Lynnwood, Washington, April 4, 2002 - ScenicSoft and Rampage Systems, announced today that the Rampage RIPing System will offer a new PDF workflow option that accepts and processes JDF output generated by ScenicSoft’s flagship product, Preps. The new PDF workflow maintains the original benefits of the Rampage RIP’ing solution while adding the implicit benefits and advantages of the PDF workflow, offering users the best of both worlds. Preps provides a unique front-end to the system, allowing effective job composition and setup, and imposition instructions described in the CIP4 Job Definition Format (JDF). Unique Rampage advantages include fast and accurate trapping and imposition, and extreme flexibility when handling correction cycles. Rampage Digital Master (RDM) files — trapped, production-ready PDF files — are at the core of the Rampage RIPing System’s all-new PDF workflow option. The Preps 4.1 native-PDF workflow seamlessly accepts and processes RDM files. Imposition signatures are described in the CIP4 Job Definition Format (JDF), the comprehensive XML-based file format/industry standard for end-to-end job ticket specifications. The JDF description, which includes the sequence and position of each of the individual pages and marks, is passed on to the Rampage RIPing System, which imposes and renders the actual flats on film or direct to plate. Rampage will demonstrate the JDF-based product integration at IPEX 2002, held in the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, April 9 – 17 (Hall 5, Booth 510). The new version of the Rampage RIPing System will go to beta soon after the show, and is expected to ship in Q3 of 2002. “JDF is a great equalizer,” says Kevin McSweeney, Rampage vice president, sales and marketing. “It enables end users to select and use best-of-breed components without compromises. ScenicSoft and Rampage have successfully worked together for many years and respect each other’s ability to deliver full-featured, solid, reliable, yet innovative solutions. Both companies have shown an unusual ability to distill unique benefits out of new emerging technologies and, as a result, deliver added value to their end users. “ScenicSoft’s JDF implementation proved to be rock solid and a great foundation for Rampage to build upon,” adds McSweeney. “We are confident that our new NORM workflow, which relies on PDF and JDF, will appeal to both existing and potential new users. When we originally designed Rampage, we used a systems approach and looked beyond raw RIP speed to a broader and more important consideration: helping our customers to produce more press-ready plates at a lower cost. We remain fully committed to this paradigm. Our new JDF-based workflow gives our users an additional venue to reach this objective.” The new PDF/JDF-workflow option complements Rampage’s well-known “ROOM” (RIP Once, Output Many) workflow. To accomplish page-independent, post-RIP imposition, the system generates “page FPOs” (For Position Only files), low-resolution placeholders for individual pages that have been trapped, RIP’ed, and saved in a compressed, unscreened format. Use of placeholders ensures that multi-page jobs can be started before all pages are ready, and pages can be reworked without having to redo the entire flats. Preps already had become the imposition solution of choice for most Rampage users. “It is very exciting to see one of the masters of ROOM acknowledge and leverage the benefits of a PDF/JDF workflow,” says Chris Ries, ScenicSoft Preps product marketing manager. “ScenicSoft is very happy to contribute to this effort. Our company has publicly stated numerous times that it believes in the benefits of the PDF/JDF tandem, and we have made great efforts to ensure that our products enable other vendors to move in this direction. Rampage and ScenicSoft have cooperated for many years and it is wonderful to see that, yet again, we manage to leverage each other’s technical efforts.” The CIP4 Job Definition Format (JDF) specification is controlled by the CIP4 organization, of which ScenicSoft and many other industry-leading organizations are members. ScenicSoft, a committee member since 1997, endorses the common XML-based job management approach that JDF represents. Solutions that build on the new standard will offer the printing and publishing industries the potential for real cost savings.