controller-boards embedded within home and office printers. The Harlequin RIP is sold only through OEM partners, each of whom builds it into their own prepress system, Digital Front End (DFE) or controller. It is therefore sold under a variety of names and it is not always easy to identify whether a system uses a Harlequin RIP or not. RIP capabilities Current versions of the Harlequin RIP can interpret: PostScript language files Portable Document Format (PDF) XML Paper Specification (XPS) Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) Desktop Color Separations (DCS) Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) JPEG JPEG 2000 JPEG XR / HD Photo Bitmap Image (BMP) The Harlequin Embedded SDK also supports Printer Command Language 5e, PCL 5c and PCL XL, including HPGL and Printer Job Language (PJL). All file formats are interpreted natively, without conversion to an intermediate format (PDF is not converted to PostScript and vice versa, for example). Global Graphics claims that processing without conversion allows for higher speeds and avoids artifacts arising from the conversion. Native processing of live transparency in PDFs was recognized by several awards: Publishing Essential's Impact Award for "RIP of the Year" in 1997 and 1998 and the Silver Award in the Pre-press News and Publishing Awards of 1997 for "RIP/Server product of the year". The Harlequin RIP also explicitly supports PDF/X-1a:2001, PDF/X-1a:2003, PDF/X-3:2002, PDF/X-3:2003, PDF/X-4, PDF/X-4p, PDF/X-5g and PDF/X-5pg and can be set to reject files that do not comply with those standards, or to include conformance information on the control strip of a proof. Harlequin's OEM partners have built DFEs with full support for additional formats such as the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) around the Harlequin RIP. A number of extra components are available for the variants of the Harlequin RIP, leading to descriptions of the Harlequin Server RIP as a "prepress workflow in a box". Included and additional options include: ColorPro – in-RIP color management (formerly known as Harlequin ICC Profile Processor (HIPP)). (Available in EBD, HHR, HSR). Font emulation – if a PostScript or PDF file is submitted to the RIP and does not include all of the fonts required embedded within it, and if those fonts are also not pre-installed in the RIP then they can be emulated to provide a reasonable simulacrum of the original font. The emulated fonts match the widths, weight and general style of the missing font and it is claimed that reproduction is usually good