As it becomes clear that a digitally integrated workflow will form the core of the printing Laurel Brunner raises the question of whether print will become an IT-centric industry
Getting jobs from orgination to fulfillment is all about managing the workflow. The biggest workflow trend is the move towards greater integration of all aspects of the business, including production, administration, MIS and web to print, including the need for tools that support internet-driven business. So is print becoming an IT business? Albeit one with a high quality output product when all the software wizardry has taken place.Certainly every aspect of workflow technologies at drupa echoed this sentiment. From XPS support in Global Graphics’ Harlequin 8 rip, to Fujifilm’s Taskero Universe monitoring system, the message is clear: our concept of workflow is expanding and workflow is not just about digital front ends.
Workflow technologies will provide the infrastructure for all aspects of print services and production management, within and beyond the printing industry. This is why Global Graphics has included native support for Microsoft’s XPS (XML paper specification) format, as well as PDF 1.7, PDF X-4, Vista, Leopard and Pantone GOE. All of these technologies will provide the nuts and bolts of workflows for many years ahead. Dismissing XPS as irrelevant to the graphic arts is not smart because with approaching 200 million copies of Vista now shipped XPS is a reality, even though its users don’t know any better. But sooner or later XPS files will find their way into print workflows. Workflow technologies, such as rips and automation tools, facilitate task execution and management. Workflow is a collection of interrelated tasks that drive a project from inception to conclusion, but these technologies are also being used more broadly to support printing businesses. They are being developed to provide improved business information, their complexities increasingly hidden behind powerful user interfaces that don’t assume application expertise. This is due to the sophisticated implementation of IT, borrowing much from generic applications that everyone is familiar with.
For example, Heidelberg’s latest version of Prinect Prepress Manager, previously Print Ready, provides on-screen job management using ideas common to mail client interfaces. Individual operators can search, reorder columns and use filtering to present only the information that they need. Using familiar interface structures reduces the training overhead and knowledge burden.
Borrowing from generic IT isn’t limited to user interfaces and the behaviours of widely used software. Developers are increasing the power of their workflow engines. Powerful IT support means no more rip bottlenecks: if you need more throughput, simply ramp up your rip capacity. No one has understood this better than HP, whose Indigo SmartStream Ultra had no less than168 Harlequin rips in the rack at drupa. This battalion of CPUs is processing 2,200 A3 spreads per minute for photobook production. This is not just about expanding rip capacity with additional processors. It’s not the power that matters so much as the data management across devices. In one application HP Indigo demonstrated a 16-rip system that processed a 300-page A3 photo book in under two minutes.
Developers are looking to increase their workflow systems’ capacity in order to support new applications such as photobooks, and to provide the foundation to support additional management requirements. Screen’s new Equiosnet includes an Adobe APPE 2.0 rip, plus extensive tools to support variable data output and short run printing. The idea seems to be to provide a next generation Trueflow, with the capacity to support a broader range of business activities. Trueflow will continue to evolve for CTP workflows, with Equiosnet positioned for print-on-demand markets. Screen workflows are already becoming widely used.
In addition to large suppliers there are a host of smaller developers whose technologies can be incorporated into larger systems. For the most part this generally requires some sort of partnering between organisations; only HP has declared its SmartStream workflow to be completely open to incorporate whatever technology a customer wants to use. This includes technologies such as Press-Sense iWay, a web-based back end data management and business flow automation system. Version 5 of iWay is based on a new infrastructure that makes it more scaleable, with the scope to support highly automated production of large numbers of jobs. This version also supports billing processes for invoicing and receipts and has new navigation tools for variable information forms, and sophisticated pricing schemes. Press-Sense Manager is a version of this technology for small to medium-sized print shops and Omnium, is a high end planning tool for publishers who want full automation of all processes.
Another interesting technology is an online tool from IP Labs, recently acquired by Fujifilm. It uses wizards for photobook creation, which in five steps handle most of the work, with tools to fine tune the look of the books. There are also impressive image editing tools, as well as automatic set up of finishing and cover size, based on the content and basic proofing tools. The RealVue prototyping tool used in Fujifilm’s XMF may also be included with IP Labs technology as an upselling tool for photobook printers.
These technologies can monitor processes as well as manage them. Fujifilm Taskero Universe is a monitoring system that was initially developed to monitor Fujifilm’s 600 or so CTP engines in the US. The system was developed to help Fujifilm anticipate problems before they occurred, so that servicing was more proactive than reactive. Taskero Universe was developed to include other devices, measuring performance to provide a constant live audit of how the system was behaving, whether it is within prescribed tolerances, and so on. There are now 27 users of this technology in the US, most of them commercial printers. This new end user version is allowing printers to check their performance and, via JDF, to pass data to other parts of the workflow to aid process management. Taskero Universe is based on the idea that everything that can be measured should be measured, right down to the temperature and humidity.
Not surprisingly, there is still plenty of talk of JDF workflows. The biggest leap forward for JDF comes with Adobe’s announcement of the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) 2.0 for which several suppliers have implementations. APPE 2.0 is built on JDF with code optimised to take advantage of hardware resources such as RAM and multiple core CPUs. It also means that integration with other JDF-compliant technologies, such as workflow modules, is greatly simplified. APPE 2.0 supports Adobe’s new format for variable data, PDF/VT. This format is designed for a simpler variable data workflow and is supported in Acrobat 9.
Workflow developers are ramping up their systems with increased JDF capabilities. Agfa, Dalim and Kodak have all stated their intentions to integrate APPE 2.0 within their products. Fujifilm’s XMF workflow was the first workflow system on the market to be wholly JDF based and version 2.0 extends the workflow’s scope with variable data capabilities.
XMF 2.0 has moved on substantially. JDF stripping data from MIS now includes the production PDF as well, and uses JDF as a connection principle to print-on-demand systems. XMF exports the set up parameters for a digital press, such as the number of copies and the output dimensions, together with the PDF which is sent to a DFE which handles the output. Currently this is limited to static output, but when XMF 2.0 is released it will have full support for PDF/VT. Adobe is not yet ready with APPE 2.0 so Fujifilm’s timing can’t be set.
XMF Remote is an evolution of Fujifilm’s 3D proofing tool developed in Japan and the UK. This apparently is not the same technology as the RealVue proofing developed by FFEI, which wrote the code for XMF. Fujifilm’s proofer provides a virtual view built from the ripped data and finishing data as communicated by JDF. To the proof used as a production guide, Fujifilm has added XMF Remote to provide clients with a prototyping tool. The same file functions for content and production proofing, using JDF to communicate and document changes to the file as it evolves.
Version 1.4 of JDF became available in October and includes automated layout and stripping for adding variable data to pages where layout is determined by content. There will be some new security and authentication features, including the use of secure URLs and certification processes so that JDF-driven production can happen on the internet as well as intranets. There will also be additions to support packaging such as the ability to accept CAD files, Braille embossing and support for flexo output. JMF has also been made more robust so that when a device sends out a JMF message, the message is repeatedly sent until the receiving device acknowledges it. The idea is that if anything fails in the workflow, JDF/JMF helps the system pick up the pieces. 1.4 also includes the means to model device modules, so that components of integrated digital printing devices can be controlled via JDF.
One of JDF’s big supporters is Kodak, which is has a new module for its InSite suite of workflow management tools. Insite Campaign Manager works with Insite Storefront, a web-to-print system that includes tools for every aspect of online print purchasing, including variable data work, plus a pricing engine and business admin tools. The suite includes JDF connectivity and works for both digital and conventional press output via Prinergy.
Insite Campaign Manager manages the match of customer prospects to products they are likely, or even not likely, to buy. It’s a sales tool in that it manages prospect data files, however it is also a means of keeping a print manager’s data accurate and current. This cross channel media marketing system uses mathematical analysis, presumably probability and statistics, to work out which printed piece, and to which people in a database, should be sent, based on those people’s previous buying behaviours and their response to online surveys, via personalised URLs (PURLs) on brand owners’ web pages. It monitors all activity and builds a constantly evolving profile of buyer behaviours. This allows brand owners to develop highly targeted messages for higher response rates.
ICM is written in .Net and is an entirely Kodak effort. It’s an Insite module so it needs the Insite environment to run, providing a database health check as well as print production control. The software checks data files for such things as empty fields, duplications or incomplete data. A campaign board provides the operator with an overview of all campaigns in process and the relevant production schedules. There is no limit to the database size or its complexity. Kodak is working with list providers to use their APIs to improve database integration.
JDF implementation is happening by stealth with some major steps forward in technology, but with few people appreciating that it is JDF/JMF that gets their jobs through the workflow more efficiently. Heidelberg, for example, reckons it has hundreds of printers actively using JDF, because it is central to Prinect. So now the question isn’t so much about JDF, but about the efficiency of workflows. JDF itself is hidden in the background as customers of these technologies get on with building their businesses.
