STREAMdiff™ Overview and Benefits

With Paloma's Print PerfectTM solution, companies can implement a complete, end-to-end document testing automation solution, maximizing the benefits of document testing automation.

By combining the CDP Communications STREAMdiffTM print stream comparison software with Gradual Software's PowerSWITCHTM testing workflow automation and the Doculynx MercuryTM archive solution, Paloma has created the only completely automated document testing solution - Print Perfect.  And whether your company competes in the banking, brokerage, mutual fund, insurance, retail credit, utility, print service bureau, or government industry, Print Perfect transforms a labor-intensive, subjective, and error-prone process into one which is substantially faster, highly objective, extremely accurate, and much less costly.

The first Print Perfect module - STREAMdiffTM - is a high speed print stream comparison software tool. STREAMdiff performs the tedious and labor-intensive task of comparing two print streams, but does it in a fraction of the time consumed by manual testing. This results in lower document testing and production costs and increases customer satisfaction by allowing for more thorough document application testing.
Printstream comparison down to the pixel to improve document quality.

STREAMdiff compares print streams structurally, as well as down to the pixel level, and then visually displays them in a side-by-side fashion with font, image, and graphics changes clearly identified by user-defined, color-coded change markers such as circles, rectangles or arrows. In addition, because STREAMdiff analyzes the underlying print stream structures - AFP, PDF, Postscript, PCL, or Metacode for example - it provides the user with a detailed explanation for each document change.

By inspecting the visual output of a "pre-change" file and a "post-change" file, STREAMdiff quickly and effectively identifies expected changes and also ensures that unexpected changes have not occurred.

A detailed list pinpoints the exact location of items that have changed, as well as the specific information regarding what has changed. Drag and drop selection of accepted changes provides an automated mechanism for iteratively reviewing and tracking changes and monitoring the acceptance testing process. In addition, STREAMdiff creates an audit trail report for each document application it processes. 

STREAMdiff™ Benefits

As a core component of the Print Perfect solution, the STREAMdiff print stream comparison tool helps to automate the typical resource-consuming and error-prone manual testing process, thereby:

> Increasing the productivity of any document creation team and reducing labor costs.

> Providing the ability to more thoroughly test document applications and reduce errors in customer documents.

> Involving business users in the document testing and approval process without having to educate them on another software tool.

> Shortening document composition software upgrade projects by minimizing the need for manual document testing. Imagine being able to test ALL the output generated by EVERY document application when an upgrade is performed! With the complete Print Perfect solution, the impossible has become possible.

> Simplifying and speeding migration from one document composition solution to another, because Print Perfect is not dependent on the document composition software used to create documents. For example, "pre-change" files can be created by one document composition solution, with "post-change" files being created by a different document composition solution.

> Reducing document time to market - document application testing will no longer consume 60% of a document project's hours.

> Lowering paper, toner, and print labor expenses by virtually eliminating the need to print volumes of paper for manual inspection.

> Eliminating the need for multiple testing tools in companies which produce AFP, PDF, Metacode, Postscript, and PCL document formats - Print Perfect supports all these output types.

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