Newspapers and Technology September 2000
Rights to JDF
specification going to CIP3
The
CIP3 consortium and the four companies who initiated development of the
Job Description Format — Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and MAN Roland —
reached a final agreement to hand over all rights to JDF to CIP3.
As a result of the agreement, CIP3 will be renamed the International Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress, or CIP4.
Announced at Seybold Boston 2000, JDF is an electronic job ticket specification based on eXtensible Markup Language and designed to heighten levels of process automation, collaborative workflow and asset management to print and cross-media publishing markets.
The standard was designed to be compatible with IFRAtrack, Adobe’s Portable Job Ticket Format and CIP3’s PrintProduction format.
“JDF is the missing link to implement interoperability of systems from e-commerce to print room, allowing automation of the entire publishing process,” said Johan Berlaen, general manager of research and development systems for Agfa.
“The transfer of the initiative from the four founding companies to an open standard body is a major milestone in the adoption of JDF.”
The CIP4 consortium is accepting applications for all three classes of membership established under the group’s new structure, which was put in place at a meeting held during drupa 2000. The associate membership is designed to provide inexpensive, widespread access to the activities of the organization for end users, associations, consultants and system integrators.
To encourage open work on the JDF specification, a new draft, currently in version 3.0, is available at www.job-definition-format.org, where comments from all interested parties are welcome.