JDF on RAPIDA offset presses

For small and medium sized printing companies, this JDF solution is functional today. JDF without complications, disproportionate demands on your budget or staff. The pressroom advantages of: faster press adjustment, shorter production cycles, better quality control, eliminating errors, and reduced waste can help you simply and effectively manage the production flow in your shop.

An important element for increasing quality of production while reducing costs is CIP4 integration (Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress). CIP4 brings technology for automation of control of the process of processing printing jobs with emphasis of interlinking of all phases of production from customer services to dispatch. The JDF standard and PPF standard are defined within the framework of CIP4.

PPF (Print Production Format) is an international standard used for description of data in the process of processing printing jobs. The PPF file contains detailed information on the job (e.g. the name and job creator, the client, times and deadlines, previews of individual colour separations, transmission functions, definitions of colour guides and densitometric boxes or data for finishing the operation). Most information is added to the PPF file in the phase of pre-press preparation and these data are then available in further production steps without the necessity of reacquiring the necessary data. Archived PPF files can be used again for a repetition of the order. PPF is not in itself a workflow system, but it allows for integration into the digital workflow.

JDF (Job Definition Format) is a new universal standard, platform-independent, and capable of perfectly interlinking various phases of the process of production of printing jobs and related operations. It is based on technology developed under the auspices of the CIP4 organisation. In order to secure full compatibility it includes PPF standards arising from CIP3 and PJTF (Portable Job Ticket Format) from Adobe.

Using JDF it is possible to describe a job right from the first steps, when we discuss it with the customer, through to after packaging and dispatch to the customer. When talking of JDF we also meet with the term JMF (Job Messaging Format). JMF fulfils the function of a standard communication language between various equipment in your printshop or between this equipment and your MIS (Management Information System). The term MIS is understood as the economic and planning system of the printshop.

In order for such integration to function and in order that we use the potential that JMF offers, it is necessary to use equipment and applications whose data reports JMF is capable of understanding, receiving, sending and reacting to in a appropriate manner. MIS generates "job tickets" (messages containing work tasks) that it sends to the given equipment. When processing work tasks (job tickets) individual equipment provides the MIS with feedback on the current status of its task.