The Missing Link
JDF specification can provide the common language for workflow integration, but will package printers jump on board?
July 2008 By Jean-Marie Hershey
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By now, job definition format (JDF) is part of the lexicon of commercial printing, and with good reason. The addition of JDF production language to PDF-based print workflows has been shown to dramatically reduce production time and costs while ensuring consistent, reliable output, even when last-minute changes are required. However, despite these benefits, JDF has not enjoyed the same level of adoption by package printers for a variety of reasons.
Its use in the commercial realm has proven that using JDF streamlines production by enabling RIPs, imagesetters, presses, finishing, and other equipment and software to speak a common language and combine JDF-enabled products from different vendors into a workflow suitable for the type of work a printer is producing. JDF is also used for collecting and reporting job status and final production data for cost analysis in a print management system.
Additionally, an integrated JDF workflow allows changes to any job specification to be accommodated and updated in real time, which leads to higher efficiencies and less waste.
The JDF advantage
In packaging applications, JDF-enabled workflows can translate to better customer service, faster time to market, better management of collaborative workflows, and greater facility in the automated handling of labor-intensive functions like trapping, color mapping, step-and-repeat, and complex files containing large amounts of graphical and structural data. For example, JDF “knows” that a particular job is received as a PDF. It also knows that this PDF has to be preflighted, processed, printed, packaged, and delivered to the print buyer. Since job information is input just once, the same specs will be used throughout the workflow, greatly reducing the potential for human error. Jobs can flow accurately throughout the process to all JDF- enabled equipment with little human interaction.
Despite these advantages, and despite the yeoman work of the CIP4 organization’s JDF Packaging and Labels Workgroup to refine JDF specifications for packaging applications, package printers have been slow to implement JDF-enhanced design, preproduction, and production workflows. The reasons why this may be are among the findings of a 2007’s “Trends and Innovations in Packaging,” a white paper published by Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada). The report examines, in part, the effect of the JDF standard on packaging workflows and technology; describes how JDF is currently being applied in the packaging industry; and highlights areas of the JDF standard requiring additional development to address the requirements of the packaging sector “in a more practical and complete fashion.”
Its use in the commercial realm has proven that using JDF streamlines production by enabling RIPs, imagesetters, presses, finishing, and other equipment and software to speak a common language and combine JDF-enabled products from different vendors into a workflow suitable for the type of work a printer is producing. JDF is also used for collecting and reporting job status and final production data for cost analysis in a print management system.
Additionally, an integrated JDF workflow allows changes to any job specification to be accommodated and updated in real time, which leads to higher efficiencies and less waste.
The JDF advantage
In packaging applications, JDF-enabled workflows can translate to better customer service, faster time to market, better management of collaborative workflows, and greater facility in the automated handling of labor-intensive functions like trapping, color mapping, step-and-repeat, and complex files containing large amounts of graphical and structural data. For example, JDF “knows” that a particular job is received as a PDF. It also knows that this PDF has to be preflighted, processed, printed, packaged, and delivered to the print buyer. Since job information is input just once, the same specs will be used throughout the workflow, greatly reducing the potential for human error. Jobs can flow accurately throughout the process to all JDF- enabled equipment with little human interaction.
Despite these advantages, and despite the yeoman work of the CIP4 organization’s JDF Packaging and Labels Workgroup to refine JDF specifications for packaging applications, package printers have been slow to implement JDF-enhanced design, preproduction, and production workflows. The reasons why this may be are among the findings of a 2007’s “Trends and Innovations in Packaging,” a white paper published by Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada). The report examines, in part, the effect of the JDF standard on packaging workflows and technology; describes how JDF is currently being applied in the packaging industry; and highlights areas of the JDF standard requiring additional development to address the requirements of the packaging sector “in a more practical and complete fashion.”
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