[June 30, 2000] From an announcement of June 30, 2000: "Several leading printing and publishing companies have jointly agreed to test electronic formats for communications between publishers and printers. The initial members of the team include publishing companies Meredith Corporation, The New York Times Company Magazine Group, and The Reader's Digest Association. Printing company members include Quad/Graphics, Quebecor World, and R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. In addition, CDS Fulfillment is participating to ensure compatibility with list management and postal requirements. The team is currently evaluating XPP, which stands for 'XML for Publishers and Printers,' as a powerful and contemporary tool to facilitate publisher-to-printer technical data transfer. XML is the abbreviation for Extensible Markup Language, considered the premier emerging protocol for Internet-based transactions. During the initial proof-of-concept phase, spanning 90 days, the team will attempt to demonstrate that its proposed protocol can precisely convey the regional, demographic and production requirements of complex consumer magazines, catalogs and other printed products. When its preliminary work is complete, the team intends to share its findings with other interested parties with the goal of developing open standards for the industry. . ."

[November 05, 2001]   PROSE XML for Production Order Specification/EDI.    IDEAlliance recently announced the release of first XML version of PROSE, the Production Order Specification/EDI. PROSE XML 1.0 is said to allow "complete standardization of all production and distribution orders for printers and print buyers, ensuring unprecedented reliability and accuracy of printing instructions. Implementation of PROSE XML 1.0 is designed to increase productivity and performance levels and significantly reduce support cost. Initially released in 1992, the first PROSE was developed by the IDEAlliance EMBARC-EDI Committee out of a need to keep pace with the growing complexity of printed products. PROSE provides print buyers with a format for electronic transmission of instructions for printing and binding services to their printers. PROSE XML 1.0 also provides legacy support for the original PROSE, meaning that any orders previously created in PROSE can be updated into the XML format. PROSE XML orders can be easily transformed into the original PROSE EDI specification, allowing for compatibility with legacy PROSE-based systems." [Full context]

References: [pending]

• [June 30, 2000] Announcement: "Publishers Join Printers In XML Effort."

• See also: Job Definition Format (JDF)

• See also: Printing Industry Markup Language (PrintML)

• See also: PML: Markup Language for Paper and Printing

• See also: PrintTalk Consortium

• See also: printcafe eProduction eCommerce eXchange (PCX)