(v13) Position-independent HVD

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

From v11.0r0, the external mode of Harlequin VariData is extended to allow the same graphic to be rendered only once even if it is used in multiple different positions on pages throughout the document.

Position independence is especially valuable:

• when a page layout “flexes” with the specific data included in each instance. For example, in a direct-mail piece where graphics and images are moved down the page if one recipient’s address is longer than others.
• when many instances of a direct-mail piece or label are imposed together into a single PDF “page” representing an imposed sheet, and where significant graphics on each imposed instance are selected based on the recipient’s metadata and therefore appear pseudo-randomly laid out when the sheets as a whole are viewed.

When using position-independent HVD you should note the following:

• When patterns are present in the input PDF, if /OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase is set to false, the RIP reuses as if /OptimizedPDFPositionIndependent were false. If /OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase is set to true, the RIP reuses position independently, ignoring the pattern phase (which may mean that pattern phase is different from what it would have been without HVD).

From Harlequin Core v14:

• When patterns are present in the input PDF, if /OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase is set to false, the RIP reuses patterned objects in a non-position independent way where that is required to maintain the same pattern phase in the output as when running without HVD. This is likely to result in some loss of reuse compared to setting /OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase to true.
• If /OptimizedPDFIgnorePatternPhase is set to true, the RIP reuses position independently, ignoring the pattern phase which may mean that pattern phase is different from what it would have been without HVD.

• Setting /OptimizedPDFPositionIndependent to true for a job that does not contain any content capable of being reused at a different position may sometimes result in less reuse than if set to false. Therefore, if confident that a job does not contain any content capable of being reused at a different position, it may be better to set /OptimizedPDFPositionIndependent to false. However, if in doubt , we generally recommend setting this to true.
• From 13.2r0, if /OptimizedPDFSingleForeground is set to true, the RIP behaves as if /OptimizedPDFPositionIndependent were false.