CIP4, the International Co-operation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress, has published version 1.3 of the Job Definition Format, which introduces features to support packaging, web offset printing and newspaper production.
"JDF now models many types of packaging processes, a huge area of the printing industry," says Dr Rainer Prosi, of Heidelberg and CIP4's technical officer. "While it can now be said that JDF fully supports web offset and newspaper production, in the case of packaging, we've only introduced some basic functionality. We focused first on what is necessary to support board and folding carton converting, and future editions of JDF will expand on this foundation to support other areas of packaging, such as flexible packaging."
JDF 1.3 now includes the ability to track individual elements on a page, whereas previously the page was the smallest job component that could be tracked. Job ganging, file format conversion to and from various file formats have also been improved and JDF's consumable identification has been enhanced.
The new Intellectual Property policy of CIP4 requires a 90-day review by members, and the extra three-month review period has allowed CIP4 to update the JDF software development tools that CIP4 provides to its members. Both the Java and the C++ JDF Application Program Interfaces have been updated to JDF 1.3, as have the JDF Editor and the CheckJDF server; all of which CIP4 provides as a service to the industry
The JDF 1.3 PDF document can be downloaded from the CIP4's website, free of charge, at http://www.cip4.org/documents/jdf_specifications/index.html
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