PODi Expands PPML Certification, and Announces Companies that have Achieved It

ROCHESTER, NY—May 19, 2008—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, today announced PPML Consumer Certification Programs and the first group of certified products for users of PPML (the Personalized Print Markup Language). PPML is the leading open-standard VDP (Variable Data Publishing) language for production digital printing. PPML facilitates creating personalized high-volume print campaigns by service providers, enabling meaningful one-to-one “conversations” for their customers.

The addition of PPML Consumer Testing and Certification to the previously announced Producer Certification now provides independent verification that compliant products from different companies will correctly process PPML for the print service provider. Certification is traceable to a single PPML/GA test suite and PPML virtual consumer, so that both ends of the production “chain” are tested against a common standard. There are now more than 25 (Producer X Consumer) combinations of PPML certified products available today. This program has demonstrated a high level of interest and cooperation among vendors in pursuit of proven standards.

These PODi certifications document PPML interoperability across the leading PPML consumer printing devices from:

• HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server, version 3.2

• Punch Graphix Xeikon X-800 DFE, version 2.0

• Xerox FreeFlow® Print Server with version 6.0 (service pack 2) software, part of Xerox’s FreeFlow® Digital Workflow Collection

and also the EFI Fiery® Server-driven printers manufactured by Canon, Fuji Xerox, IKON, Kodak Versamark, Konica Minolta, Oce, Ricoh and Xerox. (Fiery®, version 8, release 2).

Certified devices (above) can reliably consume the PPML/GA compliant datasets generated by the PPML Producer certified products from:

• Bitstream Pageflex, version 5.1

• GMC Software PrintNet Designer, version 5.3

• XMPie PersonalEffect, version 4.0.3

“The PODi PPML Certification Program provides a first-of-its-kind testing and certification of PPML compliance,” said James Mekis, PODi’s Director of Technology. “Service Providers have told us that they want to be able to choose best-in-class solutions for both the software they use to generate VDP marketing campaigns, and the devices used to print them, and they want them to work together even though they often come from different manufacturers. For variable marketing campaigns, PPML/GA is the high-performance open standard, and this certification program provides the end-to-end testing that has already improved multiple products.”

PODi test suites make it easier for vendors and developers to successfully design PPML compatibility into their products. Service providers are assured of the integrity and openness of their PPML-driven workflow. Users find that when printing variable data, PPML’s caching of re-usable elements delivers up to 20X improvement in print speed versus simply printing a stream of static PDF or Postscript pages.

The most current information on PPML certified products is always available at http://ppml.podi.org/certification

About PODi
PODi (www.podi.org) is an industry initiative with hundreds of member companies, including Executive Board members EFI, HP, Pitney Bowes, Quark and Xerox. PODi leads the evolution of the digital printing infrastructure by promoting interoperability through standards, and advances digital printing business opportunities through market development activities, including white papers, articles, independent reports and industry speaking engagements. Membership in PODi is open to companies and organizations involved in digital printing.

About PPML

PPML (http://ppml.podi.org) PPML is the high-performance, interoperable, device-independent XML printing standard that enables the widespread use of personalized print in high volumes. The PPML standard was developed with the cooperation of many companies as an open standard that genuinely changes both the performance and economics of personalized printing.