10 years after co-founding CIP4 organization, Heidelberg
stresses commitment to establishing JDF as industry standard
The General Meeting of the CIP4 organization
(www.cip4.org) held in October 2004 during Graph Expo in Chicago,
endorsed the roles of three employees of Heidelberger
Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). Jörg Bauer, Vice President
Prinect Product Management at Heidelberg, continues as a member of
the Advisory Board of the organization. The Advisory Board makes
all the strategic decisions regarding CIP4 and the further
development of the JDF standard. The members of the Advisory Board
also endorsed the roles of Rainer Prosi as "Chief Technical
Officer" and Christian Anschütz as "Membership
Officer" on the Board of Directors responsible for the
day-to-day running of the organization. In his role at Heidelberg,
Rainer Prosi works on the development of workflow modules, while
Christian Anschütz is a member of the Prinect Product
Management team.
"Heidelberg's strong representation within the CIP4
organization underlines the company's commitment to establishing
and developing JDF as a standard within the print media industry.
Only the CIP4 organization, in which all key manufacturers in the
industry are involved, is in a position to ensure JDF gains
long-term acceptance - a fact demonstrated in the 1990s when the
organization established the Print Production Format (PPF) as the
industry standard, and we have the same goal for JDF", said
Advisory Board member Jörg Bauer, underlining the importance
of CIP4.
From initiative to standard - History of the Job Definition
Format (JDF)
Automated production workflows with cost transparency secure
competitive advantages for printshops. This goal can be achieved by
integrating the data of all systems and machines involved in the
production process. The quest to create automated and transparent
production processes goes back a long way. In order to make the
data generated within a particular production step available to
successive production steps, Heidelberg commissioned the IGD
(Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics) in Darmstadt to
develop the Print Production Format (PPF) in the early 1990s and in
1995 transferred responsibility for further development and market
launch to the new "CIP 3" (International Cooperation for
the Integration of Prepress, Press and Postpress) industry
consortium founded by Heidelberg, Agfa, MAN and Adobe, a joint
organization with the goal of developing industry standards.
While PPF describes the characteristics of a sheet, it does
not describe the print job itself - a key requirement for realizing
potential reductions in makeready times and controlling production
using management software. Heidelberg therefore initiated
development of the Job Definition Format (JDF) in time for drupa
2000. The collaboration with three competitors resulted in the
creation of an electronic job ticket.
The unveiling of the first draft at drupa 2000 caused a stir
worldwide and expectations ran high. In January 2001, the
international CIP4 organization (International Cooperation for the
Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress) took
over responsibility for further development and market launch. CIP4
was a reformed version of the former CIP3 consortium with 41
members.
The triumphant progress of the JDF electronic job ticket has
continued unabated ever since. The format ensured that drupa 2004
went down in history as the "JDF drupa". As part of the
Prinect Experience Tour, Heidelberg presented the Prinect
integrated workflow system which is fully based on JDF. The tour,
which received its 1000th group of visitors little over halfway
through the trade show, demonstrated the creation of a virtual
print job from prepress to press and postpress.
The importance of CIP4, whose membership has increased over
the last few years to over 270, has grown alongside the development
of JDF. Nearly all key producers of machines and IT for the print
media industry are now members. Numerous users have also joined the
organization, making up a good fifth of the membership.
This was all made possible by the introduction of statutes
and the establishment of strong leadership bodies. A membership
model involving different scales also keeps annual membership fees
for users to a minimum, thereby supporting the development of JDF
linked to practical needs. Manufacturers form the financial basis
of CIP4, either as Full or Partner Members.
Image:
Heidelbergs integrated workflow system Princect is based
on the industry standard JDF.
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail:
matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com