JDF: Aiming for Efficiency

Hardware and software manufacturers, e-commerce vendors, industry associations, and leading graphic arts providers are joining forces to bring about an efficient, fully automated, end-to-end print supply chain workflow.

In April, the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) released version 1.0 of the Job Definition Format (JDF) specification. Initiated in 1999 by Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg, and MAN Roland, JDF is an emerging open standard for the graphic arts market that is administered by CIP4.

It is not yet accredited by a standards group such as ANSI (American National Standards Institute), but is expected to become a standard in the near future. In fact, many of its proponents already are referring to JDF as a standard.

Currently, JDF is a job ticket specification. It is completely compatible with Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format, and features a PDF-based workflow and automated process functionality based on the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) standard.

Some of the processes that will be automated with JDF include job and asset management, preflighting, imposition, trapping, RIPping, platemaking, printing, and finishing and binding. JDF also defines "Intent Resources," a language for describing what is to be produced, without having any knowledge of the production facility. It supports either generic or specific descriptions (i.e. three-hole drill versus hole #1: specific size and shape placed at specific X:Y coordinates).

It also supports data ranges, such as a customer-furnished specification for text stock with a basis weight of 50 to 60 lb.

The JDF specification promises to benefit print buyers and print service providers by simplifying the job specification process, by ensuring communication from graphic arts vendors (even those who might normally compete in the marketplace), and ultimately by automating many of today's disparate production processes with a flexible, universal job ticket.

What does this mean for the print provider? "In today's print shop, multiple machines and functions are required to complete a job," explains Jim Mekis, an independent standards consultant, and vice president of PrintTalk, a consortium of companies providing business management and e-commerce solutions to the graphic arts industry.

"Some of these machines may be linked to some of the other machines on the shop floor, but the entire system, from file creation to delivery of the printed product, doesn't function as a coherent unit," Mekis states. "Instead, the machines function as islands in a stream."

With JDF acting as a bridge between each separate "island," the entire print manufacturing process—from the time a print buyer places an order to final delivery of that product—can function as part of one end-to-end production system. JDF also can link MIS systems (for planning and controlling a job) and production services, which until now have had no way of communicating with each other.

"JDF will shorten the overall calendar time cycle for printing projects," says Wayne Minns, manager of applications, advanced engineering, for NexPress Solutions LLC. "It represents what a digital workflow will look like in the future from a business and production sense."

Of course, this means that graphic arts manufacturers will need to make their products JDF-compliant. But there is great expectation that they will do so.

"There already are 20 companies in the market that are implementing JDF in their products," says consultant Mekis. "They represent a broad range of companies, from those building MIS systems to Internet-based companies, to organizations like Fujifilm, Ikon, and NexPress."

"Why is JDF so important to NexPress?" Minns asks rhetorically. "As we move into an automated and digitally originated workflow [i.e. e-print applications that originate from a Web site], we need a way to represent all the manufacturing and processing information necessary to produce the job, as well as a way to reliably represent the content [either using PDF or PPML/VDX, an open, variable-data exchange standard based on PDF and the Print On Demand Initiative's Personalized Print Markup Language].

"In variable-data printing," continues Minns, "a job potentially has thousands of recipients, each getting a print job that varies in print length, content, or finishing specs. We need a way to represent that digitally, which is where JDF comes in. JDF represents the manufacturing control; it provides a way to automate information on manufacturing capabilities."

Adds CIP4 member Martin Bailey, a senior technical consultant for Harlequin, "JDF has the potential to significantly increase the end-to-end efficiency of print-related workflows, enabling the seamless integration of open systems into one productive and profitable whole."

Furthering JDF's potential is the PrintTalk specification, the first version of which was released immediately following the release of JDF version 1.

"While JDF addresses the manufacturing instructions of what we are going to produce, PrintTalk addresses the digital management of the business relationship and communication," says Mekis. "JDF addresses things like the number of pages, the type of paper to use, how many colors, how they are positioned, and what type of binding will be employed. What is not addressed is all the business communication about that product, through questions such as, 'How do I request a quote, what currency will I use, and how do we change orders?' That is what PrintTalk will do."

PrintTalk was established a little more than a year ago by a group of companies that develop business management systems for printers, as well as firms that provide e-commerce solutions, to seek a common language through which to communicate.

Founders include Avanti Computer Systems, Cirqit.com, Collabria, Graphic Arts IT, Graphi-Tech Computer Systems, httprint, Impresse, MediaFlex.com, Noosh, Parsec Corporation, Press-tige Software, Printable.com, printChannel.com, Profit Control Systems, Streamline Solutions, and Wam!Net.

"There are no standards currently in place to describe printing and business practices," says Mekis. "There was no standard way to request a quote for custom manufacturing for any industry; there was no standard for us to draw on. So we started to build our own product."

PrintTalk supports the use of JDF and Commercial eXtensible Markup Language (cXML). cXML, the commercial version of XML, is the language used by some of the largest corporations in the world to conduct business across the Internet.

Like JDF and cXML, the PrintTalk standard is distributed free of any licensing fees or royalties.

JDF's impact doesn't end there, however. The Universal Printer Pre- and Post-processing Interface, or UP3I, is an initiative formed to define a binding communications interface for all of the components on an integrated digital print line. The basic UP3I concept was developed about a year ago by a core team of manufacturers, including Duplo, Hunkeler, IBM Printing Systems, Océ, and Strälfors. Dubbed "The Intelligent Link" by its creators, it is intended to interface to digital printers as well as in-line and near-line pre- and post-processors.

There is a common workgroup from JDF/CIP4 and UP3I working to harmonize JDF with UP3I. Version 1.0 is expected to be released shortly; technology demonstrations are ongoing.

"JDF will change the future of printing because it will accelerate the process and eliminate errors," says consultant Mekis. "It will make the printing process more efficient. In the very near future, printers will have to start thinking about buying products that implement JDF. In a few years, you won't find many items that don't speak JDF in one fashion or another."