CIP4 Announces Update to Key Product Certification Standards

TOKYO—September 21, 2007—The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization today announced at IGAS 2007 the release of a new set of Interoperability Conformance Specifications - “ICS” based upon version 1.3 of the JDF specification.

Current JDF product certification testing, managed by PIA/GATF, is based upon JDF 1.2 ICS’, which is the previous generation of ICS documents. ICS’ define subsets of the JDF specification that graphic arts systems and software must implement to establish a minimum level of JDF support. Each ICS is specific to a production step or the connectivity between a system that is managing a print job and a system that is executing a process step, such as the MIS to Prepress ICS or the Prepress to Conventional Printing ICS.

The new release includes changes to the ICS architectural documents that are the foundation for all ICS documents. These ICS architectural documents include a Base ICS (applicable to all JDF enabled systems), a basic MIS ICS (applicable to all Management Information Systems, regardless of function), and now a new base JMF ICS. Support of JMF, or the Job Messaging Format, was separated out into its own ICS so that levels of compliance for JDF processing and levels of compliance for JMF processing can be dealt with and certified separately.

“As with any new testing program, you quickly learn if there are any fundamental errors in your requirements when real products start arriving for testing,” said Dr. Mark Bohan, Vice President of Research and Technology at PIA/GATF. “In JDF 1.2 ICS’ the levels of compliance for JDF and JMF were synonymous; if you wanted to certify that a product was capable of level two JDF processing, it had to also certify that it was capable of level two JMF messaging. We discovered that companies applying for certification wanted to certify for level two or three JDF processing, but lower levels of JMF support, and we couldn’t do that with testing based upon the old ICS’.”

The updated ICS’ include the addition of many features that were introduced in JDF 1.3 as well as many improvements such as being able to support web printing processes, versioned print products and small office printers. Also there are improvements for scheduling, and tracking of jobs. All in all, products certified to JDF 1.3 ICS’s can support more complex workflows reflective of what is happening day-to-day at many printing companies.

The updated ICS documents have also been rewritten to better support the developer community. “We have provided implementation guidelines that can be used by programmers and developers that are not JDF experts or print professionals,” said Rainer Prosi, CIP4’s Technical Officer. “The new ICS documents are much clearer and easier to read and put to use.”

Certification testing for JDF 1.3 ICS product compliance, starting with the Layout Creator to Imposition (“LayCrImp”) ICS, will be immediately available through PIA/GATF’s certification program. Long awaited certification testing of MIS systems and their interface to prepress, press and bindery systems will be available within a few weeks and will be based solely on JDF 1.3 ICS’, as opposed to JDF 1.2 ICS’.

For more information about the ICS’, visit http://www.cip4.org/certification/intro.php. Vendors of JDF products that have questions regarding certification may also contact Brandon Iskey, PIA/GATF Computational Research Scientist and JDF Product Certification Program Manager, at +1-412-259-1787 or via email at biskey@piagatf.org.

About CIP4
CIP4 brings together vendors, consultants, and end-users in the print communications, graphic arts industry, and associated sectors, covering a variety of equipment, software, peripherals, and processes. Members participate in focused working groups to define the Job Definition Format (JDF), PrintTalk, and other standards relevant to process automation; to study user requirements; to test product interoperability; and to develop a range of JDF software development tools. Information on CIP4, including membership details, is available from the organization’s website: www.cip4.org. Or contact: Stefan Daun, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, +49 6151 155 575, secretariat@cip4.org. All content and ideas submitted to the CIP4 user groups and intellectual property rights subsisting therein shall become the exclusive property of CIP4.

About JDF
The Job Definition Format (JDF) is the industry specification designed to facilitate process automation and the integration of different applications and systems in and around the graphic arts industry. JDF also enables the integration of business management and job planning applications into the production workflow. JDF is based on the W3C’s Extensible Markup Language (XML), ensuring maximum interoperability between different platforms and ready interaction with Internet systems. More information is available at http://www.cip4.org/.