Automated Workflow

JDF offers three prominent features: the ability to carry a print job from concept through completion, to bridge the communication gap between production and MIS, and to do so with most any precondition.

JDF IS AN open-standard, job-ticketing language that provides a foundation for users to build next-generation printing environments that encompass both the content and the business aspects of production workflow.

The Job Definition Format is a comprehensive, XML-based file format for end-to-end job ticket specifications, combined with a message description standard, and message interchange protocol. JDF was created to develop an open, extensible, XML-based job ticket standard, as well as a mechanism, to provide new business opportunities for all individuals and companies involved in the process of creating, managing, and producing published documents.

Building on existing technologies such as the Print Production Format (PPF) developed by CIP4 (International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress) and Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF), JDF supplies a means for printing businesses to streamline the process of producing printed material. In the past few years, the demand for greater unification of mechanized and automated systems has led to the advent of specification formats. These formats spawned a generation of systems in the mid-1990s that began to provide the ability to link certain elements of the prepress, press, and postpress processes.

Enter Networked Graphic Production

Networked Graphic Production (NGP) is a strategic initiative adopted by industry-leading companies that are working together to create a seamlessly integrated production environment. NGP links creative and production systems, management information systems (MIS), content management, Internet solutions, and more. With NGP, duplication between systems can be reduced, systems can be optimized, and the many people involved in print projects can communicate and collaborate as never before—from idea to delivery.

The members of NGP, which was spearheaded by Creo, are developing and implementing fully-integrated solutions based on JDF and other open standards. These solutions facilitate communication between technologies and people, and ensure a seamless flow of accurate information across systems and networks—enabling an environment of cross-vendor, JDF integrations to automate the printing process and increase printers' profitability.