Adobe has introduced the fourth version of its PDF Print Engine (APPE 4). In this version, Tile Parallel Processing (TPP) brings the efficiencies of the Mercury Rip Architecture to wide-format printing.
TPP accelerates system performance by breaking up large assets - like a poster - into smaller sections, each of which is assigned to a separate instance of APPE, running on a separate CPU core. By processing multiple tiles in parallel, then seamlessly re-assembling them, TPP reduces overall rendering time.
With APPE 4 performance is also said to be ten times faster for graphics consisting of a pattern, which repeats over an extended area.
New algorithms smooth out long gradient blends, especially at inflection points where hue can shift abruptly, and spot colour handling has been expanded - up to 127 colour channels can now be specified and used in any given region.