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JDF is announced at Seybold Boston 2001
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APRIL 15, 2001 — On Tuesday, April 10, 2001 at Seybold Boston,
Adobe Systems Incorporated, Agfa, Heidelberg and
MAN Roland jointly announced the creation of
the Job Definition Format (JDF) standard. JDF is a new
electronic-job-ticket specification designed
to facilitate process
automation, collaborative workflow and asset
management in the print and cross-media
publishing markets.
JDF is an open, scalable, web-compatible job-ticket
standard built on the success of
proven standards such as the CIP3 PPF
(Print Production Format). It is compatible
with PDF (Portable Document Format) and PJTF
(Portable Job Ticket Format).
JDF vs. PJTF
Some might wonder how the new JDF standard
differs from the PJTF (Portable Job Ticket Format)
standard, which has been implemented in Agfa's
"Apogee" system and is in use
currently at over 1000 Apogee sites. According
to Stephan Jaeggi,
internationally recognized
expert in the areas of prepress systems and
workflow systems, PJTF is concerned only with
the information needed at the final stages of
the workflow (i.e., printing and finishing),
while the JDF standard encompasses the entire
workflow.
Why is JDF Needed?
Document-production systems available today
do not manage the complete workflow process
(from content creation and prepress through the
printshop up to the post-processing area of
media production). Because of this, today's
systems cannot exchange all relevant
job-description information among the
different systems that participate in the
workflow process. JDF is designed to fill
this gap. It is being launched as
an open,
object-oriented, XML framework for passing
information or metadata about a job and
from one set of
systems to another.
JDF Spec Will be Made Available
The JDF specification will be published by
the four companies and made widely available
to all interested OEMs, third parties and
end users via its Web site,
www.job-definition-format.org.
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