Imagining 2008 / drafts for drupa

Imagine it is 2008, (page to be updated)

Slideshow (includes drupa song)

This page is to assist time travel. There are aspects of the PDF / JDF project that are not completed as of 2006 but for some people they have less priority than other aspects of PDF on the web and other forms of collaboration.

So looking at what might be regarded as normal during drupa in 2008 is a way to think about the print world and online world at the same time. The online world is much more at ease in moving towards the future, it seems. Many features are not yet available, such as Acrobat Connect in the UK for example.

The JDF features in Acrobat 8 have not yet been widely promoted. Maybe this is waiting on pre-press being able to process such files. there may be more promotion when Creative Suite is updated. Another explanation is that Adobe have less priority now for print than for knowledge workers in organisations.

The PDF Print Engine was promoted at IPEX and will probably be promoted at drupa in 2008. By this time the RIP suppliers will offer workflows based on this approach. Global Graphics already offer a RIP with JDF controls certified by CIP4 so there will be other options for a PDF / JDF workflow. Adobe could be significant however if they publicised the options in Acrobat 8 to the knowledge workers who may not find the print menu.

In the November 2006 Printing World, Barney Cox reports on a Xerox meeting in Cologne for users of the iGen3. Harry Waldman spoke about a PDF/JDF workflow "from the creative desktop". Barney Cox explains that "all the creative professional needs is Adobe CS2 or Acrobat 7, there's no other investment." Notice this JDF feature was possible with Acrobat 7. Acrobat 8 is another chance to present this, or not. This idea was part of the PDF project when the Portable Job Ticket was first discussed. Barney Cox then looks back to desktop publishing. "A lot of printers thought it wasn't going to happen. Because my company was an early adopter we did fantastically well."

The article concludes with a forecast. "I have a prediction that JDF will enable automation in 2007/2008. The creative just has to fill out a form. Customers will think they have the magic file."

Barney Cox may well be right about this timescale. there is no technical reason why this could not happen next week. Creatives , and that term really means anyone who has a copy of Acrobat or Quark, may benefit from understanding the outline of this sometime soon. For some reason Adobe marketing theory seems to be based on the idea that knowledge workers are only interested in online and will never want to relate to paper. I think that actually there are frequent occasions when people in organisations want something in hard copy so the options in Acrobat 8 may be of interest.

Barney Cox was a speaker at the London College of Communications Futures Conference, alongside Digital Print World at Earl's Court. If he returns in 2007 the question may come up as to how far off a JDF workflow is considered to be .

IBM has not vanished

There was no IBM stand at IPEX. However Andrew Tribute has reported in What They Think that at Graph Expo IBM demonstrated a print controller using the color print engine of the Truepress Jet520 from Screen. Apparently up to 256 processors can share the workload to drive the printer. This is the kind of processing power available on some servers for web sites so the speed of personalisation and interaction associated with print could come closer to online experience.