PRINT INDUSTRY LEADERS BEGIN WORK ON OPEN STANDARDS INITIATIVE
AFP Color Consortium Launches Expanded Collaboration Effort For Printing of Customer Communications
BOULDER, CO – October 15, 2006 -- IBM announced today that the AFP Color Consortium has begun working on an expanded mission to collaboratively develop all extensions to the Advanced Function Presentation ™ (AFP™) architecture. The AFP architecture is used by clients worldwide for the high speed printing of bills, statements and other customer communications.
In September, the consortium unanimously accepted IBM’s proposal to include all new AFP extensions, including those for high speed black and white printing in the open standards initiative. Members met in Boulder, Colorado September 14–15 to create a framework for the consortium’s new mission.
The AFP Color Consortium was created by IBM in October 2004, to work collaboratively on defining the color management portion of the AFP architecture. In January 2006, the group approved the first release of this new open color standard, which has now been published. Members designed the architecture to help businesses develop device-independent color applications, resources and workflows that can be printed initially with high-quality grayscales and, eventually, in color.
"A fully open architecture can benefit clients by delivering greater flexibility to design workflows," said Reinhard Hohensee, IBM Distinguished Engineer. "Opening the architecture and developing it collaboratively should also lead to increased functionality, as consortium members bring forward new requirements and ideas."
Membership in the consortium has grown to 31 companies. Invaris, LRS, and Ricoh joined the standards body in September.
The current members of the AFP Color Consortium are:
--Hardware vendors IBM, Kodak, Lexmark, Océ, Ricoh, Xeikon, and Xerox
--Software vendors CDP Communications, Cincom, Compart Systemhaus, COPI, Crawford Technologies, DocuCorp International, Document Sciences Corporation, Elixir Technologies, Emtex, Exstream Software, FormsPath, GMC Software Technology, Group 1, LRS, Intermate, Invaris, Inventive Designers, ISIS Papyrus, Metavante, MPI, Printsoft, Solimar Systems, StreamServe and Xenos Group.
For more information about the AFP Color Consortium, visit its on-line
community: www.afpcolor.org. The web site is designed to provide information and documentation on the open AFP architecture.
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