HVD constraints

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; and to Harlequin Core but not Harlequin MultiRIP.

Page content:

Harlequin VariData relies on processing different elements of the PDF file at different times, which imposes some restrictions on how it can be combined with other RIP features:

• /PageRange cannot be set via setpagedevice when using HVD. Set /PageRange via setpdfparams instead.
• HVD cannot be used with modular screens.
• The HqnInitImpose entry point to the HqnImpose2 procset cannot be used with either internal or external HVD.
• TrapPro and HVD are mutually incompatible and an attempt to enable both at once results in a warning %%[ Warning: TrapPro enabled disabling Harlequin VariData ]%% .
• RLE output and HVD are incompatible and turning both on at once results in the warning

%%[ Warning: RLE output enabled disabling Harlequin VariData ]%%.

RLE is only available with Harlequin Core.

• No element of RIP configuration (such as pagedevice ), which has any effect on the RIP’s output may be modified during an invocation of pdfexec or pdfexecid . sensepagedevice or other hooks which do different things to the pagedevice on what would otherwise be equivalent pages would break HVD's assumption that the pagedevice is determined purely by the config (which is applied before the job starts) and the PDF interpreter and nothing else.

Constraints specific to external Harlequin VariData

• The HqnInitOverlay entry point to the HqnImpose2 procset can be used with internal HVD, but not with external HVD.
• If HVD and recombine are enabled at the same time, HVD is turned off with the warning

%%[ Warning: Recombine enabled disabling Harlequin VariData ]%% .

From Harlequin v14, the recombine feature will be removed.

Anti-aliasing (ResamplingFactor ) is not compatible with the use of External HVD, whereas it can be used with Internal HVD.

• If ContoneMask is not set to 1 or more when eHVD is used, a warning is emitted:

%%[ Warning: Contone masking may be required with eHVD ]%%

• External HVD does not handle StartPage / EndPage hooks, especially those generating marks.

Constraints specific to external Harlequin VariData with Position Independence

• If OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase  is set to false, position independence may be lost for jobs containing patterns, see Position-independent HVD

• Before v11.0r4, position independent HVD was not compatible with using ImagingBBox. For example, when used to achieve a workflow where pages are slightly cropped in order to make multiples fit across the web on the press.

Additional constraints are set out in relevant places.

Although the combination of eHVD and tiling is supported with either value of OptimizedPDFPositionIndependent, non-position-independent eHVD emits tiles (i.e. rasters) which are the full size of the page and is therefore usually unsuitable for use with tiling.

Constraints specific to iHVD

• iHVD is not compatible with dynamic spots; a warning is issued that
  
  %%[ Warning: Dynamic spots enabled disabling Harlequin VariData ]%%