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NEWS RELEASES
Latest Releases:
PrintTalk™
Consortium announces release of specifications
at Graph ExpoŽ and Converting ExpoŽ
PrintTalk Consortium Forms Executive
Committee-August 30, 2000
PrintTalk
Adopts Membership Agreement-July 28, 2000
PrintTalk
Formed-June 19, 2000
September 24, 2000
PRINTTALK™ CONSORTIUM ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF SPECIFICATIONS AT GRAPH EXPOŽ AND CONVERTING EXPOŽ
PrintTalk, a consortium of companies providing Business Management and e-Commerce solutions (BMS & eCS) for the Graphic Arts, organized in June in order to define a common and open communications interface between their products, announced the first public release of the PrintTalk implementation at a news conference Sunday, September 24 during GRAPH EXPO and CONVERTING EXPO in Chicago.
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. This will enable job management data to flow freely and openly between these systems, thus simplifying their use.
As part of the group’s activities, it is seeking to have its work recognized as an implementation of the proposed JDF standard by submitting the PrintTalk implementation to CIP4 for inclusion in its specification.
Specifications for Request for Quote, Quote, Order and Order Acknowledgement were released at GRAPH EXPO and are available to any interested party to download from the PrintTalk web site at http://www.printtalk.org . A total of 13 business objects are planned with additional releases scheduled later this year. The PrintTalk interface specification is being made available for download free of any license fees or royalties in order to address the need for end-to-end connectivity in the printing industry.
PrintTalk chose to use the best communication standard from the e-commerce domain, XML, and the widely supported emerging standard from the graphic arts domain, JDF, for the implementation. The PrintTalk specification uses cXML to communicate the commercial transaction, and JDF to communicate the job and delivery specification for individual components.
JDF is important to PrintTalk because it enables a way to define the "wishes or intent" of a print buyer without tying those wishes to specific print processes. Some of the eCS vendors provide job specification services for print buyers, and it is imperative that the specifications be defined in a way that allows printers this flexibility.
The business management vendors, representing over 6000 printers, defined the requirements for the consortium as the following:
- Create an architecture with a single point of responsibility to lock-in data integrity
- Provide a comprehensive set of business objects for the graphic arts industry
- Standardize the communication method between eCS and BMS solutions.
The fast pace of development is due to the dedication and expertise of the technical team members from Cirqit, Collabria, httprint, Impresse, Noosh, Printable.com and others, said Steve Hallberg, President of Parsec Corporation and of PrintTalk. "PrintTalk members have put aside their competitive concerns and focussed on the needs of the customer - direct communication between an eCommerce site and a printer’s management system."
For the past month the consortium has been working with Adobe Systems Incorporated and Heidelberg, two of the original authors of the JDF specification, to finalize the intent semantics and gain industry support for their work. PrintTalk’s collaboration with the original creators of JDF, Adobe, Agfa Gavaert, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG, was essential and played a crucial role, accelerating the development of the PrintTalk specification.
"In the fast paced world of the Internet, the growing need for standards of communication is paramount, and the PrintTalk consortium has proved they're up to the task," said Konrad Sommer, a senior manager for software development at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. "Heidelberg, especially in its role as one of the JDF founders, has supported the PrintTalk effort from the beginning and will continue to support them to gain wide adoption throughout the graphic arts industry."
"Adobe chose to work with the PrintTalk group because of its open, innovative approach to working with JDF and its focus on enhancing the communication between printers, print buyers and end users," said Paul Beyer, group product manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated. "This type of collaboration and consensus around a common semantic framework for the graphic arts, we believe, will benefit end users and continue to drive our industry forward."
Membership in PrintTalk is open to any company which develops software for graphic arts applications and which supports implementation of the JDF standard and an open communications interface between products. Annual dues are $2,000 for Regular members and PrintTalk Supporters. Founding members of PrintTalk include Avanti Computer Systems, Cirqit.com, Collabria, Inc., Graphic Arts IT, GraphiTech Computer Systems, httprint, Impresse, MediaFlex.com, MicroInk, Noosh, Inc., Pace Systems, Parsec Corporation, Press-tige Software, Printable.com, printChannel.com, Printers Software, Inc., Profit Control Systems, Inc., Streamline Solutions and Wam!Net.
For full information about PrintTalk, membership criteria and application forms, visit the web site at www.printtalk.org.
NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies serves as secretariat to PrintTalk, with NPES Vice President William K. Smythe as administrator. The Association is located at 1899 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4367, telephone 703/264-7200, fax 703/620-0994, www.npes.org.
NPES is a U.S. trade association representing more than 450 companies engaged in manufacturing and importing for sale or distribution of machinery, equipment, systems, software and supplies used in every printing, publishing and converting process from desktop design and image generation and processing to multiple output options and targeted dissemination systems. Information about NPES, its programs and its member companies is available on the Association web site at http://www.npes.org.
The Association serves as secretariat to the following standards activities: The American National Standards Institute accredited B65Committee, charged with the development of safety standards for printing and finishing equipment; the ANSI accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) to support and foster graphic arts standards activities and the develop technical standards where no applicable developer is available; the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology, responsible for coordinating the U.S. position and participation in the international standards activities of the ISO’s TC 130.
NPES also administers the International Color Consortium, an organization with nearly 75 members devoted to developing a specification to enable different computer platforms and devices to translate color definition information into a standard color interchange space so that the receiving device can interpret that data into the appropriate color.
Adobe is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems
Incorporated.
August 30, 2000
PrintTalk, a consortium of companies providing Business Management and e-Commerce Solutions (BMS & eCS) for the Graphic Arts in order to define a common and open communications interface between their products, announced that the first version of the PrintTalk implementation will be published at GRAPH EXPOŇ and CONVERTING EXPOSM 2000 in Chicago September 24-27.PrintTalk also announced the election of its executive committee and the appointment of Technical and Marketing Secretaries for the group, following a meeting in San Francisco August 28.
With the completion of formal organization, PrintTalk also announced that membership is now open to any company that meets the membership criteria. Complete membership information is available at the PrintTalk web site at www.printtalk.org.
"While the Technical Working Group has been meeting weekly to build the specification and details of the PrintTalk Implementation, the larger organization has met twice to determine the structure and objectives of the group. The members of the executive committee are the key contributors to the group, and people who have proved capable of putting aside competitive advantage to advance an open interface for the industry, " said Steve Hallberg, President of PrintTalk and President of Parsec Corporation. "The role of the executive committee is to drive the future direction of the organization," he said.
The executive committee consists of nine companies representing Business Management and e-Commerce Solutions - Collabria, Inc., Graphic Arts IT, httprint, Impresse, Noosh, Inc., Parsec Corporation, printChannel.com, Printers Software, Inc. and Streamline Solutions . Jess Walker, Market Development Manager of Noosh, Inc., was appointed Marketing Secretary, and Norman Furlong, Director, Integration Services of Impresse Corporation, was appointed Technical Secretary. Both of these positions also serve as officers of PrintTalk along with Hallberg, James Mekis, Director, Commercial Print Services, Impresse, who serves as Vice President and William K. "Kip" Smythe, NPES Vice President who serves as Secretary to the group.
PrintTalk has focused on creating a specification for communicating directly between ecommerce companies and business management systems for the graphic arts. This will enable job management data to flow freely and openly between these systems, thus simplifying their use.
PrintTalk’s collaboration with the original creators of the JDF standard played a crucial role, accelerating the development of the JDF job specification by defining many of the job "intents" that are part of JDF. "PrintTalk collaborated with JDF members for two reasons," said Technical Secretary Furlong. "The first was to be sure we had the best information about the framework, and the second was to be sure that we conformed closely to the draft standard so that CIP4 could easily adopt our work."
PrintTalk announced that when the implementation is completed, it will be submitted to CIP4 for inclusion in JDF.
"I am very pleased that PrintTalk based its work on JDF," said John Harrison, Director of Marketing for Agfa's Delano web-based project management system. "It's great to see one industry initiative quickly build on another -- a case study of the power of open standards. PrintTalk is the first example of an implementation of JDF, " Harrison said. "This group has proven that competing companies coming together with a common cause and using an open standards framework can truly advance the industry."
Founding members of PrintTalk include Avanti Computer Systems, Cirqit.com, Collabria, Inc., Graphic Arts IT, GraphiTech Computer Systems, httprint, Impresse, MediaFlex.com, MicroInk, Noosh, Inc., Pace Systems, Parsec Corporation, Press-tige Software, Printable.com, printChannel.com, Printers Software, Inc., Profit Control Systems, Inc., Streamline Solutions and Wam!Net.
NPES is a U.S. trade association representing more than 450 companies engaged in manufacturing and importing for sale or distribution of machinery, equipment, systems, software and supplies used in every printing, publishing and converting process from desktop design and image generation and processing to multiple output options and targeted dissemination systems. Information about NPES, its programs and its member companies is available on the Association web site at http://www.npes.org.
The Association serves as secretariat to the following standards activities: The American National Standards Institute accredited B65Committee, charged with the development of safety standards for printing and finishing equipment; the ANSI accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) to support and foster graphic arts standards activities and the develop technical standards where no applicable developer is available; the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology, responsible for coordinating the U.S. position and participation in the international standards activities of the ISO’s TC 130.
NPES also administers the International Color Consortium, an organization with nearly 75 members devoted to developing a specification to enable different computer platforms and devices to translate color definition information into a standard color interchange space so that the receiving device can interpret that data into the appropriate color.
For additional information about PrintTalk, contact the secretariat at NPES, 1899 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4367; voice 704/264-7200, fax 703/620-0994, e-mail ksmythe@npes.org, or visit the PrintTalk web site at http://www.printtalk.org.
July 28, 2000
PRINTTALK ADOPTS MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT, ELECTS OFFICERS, FORMS WORKING GROUPS
Founding members of the PrintTalk project to define a "best practice" common and open communications interface between their products adopted a membership agreement and operating procedures, elected officers and formed Technical, Marketing and Intellectual Property Working Groups at a meeting July 14 in Denver, Colorado.
The PrintTalk implementation will support 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. As part of the group’s activities, it will seek to have its work recognized as an implementation of the proposed JDF standard by submitting the PrintTalk implementation to CIP4 for inclusion in its specification. The PrintTalk interface specification will be distributed free of any license fees or royalties, in order to address the need for end-to-end connectivity in the printing industry.
Nineteen print management system and e-commerce companies are participating in the activity as founding members. PrintTalk does not currently intend to operate as a standards body, but instead will function as a community of concerned vendors focused on implementing interoperable systems.
Acting Chairman Stephen J. Hallberg, President of Parsec Corporation, was elected President of PrintTalk. James Mekis, Director, Commercial Print Solutions of Impresse Corporation, was elected Vice President.
The group approved a membership agreement that opens participation in PrintTalk to any company which develops software for graphic arts applications and which supports implementation of the JDF standard and an open communications interface between products.
Regular members commit to (1) the purposes of PrintTalk, (2) first deployment of the PrintTalk implementation on the member’s computer system or separate product within six months of joining, (3) supporting the current PrintTalk implementation as a standard component in subsequent software releases, (4) willingness to execute the current form of the membership agreement, (5) active participation in meetings and working groups and (6) public endorsement of PrintTalk’s purpose, scope and timeframe in the form of a press release within 14 calendar days of joining.
Additional companies that develop software for graphic arts may be accepted as supporters, providing they commit to all criteria for regular members except deployment within six months.
The group formed Technical, Marketing and Intellectual Property Working Groups to deal with such issues as determining the requirements for conformance with the implementation and a process to certify compliance. Individuals were appointed to serve as liaison with related activities in the industry.
Founding members of PrintTalk include Avanti Computer Systems, Cirqit.com, Collabria, Inc., Graphic Arts IT, GraphiTech Computer Systems, httprint, Impresse, MediaFlex.com, MicroInk, Noosh, Inc., Pace Systems, Parsec Corporation, Press-tige Software, Printable.com, printChannel.com, Printers Software, Inc., Profit Control Systems, Inc., Streamline Solutions and Wam!Net.
Broad interest in the work of PrintTalk is developing in the industry beyond the member companies. "We are encouraged to see efforts like PrintTalk implementing and supporting JDF within an e-commerce and web-based workflow or project management paradigm," said Paul Beyer, Group Product Manager for Adobe Systems’ Professional Publishing Group.
"The industry is coalescing around JDF and is beginning to provide implementations which will offer true interoperability and automation between related systems," he said.
NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies is serving as secretariat to PrintTalk, with NPES Vice President William K. Smythe as administrator.
NPES is a U.S. trade association representing more than 450 companies engaged in manufacturing and importing for sale or distribution of machinery, equipment, systems, software and supplies used in every printing, publishing and converting process from desktop design and image generation and processing to multiple output options and targeted dissemination systems. Information about NPES, its programs and its member companies is available on the Association web site at http://www.npes.org.
The Association serves as secretariat to the following standards activities: The American National Standards Institute accredited B65Committee, charged with the development of safety standards for printing and finishing equipment; the ANSI accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) to support and foster graphic arts standards activities and the develop technical standards where no applicable developer is available; the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology, responsible for coordinating the U.S. position and participation in the international standards activities of the ISO’s TC 130.
NPES also administers the International Color Consortium, an organization with nearly 75 members devoted to developing a specification to enable different computer platforms and devices to translate color definition information into a standard color interchange space so that the receiving device can interpret that data into the appropriate color.
June 19, 2000
Sixteen print management system and e-commerce companies have announced plans
to form a community to define a "best practice" common and open communications interface between their products. This interoperability project has been named PrintTalk. The PrintTalk implementation will support use of the broadly published, proposed Job Definition Format (JDF) standard and Commercial eXtensible Markup Language (cXML).As part of the group’s activities, it will seek to have its work recognized as an implementation of the proposed JDF standard. The PrintTalk interface specification will be distributed free of any license fees or royalties, in order to address the need for end-to-end connectivity in the printing industry.
At this point, participating companies include Avanti Computer Systems, Cirqit.com, Collabria, Inc., Graphic Arts IT, GraphiTech Computer Systems, httprint, Impresse, MediaFlex.com, Noosh, Inc., Parsec Corporation, Press-tige Software, Printable.com, printChannel.com, Profit Control Systems, Streamline Solutions and Wam!Net. Other companies are encouraged to join the group and help implement the JDF standard.
The PrintTalk group has selected NPES, the Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies to organize the group’s activity and develop by-laws and formalized operational procedures. NPES will act as Secretariat for the group. PrintTalk does not currently intend to operate as a standards body, but instead will function as a community of concerned vendors focused on implementing interoperable systems.
According to acting Chairman of the PrintTalk group, Steve Hallberg, President of Parsec, "the goal of PrintTalk is to drive the rapid and consistent adoption of broadly published and open standards. This will enable secure electronic commerce and application integration between e-commerce companies that assist print buyers in specifying, ordering and tracking their printing, and companies whose software manages and tracks the print manufacturing process."
"There is currently no open-architecture implementation that addresses the need to easily exchange data in a secure manner between companies that buy and sell printed materials over the Internet," said William K. Smythe, Vice President of NPES and Administrator of the group. "The PrintTalk interface using JDF will address this demand, and NPES is excited about assisting these companies to further the evolution of e-commerce solutions for the printing, publishing and converting industries."
NPES is a U.S. trade association representing more than 425 companies engaged in manufacturing and importing for sale or distribution of machinery, equipment, systems, software and supplies used in every printing, publishing and converting process from desktop design and image generation and processing to multiple output options and targeted dissemination systems. Information about NPES, its programs and its member companies is available on the Association web site at http://www.npes.org.
In addition to PrintTalk, the Association serves as secretariat to the following standards activities: The American National Standards Institute accredited B65Committee, charged with the development of safety standards for printing and finishing equipment; the ANSI accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) to support and foster graphic arts standards activities and the develop technical standards where no applicable developer is available; the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology, responsible for coordinating the U.S. position and participation in the international standards activities of the ISO's TC 130.
NPES also administers the International Color Consortium, an organization with nearly 75 members devoted to developing a specification to enable different computer platforms and devices to translate color definition information into a standard color interchange space so that the receiving device can interpret that data into the appropriate color.
NPES serves as Secretariat to PrintTalk. For more information, contact PrintTalk administrator William Kip Smythe at ksmythe@npes.org or telephone 703/264-7200. |