May 16, 2005 -- Houston, TX – At OnDemand in Philadelphia, Objective Advantage is prepared to demonstrate a JDF solution, spanning lay-out, printing, slitting, cutting and creasing – with a few clicks of the mouse – using equipment from multiple vendors, perhaps marking the beginning of the end for Make-Ready. Objective Advantage announces it is introducing Symbio, a production tool for integrated print-jobs. Using PDF and JDF as its native formats Symbio makes maximum use of standards to link presses and finishing systems. Symbio allows a graphic artist to supply a PDF containing an un-imposed one or two-side print item. The production operator is guided through laying out the job for printing and finishing. Symbio produces an n-up PDF sheet and uses JDF to submit the job into the press and finishing machines. How is JDF involved? The JDF submission automatically creates the job in the press controller’s queue, in this case a Xerox iGen3 connected through FreeFlow Print Manager. This supplies the press operator with all the information necessary to print the job, such as the number of sheets and the media to use. The operator simply reviews this information, loads the correct media and prints the job. Once the job has finished printing the press controller automatically informs Symbio which logs the production data. It is important to note that while Symbio leverages JDF to maximize the number of presses it can drive, the user is never exposed to XML - raw JDF. All interaction with the user is through a friendly Graphical User Interface that gathers the data in terms that graphic arts production staff will immediately understand. Finishing Symbio knows the exact layout that was used to place the items on the sheet and uses this information to automate set-up of the finishing equipment. For example if the next job-step is to cut and crease the pieces on a Duplo DC-645, Symbio transmits JDF and preview images of the sheet, to Duplo’s DC-645 JDF Connector running on a PC next to the machine. The JDF Connector shows the operator a preview of the sheet, oriented exactly as it is to be loaded into the DC-645. Based on the data supplied in the JDF from Symbio, the application sets the slit, cut and crease positions. The user clicks the start button; the machine sets up and processes the sheets. Symbio will be shown in the Duplo (2033) and Xerox (1601) booths during On-Demand in Philadelphia May 17-19, 2005. http://www.ondemandexpo.com/