There is still considerable confusion in the market as to the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of the much vaunted Job Definition Format (JDF)

JDF is basically an XML application designed to provide a data format for electronic job tickets. The concept of job ticketing in the printing industry is simple enough, but because it is a digital format JDF has the capacity to do rather more than merely replicate traditional job

ticketing. It is a digital lingua franca for procedural information, a means of taking print related data into other commercial systems, most immediately Management Information Systems (MIS).

Job tickets can be extremely complex, defining workflows, specifying procedures, triggering subsidiary tasks and scheduling prepress and post-press processes. As well as basic job details the traditional job bag could contain everything from scraps of paper with phone messages, though to transparencies, discs and paper samples. All of this is necessary collateral for getting a print job executed, and increasingly all of it is available in digital form. How this digital data collective gets organised

and used is what JDF is all about.

The technology

A key component of JDF is the Job Messaging Format (JMF), a messaging standard based on Internet protocols, and so the part of JDF that gives it its limitless reach. JMF facilitates interactions with other systems, including very old technologies. The idea is to smooth the passage of information interchanges between different digital systems and types of applications, such as prepress production, MIS, accounting systems and indeed any digital system.

JDF is designed to make it much

easier to create highly customised

workflows, workflows that can for example interact across business applications such as design, media, graphic arts,

on-demand printing, asset management and electronic data delivery. JDF is an XML application but significantly it incorporates established technologies including the CIP3 committee’s well proven Print Production Format (PPF) for prepress, press and post-press data sharing, and Adobe’s Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF), the job ticket processing

component of Adobe’s PDF and PostScript processing technology and a key element in its Extreme raster image processing architecture. That it is derived from established proven

technologies gives JDF the means to

create a common operating environment for diverse technologies regardless of how and why they were developed. This strength is the primary reason why

JDF has such enormous potential to change the ways in which printing and

publishing companies do business.

Impact of JDF

Indisputably JDF will have a profound impact on print workflows. It will automate processing within the production environment, but it will also be able to inform and automate processes across environments. JDF has a number of key strengths. Apart from its obvious

capacity to smooth the passage of a print job from origination to completion, JDF can make known and quantifiable those events that enhance and leverage good business practices. It can also show where processes have not operated smoothly which may be more important, particularly if there are substantial costs such as remakes and make-good

advertising. JDF can facilitate communications so that processes can happen in any order, whether linear or synchronous, but in addition JDF can unify diverse processes according to their interdependencies. This could give publishers considerable flexibility to create new information commodities, raw material for new products or improved business management. Because it is digital, the JDF processing space is virtual and so independent of any physical constraints. This has fascinating possibilities in the context of on-demand variable

information printing.

All of this potential is why developers have put such huge effort into developing both the JDF format and their own JDF compliant technologies. It is

important to remember however that JDF is as much about supply chain

management as it is about technology. The digital supply chain is only as strong as its weakest binary link, and so it is with JDF compliance. It is for this reason that JDF applications are still pretty much in their infancy, and why major workflow developers are starting their JDF journeys by initially working on Raster Image Processor (RIP)

based implementations.

JDF compliant systems

One of the founders of the 1999 JDF initiative was Agfa who were also one of the first RIP vendors to embrace Adobe PDF and PJTF. In order to implement these technologies effectively in the Agfa Apogee workflow system, Agfa had to make substantial additions to the PJTF code set so that it worked according to Agfa and its customers’ liking. However this has meant that the Apogee Series 3 RIP is already JDF compliant in that it can read and write JDF commands even though internally it still works with PJTF. The recently launched Apogee X is fully JDF

compliant and Agfa has incorporated everything it learned about JDF

processing into this technology.

Agfa has also introduced an order and project management tool. Delano has been developed in co-operation with Quebecor World, one of the world’s largest printers, and the technology is now in beta testing at a couple of sites. Delano works in conjunction with MIS systems, however Delano isn’t mandatory for JDF compatibility because Agfa’s Apogee X connects directly to an MIS system via JDF. Agfa has no plans at the moment to launch its own MIS system, preferring instead to focus on facilitating integration of its own technologies with the many existing MIS systems on the market. Delano’s strength is in JDF compliant order and project management, both for the printer and the customer.

Creo is now solely responsible for the Prinergy workflow system originally codeveloped with Heidelberg. Creo’s strategy is to develop Prinergy along with its other RIP and workflow systems so that they are fully JDF compliant. The company has developed a common interface called Synapse Director, which will be officially launched later this year. Synapse Director and other Synapse modules in the Synapse suite provide the links to MIS systems and other JDF compliant technologies.

Creo has two other RIP systems in its portfolio. The Brisque RIP system is still very popular with the Creo user community, and has gained a new lease of life thanks to the Synapse architecture. Brisque 5, due to be launched in September 2004, is a wholly new product with a user interface that is built in Java (as is Prinergy’s), and that has been streamlined for optimal Synapse connection. Creo’s Spire RIP system is intended for use with digital presses and high

volume printers, but it has a lot in common with Prinergy. Brisque and Spire users can all bridge to the outside world and JDF through the Synapse InSite Server module.

Creo is a major technology provider for Xerox and some Synapse modules will also be used in the Xerox family of Freeflow workflow solutions. Creo has already established links to a number of MIS systems through Synapse Link, including Prism and the Dutch MIS

system X-gram Open. Creo has in addition had a close co-operation with Print Café and this has given the company some valuable experience with online estimating and job procurement, particularly through the work it has done with the Hagen OA MIS system.

Eskographics supports two RIP systems: FlowDrive which has its roots in Purup-Eskofot, and FastLane which was originally a Barco Graphics development. Eskographics positions FlowDrive for small to medium sized applications and FastLane for more demanding high volume work. FastLane now has an

additional suite of modules called Next Generation, plus a module for job

management called Backstage.

The FastLane suite has additional

modules including DeskPack, Pack Edge and Plato (for step-and-repeat work), and the FlexRip can drive virtually any type of output device. The FlexRIP PostScript interpreter now works entirely with PDF as its base file format. All JDF files are currently converted before coming into or out of Back Stage, but Eskographics works internally with rich sets of metadata. In the future this may very well be in the form of JDF and JMF, but at the moment Eskographics use Adobe’s open source XMP (XML Metadata Platform) architecture to embrace XML in its workflows and in order to provide the company with a starting point for full JDF

compliance over the coming months.

Fujifilm already has a certain level of JDF compatibility in its RIP and workflow management systems, Celebrant and Rampage which is sold by Fujifilm under licence. Fujifilm also distributes an MIS system called Valiano VBMS, although this is exclusively available in the UK. The Valiano VBMS hasn’t been approved by Fujifilm internationally and it is still not clear if Valiano VBMS will be promoted worldwide, or if it will

continue as a UK-only product.

In the meantime Fujifilm users can experiment with the prototype JDF module shown last year at Ipex, and now in beta testing at several sites worldwide. Fujifilm provides additional JDF links through support for third party products such as Scenicsoft’s Preps and UpFront. Fujifilm intends to present its wider JDF strategy later in the year when it is also expected to reveal which MIS vendors are working with Fujifilm RIP systems. Fujifilm has yet to give its JDF interface technology a name.

Heidelberg has an unmatched position within the graphic arts community in that it has a product portfolio spanning a huge range, from input devices to finishing equipment. In order to provide JDF compliance with its entire range of equipment Heidelberg uses six different encoding standards. Embracing JDF is not merely a matter of providing JDF compliance with external technologies, but it also provides Heidelberg with a means of simplifying and streamlining the workflow across its own vast array of technologies and systems. Prinect is the collective name for all Heidelberg JDF related products.

Prinect’s main components are Prinect Prinance, a Heidelberg branded MIS system, and Prinect Printready, the workflow system. The Prinect Prinance is based on the Alphagraph MIS system, and has over 2,000 installations

worldwide including 200 exclusively Heidelberg sites. Following its break with Creo, Heidelberg introduced its Metadimension RIP system based on an Adobe CPSI PostScript interpreter. Metadimension works in conjunction with both Printready and an MIS system such as Prinance, providing Heidelberg with a modular system offering starting with a simple RIP system and rising in complexity as the application requires.

The Prinect Printready workflow has additional modules such as Prinect Signastation for impositioning, Prinect JetBase for digital asset management, the Prinect CP2000 control system for sheet-fed presses, the Prinect Omnicon control system for web offset presses, the Prinect Image Smart front end for the Nex Press digital press and the Prinect FCS 100 control system for finishing

equipment. There are numerous smaller modules for special applications in the production chain.

Prinance and Printready can both read and write JDF and Heidelberg is moving towards pure JDF compliance, transitioning all systems in its workflow. This mammoth task is unlikely to be completed in time for Drupa 2004, but Heidelberg intend to make all major modules in the workflow, at the very least, JDF aware in time for Drupa.

The Screen Trueflow RIP system already works internally using XML and an incorporated database. Screen intends to establish system connections to JDF and MIS systems through the Truenet interface. This will have a modular structure and has at its heart a JDF production controller technology. With each upgrade of Trueflow the Truenet JDF Production Controller will replace the Trueflow interface for handling job management and job tickets, thus providing users with a logical and self-paced JDF migration path.

Trueflow is already a modular system with a web browser based user interface. Customers can start with a base configuration and then add more functions when needed. Amongst the modules are Flat Worker, Flat Runner and Archive Manager and there is a JDF import and export module available to Trueflow. Full JDF compliance will be through Truenet, and this is still under development with completion anticipated by Drupa.

JDF developments are expected to

be the dominant software theme at Drupa 2004. All major vendors are expected to be able to declare some credible position on JDF and at least demonstrate JDF interoperability.

Interoperation and testing

However active the development community, the technology is still very much at the beginning of being useful and very few printers are achieving JDF’s true potential in real production. Testing and implementation are underway and this is a very important step. The CIP4 committee recently announced the results of its first JDF interoperability tests. The committee set up a test environment with 18 JDF compliant devices and associated software, and managed to exchange files with 17 of them. The CIP4 tests were run under tightly controlled conditions with highly knowledgeable software engineers in the driving seats. Achieving these results required a lot of reworking and manipulation. Clearly the actual implementation of this technology is still far from a simple matter of installing and configuring the software. Any implementation will require close co-operation between the developers and the system operators, at least until there is real experience with JDF in the field.

This is a fact well appreciated by the early JDF pioneers such as Wyndeham Press in the UK. This company uses Agfa technology and is one of the

industry’s leading proponents of JDF. According to Divisional Group Sales Director Jon Hearden, JDF implementation is as much about putting into place effective operational methods as it is about the technology. Wyndeham Press does not yet have a JDF compliant system up and running but, “As a business we have a workflow management system and we are working with Agfa and are some way down the path of implementing Delano in to our workflow systems. It isn’t there yet though”. Wyndeham Press is making recommendations to Agfa as to what features the release version of Delano needs to have. Wyndeham Press will implement JDF from a project perspective, using Delano as the engine for its JDF implementation. The biggest concern is to get the correct infrastructure in place so that JDF can be used to bring everything together. Jon Hearden explains, “Delano and JDF will act as a central hub to get the islands of information to talk together”.

However it all takes time. Creo

customers Neidhart and Schon in Switzerland started a JDF beta test in the spring of this year, working with a Highflex MIS. The company is reluctant to talk about how the project is going; this is sadly a common story and in part the reason why there is quite a lot of misunderstanding about JDF and its worth. That should change as more users get on board, which according to the CIP4 committee won’t take long. In a recent straw poll of a conference audience numbering about 180, around 20 users indicated that they expected to start implementing JDF by the end of 2004. About 80 of the users indicated that they expected JDF implementation programmes to be in place by the end

of 2004.

Pensword in the UK is one such user. The company has already embarked on an ambitious JDF implementation programme. According to the company’s Commercial Director Darren Coxon, Pensword “are looking at an MIS solution because we don’t have one and we are updating our prepress workflow so JDF is certainly a consideration for us.

It could have a major impact on our business and how we manage communications”. Pensword has a wide range of technologies that need to be incorporated into the model, if the full benefit

of JDF is to be realised.

It is worth bearing in mind the lengthy write-downs of much of the equipment installed at printing plants, because JDF requires connections into all areas of the business. The scope of modern production systems and the capital write-downs that go along with them suggest that full JDF compliance in many printing companies could take years. Pensword is in the fortunate position of having recently invested in a new eight colour Heidelberg press, a new technology

with the capacity to be JDF compliant. However Pensword also has an

extensive bindery with finishing equipment that, although it was installed years ago, is by no means past its useful life. Incorporating this type of equipment into a JDF workflow will not be straightforward or swift.

A perhaps less complex example of JDF implementation is JJay’s in Southend. This repro house has built one of the world’s first JDF compliant data delivery systems for its client, Reed Business Information. JJay’s specialises in classified and display advertising and magazine production and have designed a file delivery system based on digital delivery tools from Vio and Markzware’s online preflighting technology. The

original objective was to provide shorter deadlines for advertising sales teams and reduced processing errors, but JDF compliance is additionally providing Reed and JJay’s with the means to develop new services. This includes management reporting, plus links not only to MIS but also to page planning and ad booking systems.

All of these examples share one important characteristic, in that all are wrestling to some extent with how JDF can contribute to their business development. Implementation cannot be left to chance and requires extensive

testing, prior to going live with JDF interoperations. Unfortunately the

complexity of most large scale implementations requires a great deal of time for testing, not just of the

technology but equally of the working methodologies being developed around JDF’s capabilities.

Conclusions

Market confusion is understandable given the lack of real examples of how JDF can work in practice. It is also not surprising that so few concrete examples are available. This is unfortunate

however because there is a risk that the industry could switch off to JDF,

preferring instead to develop alternative approaches based on PDF. But it is a fact that until there are real implementations of the standard, JDF is just a technology, and its purpose theoretical rather than practical. It will take years but in the end it should be worth it. As Darren Coxon of Pensword summarises, “It will be a slow old process, but you have to start somewhere”.