Job definition format

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Job Definition Format ( JDF ) is an open file format that is establishing itself as the industry standard for the graphics sector. It is based on XML and enables direct data exchange between various IT systems and the machines behind them, from product design to prepress, printing and postpress to e-business applications and management information systems (MIS).

Goals and development

The primary goal of JDF is to implement the advantages of Computer Integrated Manufacturing in the essential areas of the graphics industry. Management and production data are merged using JDF. Order-related data is stored and exchanged between all areas of the manufacturing process. JDF contains the functions of the previous formats, Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF) from Adobe, the Print Production Format (PPF) of the CIP3 consortium and IFRAtrack of IFRA and networks the horizontal (production-oriented) and vertical (commercial) processes.

JDF essentially consists of the specification of the job ticket that contains the job data , a format for the exchange of messages ( Job Messaging Format , JMF) and a protocol for the exchange of messages. The exchange of information is bidirectional: setting data are transmitted from the control authority to the executing device and actual values ​​are transmitted back from the device to the control authority.

Further development

The development of JDF / JMF started within a group of experts made up of representatives from Adobe , Agfa , Heidelberg , Manroland and Fraunhofer IGD in 1999. The first version (1.0) was published in 2000 at DRUPA.

Version 1.6 of the standard is currently available. Version 1.6 contains some detail improvements and has been defined mainly as a parallel formant to the first version of the Exchange Job Definition Format .

In JDF 1.5, in addition to numerous detailed improvements, the description of gang forms has been added and the dynamic connection of post-processing modules in digital printing has been made possible. Compared to version 1.3, JDF 1.4 has added numerous detailed enhancements, secure JMF messages, die cutting with CAD and automated imposition in digital printing.

With the Exchange Job Definition Format, XJDF , a simplified version of JDF is currently being developed.

The CIP4 consortium is responsible for specification and documentation . Over 150 companies are currently members of this industry consortium.

Parts of JDF that affect prepress are originally based on the object and file syntax of PDF .

literature

  • Dr. Jürgen Schönhut: Document Imaging Computer Meets Press, Springer Verlag, 1997, ISBN 978-3-642-64496-2
  • Wolfgang Kühn, Martin Grell: JDF. Process integration, technology, product presentation . Springer-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-540-20893-3 .
  • Thomas Hoffmann-Walbeck, Sebastian Riegel: The JDF workflow . Profession + Schule, 2009, ISBN 978-3-88013-675-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 10 years of JDF. packagePRINTING, accessed on February 24, 2017 .