Use cases
- Archiving print files
- Send print files as PDF e-mail attachments
- Re-purposing legacy print files for new applications
- Migration of cut-sheet print jobs to roll-based - or the other way around
- Migration to n-up printing
- After a merger printers pop-up with incompatible printer languages, like PostScript printers in an AFP-shop.
Simple Conversion
The most simple conversion is handling one print file and it's resources. This is usually done in order to prepare legacy output for more recent printers. Or to convert one document to PDF for electronic distribution.
Intelligent Conversion
This is the case when the conversion software is expected to use information from the print file. The conversion software is instructed to look at certain areas of the page or to extract parts of the content.
Take converting for archiving for example. Most archive systems expect a TIFF or PDF file together with a separate file with index information: account number, customer number, polis number, document type etc. In those cases where this sort of information is not passed down from the application the conversion software can extract this from the print files.
The same function also helps to keep the pages of one document together, for instance when creating single PDFs from a large print file. Print files are just a sequence of pages and there is no indication about which pages belong to which document. But if the account number for instance changes, this could be used as an indicator that a new document starts. Another way to achieve this would be to look for the text 'page 1 of'.
When converting to PDF, this function can be used to determine where bookmarks go.
Conversion software is also used when implementing a multi-channel delivery strategy, for instance to prepare print files for fax or e-mail delivery. In these cases the converted files need to be enhanced with a fax header page or to generate a personalised email body.
In the context of Outbound Communication Compliance it may be necessary to apply certain restrictions to PDF e-mail attachments, like disabling the possibility to copy content from the PDF, or adding password protection or a digital signature. This can all be part of an intelligent conversion workflow.
Transformation
Transformation goes one step further by extracting the complete relevant content and storing it in a separate file. This is typically done in order to re-use (re-purpose) the information from legacy output for new applications, for instance Business Intelligence or web self service environments.
The conversion- or transformation software destills information from the print file and stores it in a file, for instance in an XML structure. In order to achieve this the software must be able to recognise running headers and footers and to handle complex table structures with repeating headers etc. Applying this technology the content of bills and statements for instance can be restructured in order to enable Internet presentment. In order to improve the customer experience even more, the extracted data can be presented in business graphics, for instance to visualise the performance of investment portfolios. This way organisations can implement and benefit from web-based self service infrastructures.
Various vendors – possible criteria
At a first glance, conversion products may seem exchangeable: they all can process a large number of data formats. But looking further you'll soon realise some significant differences, which justify a proper selection process. We have listed some suggested criteria:
- Fidelity of the actual conversion. Can you be sure that everything is converted from format A to format B?
- Fidelity regarding resource conversion. Not all tools are able to convert resources. Some do not handle replacements. Depending on the number of resources, this can either produce unacceptable results or be very time consuming.
- Applying the correct control codes for various types of printers. Something as simple as assigning paper trays can cause a lot of trouble if it cannot be done in a user-friendly manner.
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) or scripting. How easy is it to specify the extraction and transformation rules. A GUI is user-friendly and saves time, but there's usually a price tag attached to it.
