When the ticket is faster than the speeder.​

Radar and cameras catch German motorists speeding about three million times a year. The Fines & Citations Office of the city of Leverkusen deals with speeding offenses every day. Most of these violations occur on the bridge that crosses the River Rhine along the A1 autobahn. Here the posted speed limit is only 60 km/h, since any faster traffic would cause too much vibration to this decaying bridge, which is generally closed for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons. A tremendous bureaucratic effort is required from the time the system records the violation to when offenders receive notification from the Fines & Citations Office. Because converting documents to PDF/A format plays such an important role in this process, the city of Leverkusen is not only using an SAP-based digital case file system, but a tool that enables such conversions to be done fully automatically.

In August 2010 the International Standards Organization published the PDF/VT standard, which opened the door to a new realm of possibilities for digital printing by decoupling the complexities of VDP creation from the particular print production methods.

PDF/VT gives the world of personalized data printing all the benefits of PDF workflow by satisfying the demands of industry for total job portability, page independence and device neutrality. In the future it will be next to impossible to imagine the PDF/VT file format (ISO 16612-2) not playing a key role when using VDP applications, particularly since it will allow you to use VDP solutions that are economical and easy to implement. By simplifying the process, it will deliver benefits to everyone who has a stake in successful mailings: businesses, marketers, graphic designers and print professionals.

There's no question that printing in support of direct mail campaigns is a billion-dollar business. The astronomical number of printing orders and the need for fast turnaround have not only given rise to the development of appropriately capable hardware, but also to such applications as variable data printing (VDP), which can significantly reduce the cost per printed item. The question now is: where do businesses stand today?

In spite of all the opportunities that are available in personalized printing, businesses still face enormous challenges. Small enterprises in particular continue to print their advertising and other mailings in black and white. Everyone knows how inadequate that is for making the right impression with prospects and customers. Companies need to put forth an enormous effort, particularly when using postal services for their mailing campaigns, as these have to compete with the internet and hold their own against the latest multimedia websites, e-mails, video platforms and social networks.