The job definition format, or JDF, is a real, viable standard for capturing a complete set of specifications for a printing job and communicating it automatically through production—but are all the pieces in place? Do all JDF-compliant systems and devices communicate with each other?
No.
Theoretically, a printing estimator or manager can enter a complete set of specifications that includes page format, number of pages, paper stock, type of binding, quantity, colour data, file sources and types and everything else needed, and this metadata can flow through all the various stages of print production — whatever they may be — without the need for a person to re-enter the specifications. This not only saves time, but also avoids errors made when someone has to copy information from one place to another.
“JDF is not a plug-and-play language,” says Damian McDonald of Ampersand Printing in Guelph, a company that has aggressively pursued the benefits of implementing JDF for years. “You can’t buy different MIS and workflow systems and equipment from any manufacturer that says it’s ‘JDF-compliant.’ You have to do a lot of work to make it all work together.
“But as a standard, it is mature,” McDonald adds.
JDF in use
The JDF is a standard not only for describing a print job, but also for communicating that information between devices and systems involved in production and running the business.
This inter-system communication is a critical part of the workflow, and the Job Messaging Format, or JMF, is an XML standard that’s part of the JDF specification. It allows the software of different systems and devices to communicate with each other, and to receive from and send production information to a central management information system (MIS). This allows the computers to automatically track and monitor machine status (waiting, running, down), productivity, even who’s operating the machine at any given time.
At GraphExpo in October, five member companies of the CIP4 group (Adobe, FOLDRite, Avanti, Kodak and Duplo) participated in a demonstration area called JDF Works Print Shop Live! Other JDF-automated workflow demonstrations were carried out by Heidelberg and at the EFI booth. But the real proof of JDF is in a production pressroom.
“In the pressroom, JDF allows us to hit some pretty staggering makeready times—our record is six minutes for a full changeover,” says Ampersand’s McDonald. “Our average is 15 to 20 minutes for a changeover, compared to 40 to 60 minutes before we had JDF.” McDonald admits that some of that difference is due to automated features on the newer presses, but having JDF-compliant control systems to present ink, paper stock, format and other settings saves a lot of time as well as reduces or eliminates human error. “With JDF, we can set up one job while the previous one is running and save settings for repeat or similar jobs.
“We can enter data once in the MIS system and use it many times,” McDonald explains. “At the quotation stage, the system builds the workflow in the background and determines all the settings for the imagesetter and the press, from ink settings to cylinder pressure to press sizes and sheet dimensions—everything.”
Ampersand’s JDF-enabled workflow uses the Hiflex MIS system, the Kodak Prinergy workflow system and a six-colour Mitsubishi Diamond 40-inch press. They also have a new JDF-capable Stahl TH83 folder, but the full JDF software isn’t quite ready, yet. “The data coming back to the MIS from presses and other devices is far more accurate, which enables us to be much more precise when we’re putting proposals together,” adds McDonald. The accuracy of the data also allows the company to schedule work much more accurately and effectively, boosting profits yet further.
Integration
Not every link in the JDF chain can communicate with every other, but the CIP4 organization recognizes that and publishes an “Integration Matrix” at www.cip4.org (under Business Development), to show exactly which JDF-compliant products are communicating with each other today.
“The Matrix started with 200 points of integration between over 50 different JDF-compliant products, and that’s grown over the past couple of years to more than 500,” says Mark Wilton, a Kodak employee and CIP4’s Education and Marketing Officer.
“Heidelberg’s Prinance MIS system interfaces to 12 other systems,” says Ray Cassino, Director of Product Management for Prinect and CtP Solutions with Heidelberg USA. Heidelberg’s system has two-way JDF compatibility with digital printing systems from Xerox, HP, Canon and Kodak, as well as for any non-Heidelberg sheetfed equipment, says Cassino.
When it comes to integration between vendors, “the prepress applications like CREO Preps, Heidelberg’s Prinect, Lithotechnics Metrix, Kodak Prinergy, Komori’s K-Station and Xerox’s Freeflow are leading the charge,” says Stephen McWilliam, Executive Vice-president of Canadian printing software developer Avanti Systems, whose Print MIS is fully JDF compliant. He cites two reasons for the prepress vendors’ embrace of JDF: “the ‘home run’ for print shops is eliminating human touchpoints in the workflow—automating prepress in terms of being able to pass information back and forth from the print MIS reduces turnaround time, eliminates transcription errors and therefore reduces cost—and the software divisions of these large vendors are loaded with IT experts who have worked outside the printing industry, in industries that have been integrating proprietary software applications for 20 years. These folks understand the benefits of open standards and know how to get it done.”
Weaknesses
While JDF is a mature standard for describing printing specifications, that doesn’t mean that any creative workflow application that writes a JDF metafile is compatible with every print production system or bindery program. In fact, the competing creative workflow applications are not even compatible with each other.
“JDF is not at a point where it’s completely plug-and-play yet,” explains CIP4’s Mark Wilton. “There’s a lot of coding that has to happen to move information from one vendor’s software to another’s. The JDF standard is a document that’s over 900 pages long [version 1.4 was published on November 10th], and it’s open to interpretation in a number of areas. So integration takes work.”
“The challenge is getting the handshake working between the different vendors, as there are often nuances to how vendors implement the standard,” says McWilliam of Avanti Systems.
“The biggest challenge is integrating Web-to-print systems into production printing,” suggests Heidelberg’s Cassino. “Production printing systems talk JDF, while Web-to-print systems come from financial transaction backgrounds, which use EDI (electronic data interchange) protocols. This isn’t a standard like JDF and wasn’t designed with printing in mind, so it’s like a collision of different worlds.”
Another roadblock to a complete JDF workflow remains in print finishing. “Routing a job through the bindery is the weakest link in JDF workflow,” agrees Peter Doyle, Corporate Integration and Work Flow Manager at bindery equipment manufacturer Müller Martini. “We can route JDF data from Müller Martini machines and back to the MIS, but only with our own machines. And most customers have more than just one vendor’s equipment in the bindery.”
What’s needed
“The great thing about standards is there are so many of them,” jokes McWilliams. “There is no ‘JDF black box’ that a print shop can buy to make all this stuff work together. The challenge is getting the vendors to work together. We often participate in calls at the request of printers that involve three, four and sometimes five different vendors. These shops have invested in ‘best in class’ applications throughout their shop and now want someone to figure out how to integrate them.”
However, all admit that the JDF standard makes it much easier to integrate the different pieces. “Gone are the days of the debate about whether Heidelberg’s proprietary language is better than Duplo’s or Xerox’s—we just all agree we’ll speak the same language—and that language is JDF,” McWilliam says.
Peter Doyle points out, too, that the industry needs to add more value to the JMF side of the equation, adding tools to allow better cost accounting and analysis of the data gathered by the MIS. “This will allow printers to make better decisions based on real data. That will move printing from a craft industry to a manufacturing industry.”
Scott Bury is a freelance writer based in Kanata, Ontario.
