Printing Industries of America and the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress Organization, or “CIP4”, have recently collaborated to produce JDF Workflow: A Guide to Automation in the Graphic Communications Industry, an English translation of the original 2009 German text authored by Thomas Hoffmann-Walbeck and Sebastian Riegel.

JDF Workflow provides a comprehensive examination Job Definition Format (JDF), as well as the workflow it allows a company to build. The authors utilized many examples from order management systems, prepress, printing and finishing, typical graphic communications production processes and their implementation on the JDF model.

CIP4’s Executive Director, James Harvey, discussed the importance of this book and its relevance to today’s printers. “One of the distinctive characteristics of profitable printers is that they use more capital and less labor,” Harvey said, “in other words, they work smarter and employ automation.”

Labor savings is a major added value of the JDF workflow concept, according to Harvey. “The savings are not just from the expected sources, such as less device setup time and less rekeying, but also from subtle sources, such as fewer production meetings, faster billing, and less time gathering data to respond to customer inquiries.”

JDF Workflow topics include:

• General characteristics and expectations of a JDF workflow
• Three print production scenarios
• Analysis of the process-resource (producer-consumer) model
• An introduction to XML
• Important JDF structures
• Job Messaging Format
• Workflows and their JDF equivalents

JDF Workflow: A Guide to Automation in the Graphic Communications Industry is ideal for print professionals, students in the graphic arts and printing programs, and operators of JDF-enabled print MIS, prepress workflow systems and planning and scheduling systems interested understanding the JDF workflow and how it’s used. JDF Workflow (Item No. 1791, ISBN:  978-0-88362-718-1) is available for $75 to Printing Industries of America members ($99 for non-members). To purchase the book, visit The Online Store or contact our Member Central department at 800-910-4283 ext. 770, 412-259-1770, or [email protected].