The real and ongoing revolution
The real evolution has been in the International Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP3 and CIP4), and then leading on to JDF, which allows for direct pre-press to press links, and beyond to post press links. CIP3 was the forerunner of this technology formed by Heidelberg in 1994 but quickly joined by some of the biggest names in offset press manufacture, including KBA, Komori, manroland and Mitsubishi. It also included the stalwarts of pre-press, Agfa, Creo (no Kodak) and Fuji, as well as the top post press players including Muller Martini and Polar-Mohr.
For the first time, the industry clubbed together to form a Vendor independent interface which would span all production processes in the art of printing, allowing for the goal of reduced production times, less waste, and maximum efficiency. The concept revolved around the Print Production Format (PPL) using the language of pre- press- PostScript- to create a file full of information on any given job, essentially an intelligent, electronic job bag, complete with automated instructions – well, that was the plan. CIP3 did achieve some success, especially in the area of ink key presetting and post press operations. CIP4 quickly followed CIP3 in the autumn of 2000, and picked up the management of another collaboration that Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and manroland had put together using an XML based job ticket called job definition Format (JDF). CIP4 now manages that under a ‘not for profit entity opens to all’ arrangement. CIP4 has around 320 members.
- CIP4 explains JDF as:
JDF is a comprehensive XML based file format and proposed industry standard for end to end job ticket specifications combined with a message description standard and message interchange protocol. - JDF is designed to streamline information exchange between different applications and systems.
- JDF is intended to enable the entire industry, including media, design, graphic arts, and on-demand and e-commerce companies, to implement and work with individual workflow solutions.
- JDF will allow integration of heterogeneous products from diverse vendors to create seamless workflow solutions.
The most prominent features of JDF are:
- Ability to carry a print job from genesis through completion. This includes a detailed description of the creative, pre-press, press, post press and delivery processes.
- Ability to bridge the communication gap between production and Management Information Services (MIS). This ability enables instantaneous job and device tracking as well as detailed pre and post calculation of jobs in the graphic arts.
- Ability to bridge the gap between the customer’s view of product and the manufacturing process by defining a process independent product view as well as a process dependent production view of a print job.
- Ability to define and track any user defined workflow without constraints on the supported workflow models. This includes serial, parallel, overlapping, and iterative processing in arbitrary combinations and over distributed locations.
- Ability to do so (1, 2, 3 and 4) under nearly pre-condition.
To be continued…
Peter Harrison is Joint Managing Director of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK.
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