Adobe prints over the Internet with PDFTransit
- — 31 October, 2001 08:14
Sending jobs to print shops over the Internet could get easier and more reliable, thanks to a new software development kit announced by graphic design and printing powerhouse Adobe Systems Inc. Tuesday.
The kit, built around Adobe's PDF (Portable Document Format) technology, is called PDFTransit and will allow customers to automatically create PDFs to preview and then upload into their print shop's workflow system just by pressing the "Print" button in PDFTransit-enabled applications and services, Adobe said in a statement. Other options that can be offered include billing and finishing information, Adobe said.
PDF is central to Adobe's electronic publishing vision and has rapidly become a de facto industry standard in recent years. The technology allows relatively small files featuring graphics and page layout features unavailable in text files to be viewed on any computer that has the Adobe Acrobat Reader application installed. PDF also replicates colors, fonts and graphic design elements across all platforms.
Working with print shops has been difficult for some users in the past, due to incompatible software, uncommon fonts or color output difficulties, but PDFTransit ought to help ease these woes, Adobe said.
AlphaGraphics Inc. and IKON Corp. Office Solutions are among the first printing companies to implement PDFTransit, Adobe said.
