STREAMdiff™ Version 3.0 Release Announcement

WHAT IS IT?

WHAT DOES IT DO?

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

ADVANCED COMPARISON FILTERS

Previous STREAMdiff™ versions perform a thorough comparison of all document elements and their attributes, but only provide the ability to filter out element attributes at the broader level of “text”, “graphics” and “image” elements. The Advanced Compare feature enables users to be more granular in their filtering of document attributes by enabling the inclusion or exclusion of individual element attributes. For example, the user will be able to filter any of the individual attributes for a text string, such as string height or font weight, or image attribute differences such as color.

Users can now be much more precise in their definition of which document elements, and their associated attributes, are compared in a given project.

PARAGRAPH COMPARE RULES

STREAMdiff™ users can now identify a region on a page, combine all the text within that defined region, compare the entire paragraph of text and highlight any differences found in that paragraph.

This provides for faster identification of differ- ences within entire paragraphs of text, even if they are laid out (i.e., wrapped) differently between the control and test files.

ADVANCED TOLERANCES

Current STREAMdiff™ versions have the ability to apply comparison tolerances for position, page size, string size and graphics. This feature will enable users to apply tolerances with more granularity per document element (i.e., text, graphics, and images). For example, the user will be able to apply an “x” and “y” position tolerance on graphics and images only, while continuing to compare exact positioning of the text elements in the document.

Users can now be more precise in their application of positional tolerances, instead of having a position tolerance apply to every document element.

GLOBAL CHARACTER ACCEPTANCE

Current STREAMdiff™ versions interrogate and report differences between two print streams. On occasion, STREAMdiff™ will report a difference, even though there does not look to be an actual difference. For example, in some cases the dash (-) character might be used in the control file while the minus sign (-) sign is used in the test file. These look to be identical to the user but, in reality, they have different Unicode values and STREAMdiff™ denotes this as a difference. With the new version, users can create character acceptance settings which will be applied wherever this difference occurs in the current files being compared.

Faster difference acceptance of multiple, repetitive character differences, even if they’re located in multiple different positions in the documents.

Z-ORDER COMPARISON

Z-order is the order in which the elements are displayed/rendered on the page. For example, a text string is rendered first (with a z-order of 1) and an image is rendered second (with a z-order of 2). In this case the text string may be overlapped by the image, thereby hiding the test string. Without testing for z-order, past versions of STREAMdiff™ might not have marked this as a difference, even though a visual difference clearly exists. STREAMdiff™ 3.0 now tests for z-order so that these differences are detected.

Greater comparison accuracy and validity.

CONTROL AND TEST FILE TRIGGERS

Current STREAMdiff™ versions can only verify a trigger condition on the control side of a comparison. With STREAMdiff™ 3.0 users will now have the flexibility of creating and satisfying this trigger on either the control or test side of the comparison.

Greater flexibility when defining document synchronization points, acceptance rules, region comparisons, and masks.

FILTER ASSOCIATED OR UNASSOCIATED DIFFERENCES

Current STREAMdiff™ versions compare all associated and unassociated items between the control and test files. The unassociated items are identified as differences for one side of the compare (i.e., items which appear in either the control or test file, but not in both files). With STREAMdiff™ 3.0 users can now filter out unassociated items from being compared and reported. Similarly, users can also filter out associated items from being compared and reported, thereby showing only unassociated differences.

Greater flexibility in determining what to compare in a given set of files. Also, users can now search for document elements which appear in only the control or test file.

SEGMENTATION SETTINGS IMPROVEMENTS

STREAMdiff™ 3.0 allows users to separately define segmentation (also called “Combine Strings”) settings specific to the control and test print streams.

Greater accuracy of text matching when control and test files aren’t structured similarly.

SEMANTIC SEARCH ASSOCIATION OF ITEMS SORTED IN X/Y ORDER

The STREAMdiff™ association logic has been enhanced to enable the user to select and associate any unmatched document element with its X/Y positioned equivalent (after associating items using the semantic search feature). For example, if a name has changed between the control and test files and the current semantic search logic does not associate these items even though they are located at the same position, this option will allow the user to associate them.

Greater accuracy of text matching when words change substantially from the control to the test file.

COMPARISON OF DOCUMENT AREAS/REGIONS FOUND IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS

Current STREAMdiff™ versions allow users to compare specific document areas/regions, while ignoring the areas outside of these areas. This new feature enables users to compare these regions, even if the position of the regions on the page differs between the control and test files.

Users have more control over what is compared and can more easily focus on specific document areas, even if they aren’t in the same location on the control and test files.