[December 18, 2002] The Seybold Editors nominated JDF as one of 'The Ten Biggest Technology Stories of 2002.' - "Job Definition Format (JDF) arrives. There has long been a need for a standard way to make prepress, printing and post- press devices talk to each other (and to related job-control and business software). JDF was developed to answer this need, but at first it wasn't clear if it would be widely supported. In 2002, JDF took off, with commitments from virtually all the important vendors. It is destined to become a fundamental component in all the devices and software used in the printing industry..." See The Bulletin: Seybold News and Views On Electronic Publishing Volume 8, Numbers 12 & 13 (December 18, 2002).
[January 17, 2001] "JDF, an emerging standard administered by CIP4 in the print production market, is an XML-based print workflow specification. JDF is a new, open standard for integration of all computer aided business and production processes. It is designed to streamline information exchange between different applications and systems. JDF is intended to enable the entire graphical arts industry, including media, design, graphic arts, on demand and e-commerce companies to implement and work with individual workflow solutions. The most prominent features of JDF are: (1) Ability to carry a print job from genesis through completion. (2) Ability to bridge the communication gap between production and Management Information Services. (3) Ability to bridge the gap between the customer's view of product and manufacturing process. (4) Ability to do so ('1,2 & 3') under nearly any precondition. JDF provides a flexible adjustment to almost every customer workflow. The reason for this capability is that JDF has got a very powerful internal tree-like structure of information and that JDF is encoded in XML (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml), a standard controlled by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C)... Eventually the Job Messaging Format (JMF) will help to monitor the complete workflow and to track all jobs in realtime. It supports the exchange of dynamic data like device related information, status and progress messages and queue management."
[January 17, 2001] The principal specification governing JDF as of 2001-01-17 is: JDF Specification Draft Spiral 5.0. By CIP4 Organization. December 05, 2000. 451 pages. Extracts from this draft specification are presented below.
"The specification defines the Job Definition Format (JDF) and its counterpart, the Job Messaging Format (JMF). JDF is an extensible, XML-based format built upon the existing technologies of CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) and Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF). It provides three primary benefits to the printing industry. Unlike any previous format, it has the ability to unify the pre-press, press, and post-press aspects of any printing job. It also provides the means to bridge the communication gap between production services and Management Information Systems (MIS). And finally, it is able to carry out both of these functions no matter what system architecture is already in place, and no matter what tools are being used to complete the job. In short, JDF is extremely versatile and comprehensive. JDF is an interchange data format to be used by a system of administrative and implementation-oriented components, which together produce printed products. It provides the means to describe print jobs in terms of the products eventually to be created, as well as in terms of the processes needed to create those products. The format provides a mechanism to explicitly specify the controls needed by each process, which may be specific to the devices that will execute the processes. JDF works in tandem with a counterpart format known as the Job Messaging Format, or JMF. JMF provides the means for production components of a JDF workflow to communicate with system controllers and administrative components. It relays information about the progress of JDF jobs and gives MIS the active ability to query devices about the status of processes being executed or getting ready to be executed. JMF will provide the complete job tracking functionality that is defined by IFRAtrack messaging standard. Depending on the system architecture, JMF may also provide the means to control certain aspects of these processes directly. This document describes components of JDF, both internal and external, and explains how to integrate the format components to create a viable workflow. Ancillary aspects are also introduced, such as how to convert PJTF or PPF to JDF, and how JDF relates to IFRAtrack..."
"The term job describes the entirety of a JDF project. Each job is organized in a tree structure containing all of the information required to complete the intended project. The information is collected logically into what is called a node. Each node in the tree structure represents an aspect of the job to be executed. The nodes in a job are organized in a hierarchical structure that resembles a pyramid. The node at the top of the pyramid describes the overall intention of the job. The intermediate nodes describe increasingly process-oriented aspects of the job, until the nodes at the bottom of the pyramid each describe a single, simple process. Depending on where in the job structure it resides, a node can represent a portion of the product to be created, one or many processing steps, or other job parts... The term element describes an XML syntactic construct. Within this document, the term refers to the structured sub-parts of a JDF node. Technically, JDF nodes are themselves XML elements. However, within this specification, the term node is used to distinguish between the independent JDF aspect and its sub-parts. Furthermore, elements that are sub-parts of other elements are often referred to as sub-elements. There is no structural distinction between nodes, elements and sub-elements; rather, the different terminology is intended to describe the hierarchical relationships. JDF elements are represented by two kinds of data types: element and text element. The latter is abbreviated as telem... JDF nodes are encoded as XML elements. Nodes, in turn, contain various attributes and further sub-elements including nested JDF nodes. A node is a construct, encoded as an XML element, that describes a particular part of a JDF job. Each node represents an aspect of the job, either in terms of a process necessary to produce the end result, such as imposing, printing, or binding; in terms of a product that contributes to the end result, such as a brochure; or in terms of some combination of the two. In short, a node describes a product or a process. In addition to describing the structure of an individual JDF node, this chapter examines in what way those nodes interact to form a coherent job structure. The interrelation of nodes can be divided into two categories: hierarchical and lateral. Hierarchical interrelation is the nested structure of parent nodes that contain child nodes. The visual correlative of this structure resembles a family tree, with a single node describing the entire job at the top, and a number of nodes at the bottom that each describe only one specific process... Workflow Component Roles: The four components required to create, modify, route, interpret and execute a JDF job are known as agents, controllers, devices and machines...
"JDF is meant to be flexible and therefore useful to any vendor, as each vendor will have specific data to include in the JDF files. JDF is able to provide this kind of versatility by using the XML namespaces. This chapter describes how JDF uses the XML extension mechanisms. The official namespace URI for JDF Version 1.0 is: "http://www.job-definition-format.org/JDFSchema_1".
"JDF Messaging with the Job Messaging Format (JMF): A workflow system is a dynamic set of interacting processes, devices and MIS systems, and for the workflow to run efficiently, these processes and devices must communicate and interact in a well-defined manner. Messaging is a simple but powerful way to establish this kind of dynamic interaction. The JDF-based Job Messaging Format, or JMF, provides a wide range of capabilities to facilitate interaction between the various aspects of a workflow, from simple unidirectional notification through the issuing of direct commands. JMF messages are most often encoded in pure XML, without an additional MIME/Multipart wrapper. Only controllers that support JDF job submission via the message channel must support MIME for messages. JMF and JDF have an inherently different structure. In order to allow immediate identification of messages, JMF uses the unique name JMF as its own root-element name. The root element of the XML fragment that encodes a message, like the root element of a JDF fragment, contains a series of predictable attributes and instances of Message elements..."
Appendix A (Encoding) "lists a number of commonly used JDF data types and structures and their XML encoding. Data types are simple data entities such as strings, numbers and dates. They have a very straightforward string representation and are used as XML attribute values. Data structures, on the other hand, describe more complex structures that are built from the defined data types, such as colors. JDF is based on the XML Schema specification. The JDF data types used in this specification are summarized in the table [below] and comply with the lexical representation of (primitive) data types defined by XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. For a complete definition of each of these data types, please refer to the final specification of [W3C] XML Schema Datatypes."
For related initiatives, see: (1) Printing Industry Markup Language (PrintML); (2) PML: Markup Language for Paper and Printing; (3) XML for Publishers and Printers (XPP). See also the PrintTalk Consortium and PrintCafe's eProduction eCommerce eXchange (PCX), now being described primarily as 'a framework for integrating industry standards' supporting XML-based specifications for the printing and publishing supply chain. The PrintTalk implementation supports use of the proposed Job Definition Format (JDF) standard for its job specification semantic and Commercial eXtensible Markup Language (cXML) to define the business objects; four of thirteen business objects have been defined so far.
[October 13, 2000] DF Specification Draft Spiral Version 4.0. "Four companies prominent in the graphic arts industry -- Adobe, Agfa, HEIDELBERG, and MAN Roland -- have united to create this extensible, XML-based format built upon the existing technologies of CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) and Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF). JDF provides three primary benefits to the printing industry. Unlike any previous format, it has the ability to unify the pre-press, press, and post-press aspects of any printing job. It also provides the means to bridge the communication gap between production services and Management Information Systems (MIS). And finally, it is able to carry out both of these functions no matter what system architecture is already in place, and no matter what tools are being used to complete the job. In short, JDF is extremely versatile and comprehensive. JMF messages are most often encoded in pure XML, without an additional MIME/Multipart wrapper. Only controllers that support JDF job submission via the message channel must support MIME for messages. Appendix A of the 389-page specification lists a number of commonly used JDF data types and structures and their XML encoding, based upon the W3C XML Schema datatypes. Data types are simple data entities such as strings, numbers and dates. They have a very straightforward string representation and are used as XML attribute values. Data structures, on the other hand, describe more complex structures that are built from the defined data types, such as colors..."
[October 02, 2000] "In the last few years, there has been a call for the printing and publishing industries to create two things: a standards-based, supply-chain infrastructure and a set of protocols specific to the process of creating, manufacturing and distributing printed information. Four companies prominent in the graphic arts industry -- Adobe, Agfa, HEIDELBERG, and MAN Roland -- have united to create a new format that addresses these and other issues. The idea was to develop a set of open, extensible, XML-based job ticket standards, as well as a mechanism that provides new business opportunities for all individuals and companies involved in the process of creating, managing and producing published documents in the new economy. Building on the existing technologies of CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) and Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF), the Job Definition Format (JDF) supplies a means for printing businesses to streamline the process of producing printed material. The three most prominent features of JDF are its ability to carry a print job from genesis through completion, its ability to bridge the communication gap between production and Management Information Services, and its ability to do so under nearly any precondition. In short, JDF is an extremely versatile and comprehensive format. A business of any size can use JDF, from an individual with only a handful of jobs a year to a publication house with daily output. JDF provides a means to set up communication between systems from different vendors with minimum configuration efforts. It also facilitates the execution of every aspect of any print job, from creation through shipping. . . While the first version of JDF is being developed, the four companies involved intend to pass control of the specification to a cross-industry consortium. This will ensure that all vendors can develop systems that use JDF, and that no vendor is disadvantaged with respect to any of its competitors. To this end, JDF will be encoded in XML, a standard controlled by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Additionally, features of XML have been chosen to allow easy extension of the specification to support processes and devices not anticipated in version 1.0 of the specification." [from the White Paper]
References:
CIP4 Web site. "CIP4 is an organization bringing together vendors, consultants and end-users in the print communications, Graphic Arts industry and associated sectors, covering a variety of equipment, software, peripherals, and processes.
Announcement: "JDF Specification, Version 1.0 Officially Released by CIP4 and Immediately Available on the CIP4 Web Site. JDF Defines New Paradigm for Increased Automation and Integrated Supply Chain Workflow." Announcement source in HTML and PDF format
JDF Session at Seybold Conference in San Francisco, 2001. References to presentations given at the JDF Session conference in San Francisco, September 26, 2001.
CIP4 Seminar at Print '01 in Chicago, 2001. References to presentations given at the CIP4 Seminar in Chicago pn September 13, 2001.
[September 30, 2003] "Adobe and Xerox Announce Strategic Initiative to Promote Print Production Workflow Standards. Adobe PDF, JDF, XML and PostScript Technologies Incorporated Into Xerox FreeFlow Initiative." - "Adobe Systems Incorporated and Xerox Corporation today announced an initiative to jointly support and promote the widespread adoption of emerging print industry standards for both static and variable information workflow technologies. The standards include Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), JDF (Job Definition Format) job ticketing, Adobe PostScript, XML (Extensible Markup Language), and variable information workflow technologies. The initiative is part of Xerox FreeFlow Digital Workflow Collection that improves digital workflow -- the process by which print jobs make their way from creation through final production and fulfillment... Adobe technologies are incorporated throughout the latest release of the Xerox FreeFlow Digital Workflow Collection. (1) Xerox DigiPath Production Software 4.0 with Adobe Acrobat, PDF Libraries and PDF plug-in support as part of a full and robust Adobe PDF workflow. Adobe PDF is supported throughout all of DigiPath's functionality, including scanning, preflight, imposition, editing, storage, viewing and printing. (2) Xerox DocuSP 3.7 Controllers for production printing with Adobe PostScript 3, PDF Libraries and Normalizer solutions for reliable, consistent print output, native PDF consumption and the highest quality PPML support. (3) The Xerox VIPP Thin Printer for high-volume production, tagging and delivery of optimized Adobe PDFs from the same print data streams used for production printing, using Adobe Acrobat, Distiller Server and PDF Libraries. These PDF files can be used for single or multi-set proofs, archiving, electronic distribution, and Web presentment of variable data documents produced from Xerox VIPP applications. As part of the new initiative, Adobe and Xerox are undertaking joint efforts to drive acceptance of the JDF standard for job ticketing, and to develop integrated solutions that leverage the strengths of their respective variable data printing technologies. Both companies embrace PostScript, PDF, XML and variable data print streams to provide the broadest possible range of one-to-one business applications. Consistent with these priorities, Xerox is supporting the latest PPML Graphic Arts Conformance Subset standard across its line of production products and one-to-one solutions architecture..." See also "Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML)."
[April 04, 2003] Interactivity, Personalization Expand the Limits of Print." By Andreas Weber (DigitaldruckForum). In The Seybold Report Volume 2, Number 24 (March 31, 2003). ISSN: 1533-9211. "No longer chasing the elusive 'run of one,' interactive variable printing is finding its niche. At the PODi conference in Rome, PPML came of age; at Cebit, we saw how it can fit into the future of print communication. Since March 1999, expert teams in companies large and small have been feverishly debating the details and have managed to reach an agreement on PPML. For the first time in printing history, we have a generally recognized convention for a Personalized Print Markup Language. PPML is no off-the-shelf software product. Rather, it is a kind of digital 'container' in which all the parameters necessary for variable-printing jobs can be collected. The significance of PPML lies in the value it provides: 'maximizing the reuse of assets to minimize transport and printing costs.' JDF, PDF/X-3 and XML are the standards with which PPML most closely interacts... A decisive factor in the success [of PPML] was the founding of PODi, the Print On Demand Initiative (www.podi.org). The organization brought PPML to life in record time. Version 1.0 came out in March 2000, and version 2.0 is being released in April 2003. In parallel, PODi has gathered a unique collection of case studies. It is constantly being updated and is published as a 'book on demand.' PODi spokesperson David deBronkart says: 'It took an incredible amount of work to ferret out these 'best practice' examples and document them properly.' But the effort was worth it; digital printing has never before been documented in such detail and so effectively... In light of PPML and variable data exchange, two trends stand out: (1) Digital printing is moving away from the concept of the 'run of one.' (2) Digital printing permits high-volume production, with every piece individualized in real time and press runs in the millions... PPML significantly enriches the workflow for communication via print media. It encompasses preflight, soft-proofing and printing, as well as data verification. Still more important, PPML allows the development of tools for print providers, marketers and agencies that make it easier to plan, lay out and produce individualized printed pieces, and to integrate digital printing into the planning of multi-media advertising campaigns..." See "Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML)."
[January 30, 2003] "The MIME application/vnd.cip4-jdf+xml Content-Type." By Tom Hastings (Xerox Corporation) and Ira McDonald (High North Inc). IETF Internet Draft. Reference: 'draft-mcdonald-cip4-jdf-mime-00.txt'. 25-January-2003, expires 25-July-2003. "The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress (CIP4) is an international worldwide standards body located in Switzerland. The purpose of CIP4 is to encourage computer based integration of all processes that have to be considered in the graphic arts industry. CIP4 has defined two document formats that are encoded in W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML): (1) CIP4 Job Definition Format (JDF) -- an open standard for integration of all computer aided business and production processes around print media; (2) CIP4 Job Messaging Format (JMF) - an open standard for job messaging using Hyper Text Transport Protocol/1.1 (HTTP/1.1, RFC2616) that defines Query, Command, Response, Acknowledge, and Signal message families. This document defines two new MIME sub-types for IANA registration: (1) application/vnd.cip4-jdf+xml for CIP4 Job Definition Format; (2) application/vnd.cip4-jmf+xml for CIP4 Job Messaging Format..." [JDF: "JDF is simply an exchange format for instructions and job parameters. You can use PDF, or its standard variant (PDF/X), to relay production files from one platform to another. You can do the same with JDF to relay job parameters and instructions. JDF can be used to describe a printing job logically, as you would in exchanging a job description with a client within an estimate. It can also be used to describe a job in terms of individual production processes and the materials or other process inputs required to complete a job."] See: JDF Specification Release 1.1, Revision A. [cache]
[May 31, 2002] "JDF Goes Into High Gear. [JDF Gathers Steam, or At Least Promises. Print Workflow.]" By John Parsons. In Seybold Report: Analyzing Publishing Technology [ISSN: 1533-9211] Volume 2, Number 5 (June 3, 2002). ['Only one year after the official release of JDF 1.0, the printing industry is actively pursuing compliance with the XML-based job-ticket standard. At Ipex 2002, numerous products were demonstrated or announced, and even more were said to be in the works. As anticipated, larger system vendors tended to emphasize JDF connections with their existing business partners, while MIS vendors took a more holistic approach.'] "Asstandards go, the Job Definition Format (JDF) is progressing at a remarkable rate. By some accounts, the original work began in 1999, building on older, non-XML formats, including Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF) and CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF). The concept of JDF was first publicly presented at Seybold Boston 2000; the official 1.0 release came only a year later, and by Print '01 in September, most prepress, print and MIS vendors were at least privately discussing adding JDF to their plans. At this year's Ipex, the standard had just gone to version 1.1, and vendor and customer enthusiasm had reached gold-rush proportions... The CIP4 organization, the official standards body governing JDF, formally published the 1.1 specifications on May 2. Nearly 550 pages long, the document adds many new job-ticket and messaging definitions. However, CIP4 members generally agree, there is still much work to be done. The enhancements in JDF 1.1 include greater support for digital printing, including variable data handling, as well as major enhancements in finishing and shipping definitions, plus improvements in color workflow and e-commerce. The new spec also adds device-capability reporting. This would allow a JDF-based system to determine (among many other examples) the media sizes supported by an output device, and determine if a specific job was within that device's capability. An updated XML schema for JDF will be published shortly, to be followed by an updated, open-source SDK. CIP4's technical officer, Rainer Prosi of Heidelberg, asserted that the new version is backward-compatible with systems developed using JDF 1.0... JDF follows the time-honored tradition of a comprehensive physical job ticket: a reliable reference point for a job that can be understood -- and easily interacted with -- by many individuals. By all accounts, the CIP4 group has begun to effectively translate that idea into the digital realm, where the efficiencies of a common set of rules can benefit almost everyone. However, extreme patience is required..."
[May 02, 2002] "CIP4 Releases JDF 1.1 Specification. New Version of JDF, Workflow Automation Standard." - "The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) today announced the public release of version 1.1 of CIP4's Job Definition Format (JDF) Specification. The new version of the specification includes provision for variable data print needs. The organization, writing, and graphics have also been greatly enhanced. Additional areas of modification include: color workflow, eCommerce, finishing, and device capability description. The new specification can be freely downloaded from www.cip4.org. The specification was enhanced in cooperation with industry groups including CGATS, ICC, IDEAlliance, IFRA, PODi, PrintTalk, and UP3i. An updated schema will follow in several weeks, followed closely by an update of the JDF API. 'With JDF Release 1.1, CIP4 has developed a backwards compatible extension of JDF that incorporates feedback from real world implementation experience and that will serve as the foundation for end to end workflow solutions in the graphic arts industry.' said Dr. Rainer Prosi, Technical Officer of CIP4... JDF is an upcoming industry standard designed to simplify information exchange between different applications and systems in and around the Graphic Arts industry. To that end JDF builds on and extends beyond pre-existing partial solutions, such as CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) and Adobe Systems' Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF). It also enables the integration of commercial and planning applications into the technical workflow. JDF joins the growing number of standards based on XML, ensuring maximum possible portability between different platforms and ready interaction with Internet-based systems..." PR also in PDF format.
[May 22, 2001] JDF Technical Overview. Presentation by Markus Möller given at XML Europe 2001, Berlin. 69 pages. [cache]
[May 22, 2001] JDF Application Programming Interface. Presentation by Rainer Prosi (Heidelberg) gven at the XML Europe 2001 conference in Berlin. 12 pages. "Reasons for an open source JDF API: (1) JDF uses XML as a Database, not as a Markup Language (lots of ID-IDREF linking, Inheritance by nesting, Enhanced Validation) (2) Use of the same code base reduces incompatibility between vendors (Compile- time code validation through type safe classes instead of generic string based calls; Same spec interpretation through a common high level code base) (3) Providing an open source API reduces barriers to adapting a JDF workflow. Components of the API have been submitted to the CIP4 Open Source working group for review (e.g., JDF Class Wrapper [Heidelberg] and Utility libraries [AGFA]..."
[May 22, 2001] XML Schema for Job Definition Format. Presentation by Graham Mann (Adobe) given at the XML Europe 2001, Berlin. 33 pages. XML Schema design for JDF is ongoing; draft materials are available to CIP4 members in the 'Tools and Infrastructure working group' area.
JDF Specification Draft Spiral 5.0. December 05, 2000. [cache]
Coded Examples (from Appendix K) - From the December 05, 2000 [5.0] Draft
JDF Specification Draft Spiral 4.0. October 3, 2000. 389 pages. [cache]
Job Definition Format JDF Technical Workshop at Sebold San Francisco on August 31, 2000. By Dr. Rainer Prosi (Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG) "JDF is a Data Interchange Format Specification encoded in XML..." [cache]
JDF white paper. "This whitepaper provides an introduction to the Job Definition Format, and explains its place in today's pre-press and printing industry. From yesterday's world of mechanized labor to today's world of digital unification, the printing industry has sought to improve upon every advance and move towards the goal of increasing efficiency and versatility. The document elaborates on the background of the development of JDF, explains its specific capabilities, and provides practical examples of how JDF can be used." [cache]
JDF Developers Forum - Documents the public JDFDEV Mailing List
JDFDEV Mailing List archives ('JDFDEV@job-definition-format.org')
DRUPA Presentation. Presentation of the JDF Technical Workshop at DRUPA on May 24th, 2000.
"JDF and PDF: A Progress Report." By Paul Beyer, Group Product Manager for Professional, Adobe systems, Inc. Keynote presented at the Digital Smart Factory Conference, August 2000.
"Using Metadata and JDF to Automate Workflows" By Robert Schaffel, Sr. Product Manager: Professional Publishing, Adobe Systems. In Meeting Notes. From the Digital Smart Factory Conference Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport Orlando, Florida, August 15-16, 2000. By Dennis E. Mason. Also PDF.
[January 17, 2001] "CIP4 Advisory Board Elected by Organization Membership. With leadership in place, CIP4 officially begins JDF administration." - "The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) announces the election of a distinguished international group of industry leaders to its Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is the highest authority in CIP4 and shapes the organization's direction and agenda. With the Advisory Board in place, CIP4 begins its role of administering the Job Definition Specification (JDF). JDF, an emerging standard administered by CIP4 in the print production market, is an XML-based print workflow specification. As an open standard, JDF will benefit print buyers and print service providers by simplifying the job specification process, insuring cross-vendor system communication, and by automating many of today's manual production processes with a flexible, universal Job Ticket (JDF). One of the Advisory Board's first tasks will be to put the finishing touches on Version 1.0 of the JDF specification itself. The Advisory Board has also begun to fill positions in the Board of Directors, the day-to-day executive group within CIP4. 'With the JDF specification poised to enable a new level of workflow integration in the print communications industry, CIP4 is now ready to fulfill its role as JDF administrator,' said Martin Bailey, CIP4 Interim CEO. 'We expect to publish the JDF 1.0 release shortly and be in position to begin the work of extending JDF's capabilities to broader segments within the industry.' Collaborative support for JDF by technology vendors, hardware manufacturers, e-procurement vendors, print production companies, and others involved in printed communication is expected to enable efficient end-to-end print supply chain workflow. JDF promises to integrate authoring, production, management, manufacturing, delivery and MIS control. This will allow system and software developers to extend existing high performance systems, to develop new, highly-configurable systems and to create a new level of process integration in the industry. E-procurement companies will be able to directly integrate this production workflow into print management systems, accessible via online web sites. End users can look forward to more cost-effective workflow automation. CIP4 is an organization bringing together vendors, consultants and end-users in the print communications, Graphic Arts industry and associated sectors, covering a variety of equipment, software, peripherals, and processes..."
Contact: JDFInfo@job-definition-format.org
The PrintTalk implementation supports use of the proposed Job Definition Format (JDF) standard for its job specification semantic and Commercial eXtensible Markup Language (cXML) to define the business objects.
See also: XML for Publishers and Printers (XPP)
See also: PrintTalk Consortium
