Over the past few years, we have had a number of inquires from customers about the availability of tests for PDF/A, XHTML-Print, and DICOM. For those of you not familiar with these technologies, here is a brief synopsis:

• PDF/A is a subset of the Portable Document Format (PDF) used for the archiving of documents
• XHTML-Print is a subset (or module) of XHTML focused on the needs of printing when a device does not have a printer specific driver, such as over Bluetooth over a mobile phone.
• DICOM is a broad standard for imaging in the medical world that uses both existing imaging formats (JPEG, JPEG2000, etc.) and some unique formats.

The common thread with all three of these technologies is that only a limited subset of our customers support them in their printing devices, and that test files are available from from the standards bodies. Therefore, these technologies do not currently appear to offer an attractive business case for QualityLogic to develop tests.

In order to develop tests for these languages we would need the following support from a  sponsoring customer:

• A clear understanding of the limitations of the publicly available test files (is there really a need for more tests?)
• A clear understanding of the printing compatibility problems in the domain where the imaging technology is used(if there are no problems, then why do more testing?).
• A willingness to work collaboratively with QualityLogic to develop a test suite that would be commercially available to everyone in their industry (are customers willing to help their competitors improve as well?).
• A willingness to provide some funding for the development effort(is the need sufficient to commit funds?)

We have had some success with this model in the past with technologies like PPML, IPP, IPDS, and a number of others. If  you have some interest facilitating the development of test suites for PDF/A, XHTML-Print, DICOM, or other technologies we would enjoy exploring the opportunity with you.

I should note that QualityLogic does have a wide variety of test for the full implementation of PDF and may include some PDF/A test files in a soon to been released PDF ATS product.