Harlequin Core bulletin - July 2021

HQN 13.1 release

We recently released Harlequin 13.1r0, which comprised simultaneous releases of the Harlequin MultiRIP and the Harlequin Core SDK. The distributions were made via a support email to all OEMs. Builds were made available on our FTP server.

The Harlequin Core 13.1r0 Release Notes are available at https://documentation.globalgraphics.com.

New documentation system

After the successful move of other Global Graphics products to our online documentation system, we are now migrating the Harlequin Documentation. There's a lot of it, as you probably know, so over a period of time we will add new online versions of the Extensions Manual, SDK Developer's Guide, the API Reference Manual, Technical Notes, and many other resources.

One of the many advantages of this move is the ability to search across all the Harlequin documentation at the same time, find answers to configuration items, and provide tips and advice, starting with the simple search bar shown below:

Several documents are available now and we will add others for the rest of this year. Please bookmark the following page:

https://documentation.globalgraphics.com/support

All previously issued PDF documents remain on the FTP site.

The 13.1r0 PDF version of the Extensions Manual is also only available on the FTP site at this time. We will update you as we tackle migrating its extensive content to the online documentation system!

Jira Service desk update

As we shared in the last Bulletin, Harlequin Support is migrating to Jira Service Desk. If you are a customer of our other technologies, you are already familiar with the simplified process of entering and tracking your issues via the web portal. We've nearly finished this project, and Harlequin is the last product to go live in the coming weeks. If you are an active participant on either of our legacy support systems (that is, harlequin-support@globalgraphics.com, or hhr-support@globalgraphics.com), we will send you a welcome email and simple instructions in the coming weeks.

So, farewell “Harlequin Host Renderer”, hello “Harlequin Core”.

We recently published the following text as a blog post, (in case you missed it):

We’ve now been shipping the Harlequin Host Renderer to our OEM partners for over a decade, for use in driving digital printers and presses. Back then, Harlequin was our only substantial software component for use in digital front ends (DFEs), and we just came up with a name for it that seemed to describe what it did.

Since then, our technology set includes a component that can be used upstream of the RIP, for creating, modifying, analyzing, and visualizing page description languages like PDF: that’s Mako. And we’ve also added a high-performance halftone screening engine, ScreenPro.

We have positioned the components designed for software vendors in a “Core” range of products and their names have reflected this, such as  “Mako Core” and “ScreenPro Core”. We also added higher level components in our "Direct" range, for printer OEMs who don’t want to dig into the complexities of system engineering, or who want to get to market faster.

Harlequin is already offered as a part of Harlequin Direct, and we’re now amending the name of the SDK variant to bring it into line with our other “Core” component technologies. You can see from the diagram below (also attached in case of email limitations) how those various offerings fit together for a wide range of digital printer and press vendors:

Product Entry point diagram 2021_outlined-01-01.svg

HQN Core explainer video

I have also recorded a high-level, low-detail explainer video about the Harlequin Core. Watch it here on our YouTube TV channel:

Enjoy the rest of the summer (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere) and stay safe.
Paul.