Warrenville, IL 07.20.2005 -- HIFLEX Corp. will launch a series of educational articles on the CIP4 Job Definition Format (JDF), next week. Mark Anderson, President of HIFLEX Corp, said “We have found through conversations with hundreds of printers, that many are either still unaware of JDF, or are unclear about what is practical to implement today and how it is going to help their business. More importantly, many printers are eager to obtain advice on how to assess the extent and quality of a particular vendor’s JDF implementation. JDF is a very complex and far reaching specification, and printers need to really look beyond the “JDF 1.x” sticker on the box to make sure that what they are buying will really help them achieve their business goals” The articles, while containing some theoretical content, are focused on practical applications of JDF, with examples of its use today in live production environments. One factor of particular interest will be the return on investment. As JDF is a relatively new technology, and ROI studies require that installations have been in place for at least a year, there are very few ROI studies regarding JDF. These are now available, and by sharing them with the printing community, it will not only help printers to make investment decisions with respect to JDF, but will also help to increase its adoption rate. HIFLEX has more than 50 worldwide, live installations under its belt, and working interfaces with virtually every major prepress, press and post press system on the market. This adds up to a lot of practical knowledge that printers would like to get their hands on. The first article, to be published next week, is an introduction to the JDF specification, and contains some advice for would-be purchasers of JDF-compatible products. Subsequent articles will focus on JDF between the printer and print buyer; JDF in prepress; JDF in the Press Room; JDF in Post Press.