited.[1] The Unix-based command-line version of the RIP was phased out and a few years later the RIP was finally renamed from ScriptWorks to the Harlequin RIP.

RIP variants

From 2004 onwards Global Graphics expanded the reach of the Harlequin RIP by producing a number of variants for different market sectors:

The Harlequin RIP is sold only through OEM partners, each of whom builds it into their own prepress system, Digital Front End (DFE) or controller. It is therefore sold under a variety of names and it is not always easy to identify whether a system uses a Harlequin RIP or not.

Harlequin RIP OEM partners

Harlequin RIPs are sold through partners under the following names:[2]

This list is incomplete; not all Harlequin OEMs have agreed to their use of the technology being published.

RIP capabilities

Current versions of the Harlequin RIP can interpret:

The Harlequin Embedded SDK also supports Printer Command Language 5e, PCL 5c and PCL XL, including HPGL and Printer Job Language (PJL).

All file formats are interpreted natively, without conversion to an intermediate format (PDF is not converted to PostScript and vice versa, for example).[3] Global Graphics claims that processing without conversion allows for higher speeds and avoids artifacts arising from the conversion.

Native processing of live transparency in PDFs was recognized by several awards: Publishing Essential's Impact Award for "RIP of the Year" in 1997 and 1998 and the Silver Award in the Pre-press News and Publishing Awards of 1997 for "RIP/Server product of the year".

The Harlequin RIP also explicitly supports PDF/X-1a:2001, PDF/X-1a:2003, PDF/X-3:2002, PDF/X-3:2003, PDF/X-4, PDF/X-4p, PDF/X-5g and PDF/X-5pg and can be set to reject files that do not comply with those standards, or to include conformance information on the control strip of a proof.

Harlequin's OEM partners have built DFEs with full support for additional formats such as the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) around the Harlequin RIP.

Global Graphics has always claimed that the Harlequin RIP offers the highest performance available in a PostScript or PDF RIP. Its selection by Hewlett-Packard to drive their T300 inkjet production press at 2600 pages per minute (ppm) and the T350 at over 3900ppm would appear to support that claim.

A number of extra components are available for the variants of the Harlequin RIP, leading to descriptions of the Harlequin Server RIP as a "prepress workflow in a box". Included and additional options include:

Several third party products add more functionality around the Harlequin Server RIP, including:

Harlequin Server RIP release history

Version 8.3 of the Harlequin Server RIP is supported under Windows XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Mac OS X 10.3-10.6.

Harlequin Host Renderer

The Harlequin Host Renderer was launched in 2005; version 1.3 was released in late 2009. Core RIP functionality in HHR has tracked with Harlequin Server RIP except that HHR currently has the following additional features in comparison to HSR 8.3:

HHR is supported on Linux and Windows.

Harlequin Embedded SDK

The Harlequin Embedded SDK (EBD) has been optimized for use within home and office printers. To that end it supports several versions of the Printer Control Language (PCL), as well as the Printer Job Language (PJL) and Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HPGL).

EBD version 3 was released in 2009. It is supported under a variety of real-time and near-real-time operating systems including Embedded Windows XP, Linux, VxWorks and ThreadX, and on a variety of hardware architectures, including Intel, Freescale and ARM, with or without a system-on-a-chip (SOC) around the CPU. Global Graphics has announced a partnership with Conexant to provide a combination of hardware and Page description language (PDL) software for home and small office printers.

References

  1. ↑ "Software platforms for printing and digital documents". www.globalgraphics.com. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  2. ↑ "Harlequin RIP OEMs".
  3. ↑ "Native Interpretation in the Harlequin RIP: Converter 1.1". globalprintmonitor.com. 2009-11-22.
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