Lightning TIFF is a high performance TIFF output plug-in for the Harlequin RIP that is designed to replace the standard TIFF plug-in. As well as providing a significant number of additional features, its main benefit is its lightning fast performance; users should see anything from a 2 - 4x overall improvement in performance and throughput when it is used, depending on output mode, compression mode, resolution, screening, job content and platform.

The high performance that the Lightning TIFF output plug-in achieves is obtained through a unique method for implementing CCITT compression, along with a significant number of code optimisation techniques that have been applied to all the various compression modes. In addition, Hamillroad engineers have built in the use of advanced multi-threading software techniques, which when used with the latest multi-core CPUs, such as the Intel Core 2 Duo, provide a near linear additional increase in performance.

The results of this are the creation of TIFF files at previously unheard of speeds, allowing for both greatly increased throughput (less idle CtP devices) and faster last minute production of time critical plates.

The following lists the key advantages and benefits of using Lightning TIFF:
• High performance compression algorithms (2-4x faster overall than the standard TIFF output plug-in)
• Multi-threaded on multi-core CPUs for additional performance
• Provides a wide range of data formats - Striped, Tiled, Bilevel, Grayscale, RGB, CMYK & Spot Color
• Offers a wide choice of compression formats - Packbits, Huffman, Fax G3-1D, Fax G3-2D, Fax G4 & LZW
• Conventional and (extended) template naming
• Advanced file and job scripting capabilities

To read more on Lightning TIFF , please download the Lightning TIFF Data Sheet.