(v13) Auto mode for HVD

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

From v11.0r1, both internal and external HVD optimizations can benefit from running in auto mode. From v11.0r1, the /EnableOptimizedPDFScan can be used as a tri-state parameter allowing /Always ,/Never , or /Auto while also retaining the boolean options of true and false for backwards compatibility, where /Always is the same as true and /Never is the same as false.

An example for external mode:

            <<
                /EnableOptimizedPDFScan /Auto
                /OptimizedPDFScanLimitPercent 90
                /OptimizedPDFExternal true
                /OptimizedPDFCacheID (GGDUMB1)
                >> setpdfparams
            <<
                /ContoneMask 1
            >> setpagedevice

An example for internal mode:

            <<
                /EnableOptimizedPDFScan /Auto
                /OptimizedPDFScanLimitPercent 10
                /OptimizedPDFCacheID (GGIRR)
            >> setpdfparams

When set to automatic mode and a PDF file is submitted the RIP will:

• Scan the document-level metadata and determine if the file is tagged as a PDF/VT file. If so, it will process the file as if EnableOptimizedPDFScan had been set to /Always .
• Look at the producer and creator strings in the document info dictionary and their equivalents in the document-level metadata and compare those with values in a look-up table of strings used by common VDP composition tools. If the strings match, the file is processed as if /EnableOptimizedPDFScan had been set to /Always ; if they don't, it acts as if /EnableOptimizedPDFScan had been set to /Never .

From v11.0r2 the producer/creator look-up table is available in a PostScript language file called HqnVariableDataCreators found in \SW\Usr. This file can be edited to add extra creators.

This PostScript language file returns a dictionary. The keys of the dictionary are names of procedures for matching the known variable data creator strings to the value for creator or producer found in the metadata or info dictionary. Corresponding values of the dictionary are arrays of strings of known variable data creators.

Before Harlequin v11.0r2 the producer/creator look-up table was located in the HqnHVDParams procset.

Setting /EnableOptimizedPDFScan to /Auto, /Always, (or true) requires that the rest of the RIP configuration is appropriate for use with HVD. Meaning, for instance, that if you are using simple imposition, you should set HVD to /Never.

For more information reconfiguring AutoHVDChunkSize in your configuration file, see the SDK Developer’s Guide (“Harlequin VariData (HVD) and the Scalable RIP”).