As a member of Cip4 Imprint-MIS are proud to have been invited to host the bi-annual Interop conference for members at Clare College Cambridge. 

The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress Organization or "CIP4" is a not-for-profit standards association, whose mission is to foster the adoption of process automation in the printing industry. Currently, CIP4 consists of over 1,600 individuals from approximately 300 members. These individuals participate in one or more of 17 working groups that are focused on technical subjects as well as educational and automation promotion activities. Membership is open to any company involved in the graphic arts.

Cip4 is a global organization with representatives from 31 countries, CIP4's membership is organizational and boasts a diverse membership that includes printers, prepress companies, publishers, vendors of graphic arts systems and software, integrators, distributors, consultants and educators.

Members from around the world will gather in Cambridge for the Interop event, where technical tutorials will be provided for new members and working groups will meet and discuss topics that are best discussed in person. Furthermore, Interop provides an opportunity for members to test systems in development with other members in a private, yet very welcoming and informative environment.

At previous Interop meeting Imprint's developers have been able to test systems with major manufacturers in the prepress, offset, digital and finishing sectors and have found the conferences to be very beneficial as the driving force behind JDF integration. 

In addition to the specifications of the Job Definition Format, PrintTalk, and the Print Production Format (often called "CIP3"), CIP4 provides a variety of resources to its members and the industry, including:

• Software development kits
• Software testing systems
• Utilities such as Check JDF and the JDF Editor
• International Users' Group
• Product Certification Programs
• The JDF Marketplace - a director of products and services that support JDF and PrintTalk
• User case studies

As long standing members Imprint-MIS is committed to JDF as it is a technology that allows its customer's equipment and prepress systems from many different vendors to interoperate in automated and MIS centric workflows. While technically it is an XML software specification, it is more importantly and basically a means to allow a PSP to connect multiple vendor solutions to an MIS and to allow a workflow solution for automation and business process models.

JDF is broken down into logical roles (MIS to prepress, finishing, digital printing, web to print, wide-format etc.) Those roles typically pertain to which segment of work needs to be completed, but the result is a standard way to connect MIS-based job tracking, automation and workflow. This means that most modern MIS systems can communicate through JDF technology for job status and much more. Your MIS can receive messages about devices, jobs, inventory/stock, and queues, all through JDF technology.  It can be used to communicate to order consumables when stock is low, and be used to monitor numerous job parameters for accounting and other business process integration.

Historically, integration such as this (one vendor's product to another) required extensive custom development and required interfacing with proprietary code and data. It is for this reason that CIP4, and its history has been developed. Through the use of JDF technology, the supporting partners of CIP4 are able to offer much more seamless integration of different vendor solutions.

Many PSPs are surprised to learn that much of the equipment they use, and their MIS systems are already JDF capable. Sometimes it is just a matter of working with an integrator to connect the interfaces. It is also something that can be implemented in stages; a facility can choose to implement JDF only where it makes sense to automate or job track, and not worry about other roles.

Quick Facts

60% - Printers have highlighted investing in Workflow Automation
277% - Average ROI for JDF-enabled automation
480% - Average ROI for fully automated, end-to-end automation
6979 - Average labour hours saved/year by printers who implement JDF

(Sources: InfoTrends' Production Software Investment Outlook and CIP4 CIPPI Case Studies)

For more information please contact 
Wayne Beckett - [email protected]
Imprint-MIS - Tel: 01245 231670