Harlequin and AII Implementation of TIFF/IT-P1 passes a major test at Time, Inc

Business Wire, March 21, 1997

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1997--Harlequin and Autologic Information International (AII) announced today that an important test of the TIFF/IT-P1 data file format on a non-proprietary imagesetting system has been deemed a success by Time Inc., which conducted the test at its New York headquarters. The implementation of TIFF/IT-P1 is a prelude to a major change in the way that Time Inc. is planning to produce its New York-based magazines - Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Money, and Life.

The TIFF/IT-P1 input software was jointly developed by Harlequin and AII and implemented in the industry-leading Harlequin ScriptWorks RIP Management System running on a Digital Alpha server driving an AII 3810 film imagesetter. The use of TIFF/IT-P1 has made it possible for Time Inc. to accept advertising content from high-end color electronic prepress systems (CEPS) and process it as digital files on open platform desktop systems.

A "Significant Step Forward"

"Our implementation demonstrates that files in TIFF/IT-P1 format can bridge proprietary CEPS environments and the desktop world, and can be output with complete predictability," according to Frank Scott, Time Inc. Director of Prepress Development. "Using open systems to process advertising content makes prepress production easier for us to manage and less expensive," he said.

"The implementation of TIFF/IT-P1 technology by Harlequin and Autologic Information International is equally significant," noted Scott. "AII is a leader in imaging for print media, and Harlequin has the ability to extend the use of TIFF/IT by making it available to its many OEMs."

The successful test of TIFF/IT-P1 technology is hailed as "a significant step forward" by Alan Darling, C.O.O. of Western Laser Graphics and Chairman of the Implementation Committee for the Digital Distribution of Advertising for Publications (DDAP) Association. The DDAP Association is devoted to enabling more efficient and effective workflows for print media advertising through open system solutions. The Association endorses the use of TIFF/IT-P1 because it is an accredited international standard, and it enables data exchange between desktop publishing systems and proprietary CEPS.

"By applying standards to advertising content, ads can be supplied anywhere in the world more efficiently and at lower cost, which enhances the ability of print media to compete with electronic media," said Darling.

Joint Development Effort

TIFF/IT, which stands for Tag Image File Format for Image Technology, extends the standard for the specific requirements of advertising for publications documented by the American National Standards Institute as ANSI IT8.8. The "P1" or "Profile One" component was added when the ANSI standard was accepted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) for consideration as an international standard.

"We're extremely pleased to be a joint developer with Harlequin of this implementation of TIFF/IT-P1," said Jim Hanger, Business Development Vice President of AII. "The combination of Harlequin's software development expertise and AII's knowledge of the publishing industry resulted in a significant development effort that we believe will have important ramifications for publishers around the world."

Larry Halleran, Product Marketing Manager for Harlequin's Electronic Publishing Division, said, "Harlequin is committed to supporting open industry standards, and TIFF/IT-P1 is the accredited standard for the digital delivery of advertising." Halleran added, "Our joint development effort with AII also demonstrates Harlequin's willingness and ability to work with our OEMs and solve their customers' workflow problems."

The Test at Time

Traditionally, content for Time Inc.'s magazines is processed at the New York headquarters by different desktop and prepress systems. Final editorial content from open-platform desktop systems is combined with advertising pages from Time's Scitex CEPS system and converted to a compressed bitmapped image. The bitmapped files are transmitted via satellite to remote printing sites around the United States and abroad for film output, platemaking and printing. "Our traditional procedure is comparatively slow, labor intensive, and inflexible," said Scott. To test the TIFF/IT-P1 input file format, final advertising pages for Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Money and Life magazines are supplied to Time Inc. in TIFF/IT-P1 format, then rendered by a Harlequin ScriptWorks-based RIP running on a Digital Alpha server for output to film on the AII 3810 imagesetter.

"We're standardizing on TIFF/IT-P1 because it is reliable, predictable and consistent, and therefore solves an important workflow problem," explained Scott. "Because all of the components of a page are handled by TIFF/IT-P1 at the prepress stage, I don't have to worry about missing content when the pages are produced. With TIFF/IT-P1, we also know how long every page will take to process, which is not true of PostScript," he noted. "Consistency is critical at Time, because we process pages at the last minute in remote locations and they have to be right. We can't risk the possibility of an ad from General Motors not printing correctly."