San Francisco, California (June 5, 2003) - The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress (CIP4) announced two new public communication services: a new JDF Bulletin newsletter and a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on the CIP4 website. Charged with the development of the Job Definition Format (JDF) specification, CIP4 is perhaps the graphic communications industry's fastest growing organization. In response to the increasing need for concise information on its many, and quickly advancing, developments, CIP4 organization introduced what will be come a regular news channel for both member and nonmember companies. "There is so much energy and effort being put into JDF programs by so many, it is difficult for any one person to track all of CIP4's programs," said CIP4 Executive Director, James Harvey. "The JDF Bulletin will help everyone stay on top of CIP4 activities and JDF developments." This new service, delivered via email and posted to the www.cip4.org web site six times a year, includes: Details on JDF current development activities News on JDF-enabled product releases Details of key public and private events and meetings Information on new members Coverage of other key CIP4 news items The current JDF Bulletin provides information on interoperability testing programs and develop-ments from working groups focused on digital printing, finishing, newspaper production, prepress, digital file transfer, job tracking, preflighting, and much more. While many of the JDF Bulletin arti-cles are available in their entirety to both CIP4 members and nonmembers, CIP4 members will gain access to more in-depth news and reports posted in the members only section. CIP4 also published to its website a FAQ designed to answer the recurring questions from CIP4 members and nonmembers. This is a resource will grow as the demand for information on the JDF format continues to increase. "CIP4 has definitely achieved momentum and the pace of new mem-bership inquiries increases daily," said CIP4 Marketing Officer Margaret Motamed, "and the FAQ helps us to provide immediate answers for those who are just starting out on the road to process automation." The new FAQ includes answers to basic questions, such as "what is CIP4?" and "what is JDF?" as well as questions such as: What areas of workflow does JDF cover? Is there a formal JDF compliance process? Like other standards, the JDF specification allows for private extensions. How will consum-ers know if the extensions can be understood by another device? Is there a "standard" or base level of functionality all products must implement in order to be deemed "JDF compliant"? Is JDF all talk or is it really happening? Are physical interfaces (i.e. 100baseT) for JDF exchange defined by the JDF specification? The answer to these and other questions can now be found at www.cip4.org. The FAQ adds to a wealth of knowledge published on the CIP4 website along with publicly available schema and soft-ware tools. "Information sharing becomes more critical as development for these new JDF-based systems grows," continues Jim Harvey. "Many more JDF products are expected to be introduced to the mar-ket over the next few months leading up to DRUPA 2004. There is much to do prior to DRUPA to ensure that JDF products and demonstrations get the level of exposure that users expect. The JDF Bulletin and the FAQ are two tools CIP4 will use to get this information to the industry."