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| Information | Education | Business Development | Technical Resources | Members |
CIP4 Overview |
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The need for a comprehensive system integration in the graphical arts industry:Printers are generally faced to the following trends in the graphical arts industry:
A fully automated workflow is required to make processes more productive, more flexible and more transparent. Despite the great strides made in the industry in the last century, some difficulties in the graphical arts production process have thus far proved insurmountable. In the beginning, all was manual. Then came mechanization, which paved the way for automation. Automation permitted press operators to dictate in advance how each separate machine would function. Eventually, production controllers assembled systems involving machines with multiple capabilities run with modular automation, all controlled from a centralized console. The devices themselves were not connected, nor was the process a fluid one, but the possibilities were becoming more clear. Each advance spawned another opportunity for greater growth. Once automation was in place, a job ticket format was the next logical step. No technological advance before the development of JDF had yet provided the print industry with the ability to counteract the "islands-in-a-stream" problem. In other words, although production facilities can attend to each individual element of a print job and can even link some of those processes, they are incapable of automating a system to run a job from the moment a customer places the order to the moment the final product emerges. A significant reason that this continues to be a problem is that multi-vendor cooperation is still possible only on a very limited basis. It still takes significant effort to get machines manufactured by different companies to work together. The encoding capabilities of versatile languages such as XML have been recognized, but, so far, not fully exploited. Furthermore, two of the biggest and most important islands in the printing stream are the ones that progress has so far had the least success in connecting. Management Information Systems (MIS), generally responsible for the planning and controlling of a job, and production services, responsible for the operation of a job, still toil in relative isolation from a communications standpoint. In other words, there is no means for consistent, automatic, and effective bi-directional communication between the two indispensable facets of every printing business. All data enumerating planning and scheduling, process results, job status and job tracking must travel from production to MIS so hat the latter can process the information and provide instructions on how to continue. This continues to be a manual procedure. In short, what exists is an entire process that is comprised of multiple machines and functions, all necessary for the completion of a job, but incapable working as a coherent unit. Most industries would find this kind of fragmentation unthinkable in today's age of digital unification because it is inefficient, a cardinal sin in the business world. JDF provides not only a solution, but a flexible and comprehensive one. It is capable of creating a bridge between each separate island in the printing stream, from the moment a customer places an order to the moment the finished product is placed in the customer's hands, regardless of how many manufacturers contributed machinery to the apparatus, or how complex the task. It can also link the two separate strata essential to the completion of each print job: MIS and production. |
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What is JDF ?JDF is a comprehensive XML-based file format/proposed industry standard for end-to-end job ticket specifications combined with a message description standard and message interchange protocol.
Basic Idea upon which JDF is based:To develop an open, extensible, XML-based job ticket standard, as well as 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 existing technologies of CIP3's PPF and Adobe's PJTF, the Job Definition Format supplies a means for printing businesses to streamline the process of producing printed material. The most prominent features of JDF are:
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What is CIP4 ?CIP4 is an international, world wide operating standards body located in Switzerland. The purpose of the association is to encourage computer based integration of all processes that have to be considered in the graphic arts industry, in particular the specification of standards. The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) is the successor of CIP3, which started in 1995 as a joint initiative of vendors for the graphical arts industry. Since then CIP3 has developed the Print Production Format which is today implemented in many applications. Even in the future CIP4 is going to extend its activities and the number of different types of members. CIP4 is about to develop and promote vendor independent standards for the graphic arts industry, such as the new Job Definition Format. CIP4 runs several working groups in order to develop new extensions of JDF and to discuss future use cases. This is supposed to be an ongoing process where different groups are to contribute to. Vendors need to be involved in order to make sure that JDF is a real standard and that users will have a rich choice of competitive workflow solutions with ease of integration. Users need to be involved to ensure that new requirements are always considered properly when extending JDF functionality. For that purpose CIP4 has got a 3 level membership structure, allowing vendors as well as users, institutions and private individuals to join the organization. Currently CIP4 is running the following working groups:
Up to now more than 245 members have already joined CIP4. There are a lot of other activities of the organisation to come up. Some of them are closely related to the question why even you should join CIP4 as a member, too. For further information about CIP4 please refer also to the following documents: |
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Why you should join CIP4 ...... if you are a user ?Even the users have got detailed expertise and knowledge about the requirements and needs of graphical arts workflows. CIP4 is seeking for pioneers who always use to think ahead and like to share expert knowledge and visions about tomorrow´s way of production with kindred spirits in an international working atmosphere. Have firsthand access to both types of documents, technical and more generally workflow related. Join the CIP4 working groups in order to exchange ideas and make sure that vendors develop products that fit to your needs. Currently CIP4 is running the following working groups:
Register now for Associate, Full or Partner membership in CIP4.
... if you are a vendor ?Although JDF has just recently been invented there is a worldwide extraordinary interest in this new data format. It is most likely that products are requested to provide a much higher level of openess as products do today. This means that customers will demand support of JDF by future workflow products. But how can you be sure to be on the right track and to do the right things in order to be ready in time ? CIP4 has got the answer for you. As a Full or Partner Member you have the opportunity to have acces to first hand information, to have influence on the ongoing development of JDF and to share resources that will speed up your development processes significantly. CIP4 is going to set up open source projects for generally needed JDF/JMF access routines. Further we are going to establish compliancy test procedures and will therefor develop appropriate tools and test procedures. Join CIP4 now in order to avoid wasting of time and money when developing JDF-compliant products. Have firsthand access to both types of documents, technical and more generally workflow related. Join the CIP4 working groups in order to learn about the details and to contribute to the definition of future extensions of JDF. Currently CIP4 is running the following working groups:
Register now for Full or Partner membership in CIP4.
... if you are an Institute ?If you are an institute which considers issues of the graphical arts industry we need your expertise and knowledge in order to proceed with workflow supporting standards. Up to now the following institutes have already joined CIP4:
Have firsthand access to both types of documents, technical and more generally workflow related. Join the CIP4 working groups in order to exchange ideas and make sure that vendors develop products that fit to the needs of users. Currently CIP4 is running the following working groups: Register now for Associate, Full or Partner membership in CIP4.
... if you are an Organization ?As an organisation or standards body you are working on workflow issues for specific areas of graphical arts production. Since JDF aims to cover all areas of workflow automation it´s likely that a lot of opportunities exist for a close cooperation of both, you and CIP4. Up to now the following associations have already joined CIP4: Have firsthand access to both types of documents, technical and more generally workflow related. Join the CIP4 working groups in order to exchange ideas and make sure that vendors develop products that fit to the needs of users. Currently CIP4 is running the following working groups: Register now for Associate, Full or Partner membership in CIP4. |
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