Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 30, 2010--Printing Industries of America and The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization announced the availability of JDF Product Certification for Integrated Digital Printing.

Integrated Digital Printing Certification applies to color, highlight color, and duplex black and white digital printing systems that may also include in-line finishing capabilities, which may include folding, hole making, stitching, trimming, and varnishing. Certified integrated digital printers have the ability to count every event performed by an integrated digital printer and report that information using JDF and JMF capabilities. Software can then use the counts directly to determine work performed on a particular job and allow printers to calculate total cost of the job, thereby improving the accuracy and speed of billing.

"Digital printing is one leading area of growth in the printing industry, and JDF-enabled process automation has trimmed costs and boosted productivity for thousands of printers. The combination of the two is exciting," said Mark Bohan, Vice President, Technology and Research at Printing Industries of America. "All printers want faster, accurate billing, and faster bill pay, and products that achieve JDF Certification for Integrated Digital Printing will be very important to printers as their digital printing production environments evolve and mature."

Printing Industries of America is licensed by CIP4 to conduct JDF Product Certification globally. So far 48 products have achieved JDF Product Certification, including recently certified systems from India Metamation Software Private Limited (for imposition) and EDIGIT INTERNATIONAL SRL (for MIS to Prepress and MIS to Conventional Printing–Sheetfed). Printing Industries of America is also working (on behalf of CIP4) to develop new device capability (DevCap) files that will be used for future JDF Product Certification testing. The DevCap files will be used to test whether the JDF and JMF capabilities files produced by tested systems are suitable for integration. Using DevCap files promotes faster system installation and setup in an automated workflow.

For more information on JDF Product Certification, please visit http://www.cip4.org/certification. Manufacturers of systems and software that are interested in JDF Product Certification may contact Brandon Iskey, JDF Product Certification Administrator and Computational Research Scientist at Printing Industries of America, via telephone at (800) 910-4283 ext. 787 or via email at biskey@printing.org.

About Printing Industries of America
Printing Industries of America is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association, representing an industry with approximately one million employees. It serves the interests of 10,000 member companies. Together with its nationwide affiliate network, Printing Industries delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency, and profitability of its members and the graphic communications industry through advocacy, education, research, and technical information.

About CIP4
CIP4 brings together vendors, consultants, and end-users in the print communications, graphic arts industry, and associated sectors, covering a variety of equipment, software, peripherals, and processes. Members participate in focused working groups to define the Job Definition Format (JDF), PrintTalk, and other standards relevant to process automation; to study user requirements; to test product interoperability; and to develop a range of JDF software development tools. Information on CIP4, including membership details, is available from the organization’s website: www.cip4.org. Or contact: Stefan Daun, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, +49 6151 155 575, secretariat@cip4.org. All content and ideas submitted to the CIP4 user groups and intellectual property rights subsisting therein shall become the exclusive property of CIP4.

About JDF
The Job Definition Format (JDF) is the industry specification designed to facilitate process automation and the integration of different applications and systems in and around the graphic arts industry. JDF also enables the integration of business management and job planning applications into the production workflow. JDF is based on the W3C’s Extensible Markup Language (XML), ensuring maximum interoperability between different platforms and ready interaction with Internet systems. More information is available at http://www.cip4.org/.