Darmstadt, Germany (March 14, 2005) - The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress (CIP4), Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) and NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies (NPES) today announced a one-day, one-time "JDF Developers Tutorial" that will be held on Sunday, April 24th, 2005 at PIA/GATF's headquarters in Sewickley, PA in conjunction with the CIP4 members' Technical Meeting and Interoperability Meeting April 20th-30th, 2005. A similar JDF Developers Tutorial was held in January at Heidelberg's headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany and it was a very successful event - leading to the decision to bring the event to North America. CIP4 hopes that the JDF Developers Tutorial will help companies that wish to develop their own JDF applications catch-up with the CIP4 members who already have introduced JDF-enabled products to the market. This event has been designed for engineers and technically savvy users including first-time interoperability meeting participants, technically interested users, workflow consultants, and developers who are new to JDF. Instructors will include CIP4 Chief Technical Officer Rainer Prosi of Heidelberg, Steve Hiebert of Hewlett Packard, Henny van Esch of Optimus, Mark Bohan of PIA/GATF, and more to be announced. The agenda is broken into a morning and afternoon schedule and topics include: 10:00 am - Noon - JDF Fundamentals: * JDF Structures * JMF Messaging * Describing workflows with JDF 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm - JDF Developers Session * Prepress Operations and JDF * Pressroom Operations and JDF * Postpress Operations and JDF * Messaging with JMF * Interoperating with JDF and the Interoperability Conformance Specifications * MIS systems & gray boxes * An introduction to CIP4 tools for JDF The day will conclude with an open question and answer session that give new JDF developers the opportunity to put their questions to the CIP4's technical leadership. The only cost for the program is a $25 fee that covers the cost of lunch. Event registration is required and if you are interested in attending this event, registration begins March 10th and can be completed online by visit http://www.gain.net/conference/brochure/index.cfm?ConferenceID=608 to register today. A block of hotel rooms have been reserved at the Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA, and a free hotel shuttle will provide transportation to and from PIA/GATF. (If you have a car directions to PIA/GATF can be found at http://www.gain.net/PIA_GATF/gatfdirections.) The cut-off date for hotel room reservations is March 30th and you should ask for the GATF/CIP4 room rate of $119.00 + Taxes. (Call 1-800-843-6664 or 1-402-952-6664 to register.)