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The job definition format may find its way into more workflows, thanks to the release of a new JDF development kit.

Objective Advantage, based in suburban Houston, has authored a JDF development platform aimed at programmers who want to mesh the standard into their software systems and printing processes.

The platform ships with a messaging hub that can automatically process and route messages based on complex, user-defined rules.

The initial release is based on the Microsoft.Net platform, but is being ported to Linux, according to Gareth O’Brien, OA’s vice president. A Java version is slated for the release at the end of March. Pricing begins at $20,000, but varies depending upon how the kit’s used in resulting applications.


Gareth O'Brien

Parallels development

The availability of the development kit caps a four-year journey for OA, and parallels the evolution of the JDF standard.

OA’s search for a means to integrate rival workflows began in early 1999, when a United Kingdom-based company, TripleArc, hired it to develop a system enabling clients to use a Web browser to make changes to their business cards.

Once the changes were made, the customer could automatically output the new card designs to a printer.

“This was pre-JDF, so we started going out looking for examples of job tickets,” O’Brien said. “Mostly though, we got opinions about what was required. It was at that point that we stumbled across JDF.”

Once the standard moved beyond a spiral-bound notebook first draft and into version 1.0, it was apparent to O’Brien and TripleArc that JDF could aid in the development of a software package that was suited to U.K. print workflows. O’Brien explained that the bidding for a print job works a bit differently in the U.K. than it does in the United States.

“In the U.K., you will have a print management company that buys on behalf of a group of [customers] from multiple print sources. The idea is that they now have aggregate buying power that is greater than any individual customer so they can get a better price. They’re also experts in print, so they can do a better job at assuring quality as well.”

At that time, all of the job tickets that the management companies were seeing were essentially a mess. Four or five fields were somewhat standardized, but the majority of the forms consisted of large text boxes where clients would fill in a verbal description of the job. That necessitated re-keying of all that data, as well as accommodating differences in price quotes.

Some semblance of order

JDF, O’Brien said, finally brought some standardization to the process.

“The use of JDF gave us a job ticket that was structured and therefore, very specific. The system allowed the TripleArc developers to set up a series of job ticket templates. The user sees a simplified version of the tickets, and just fills in the details for their particular job he wants done.”

The printers output a PDF job spec of the ticket information — data that is automatically generated by an auto-formatter running on the intake side. According to O’Brien, this step alone has improved the efficiency of the entire process. That’s because the four or five printers to which the job is transmitted have a clear job spec — in the same format every single time.

This allows more reliable and more consistent pricing across multiple printers.

Adoption key

When more suppliers, especially management information system vendors, begin to support JDF standards, additional efficiencies will flow, he said.

Elements of the JDF development platform as released by Objective Advantage. Development kits allow manufacturers to build functionality of a particular standard, such as JDF, into their products. Graphic: Objective Advantage

“Rather than having to re-key the information (from a printed PDF) into an estimating package, they’ll be able to import a JDF file directly,” O’Brien said. “The support really isn’t there yet, but there is a commitment from all of the software and hardware vendors that they’re going to start putting money into examining how they can use it in their systems.”

Software systems developers will likely concentrate on implementing JDF, while hardware vendors focus on another standard, the job messaging format.

JMF is a standard that provides a structure for computers and print hardware to send messages to each other and understand them, even if they are from different manufacturers.