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Defining Moment in New Zealand
In a keynote for the 'Challenge of Change' print conference in New Zealand, Andrew Tribute made a definitive statement indicating that the digital transition for print has arrived. As reported in his blog,
"In my keynote address at the conference I stated that value added services are the key for printers. In this I stated that printer’s business cards should no longer call themselves printers, but instead digital services companies. "
"JDF drupa" shows the way to computer integrated manufacturing
drupa 2004 marked a new level for quality assurance and computers in manufacturing. The photo is from the Enfocus stand. There are some photos
in a PDF (2meg) at Acrobat Services.com
PDF shows a selection of drupa stands
The actual drupa can be confusing so here is a PDF (1.5meg) with some landmarks from which you could get some bearings. The PDF will change over time. It can be scaled up a bit for you to add notes.
Networking includes "cross-media services".
There was ambitious scope for 'networking' as a Print City concept.
Christian Gugler, Chairman of PrintCity’s Networking Activity Group, explained that the plans announced for drupa have "profound importance to the industry as a whole."
“Networking is far more important an issue than simply communicating small pieces of job and system data. As we look further ahead, at PrintCity we see that networking is also the essential prerequisite for structural change at a strategic level in the graphic arts industry."
“The industry must move beyond its traditional role as a creator and supplier of printed items, to become a provider of cross-media services. In that context, PrintCity’s Integration Centre and print factories show the clear paths to the future.”
Adobe PDF Transit is still an active product
Datalogics has announced an agreement with Adobe to provide 'direct licensing, maintenance and customer support for Adobe PDF Transit to end users, service providers, and OEM developers on all available platforms.' Transit is a software development kit for sending job ticket information alongside PDF. Adobe has been fairly quiet about this product although the information on their website was updated last year. Datalogics were expected to be part of the Hewlett Packard stand in Hall 4 but appeared not to be there.
Enfocus announced an expansion of their certifies PDF approach to include JDF information in the same PDF as the page description. This is still being developed but it is possible to request a demmonstration at drupa.
Global Graphics support Courier directly. Ready4print offer a service based on this.
At drupa Adobe concentrate on discussion about how to create JDF from the desktop through InDesign and Acrobat. This is still fairly vague. It could be included in a future Creative Suite. However Xerox seem to regard it as part of FreeFlow as if it will be available sometime that can be imagined. Perhaps the actual release will depend on feedback at drupa. Stands in the JDF Parc and Print City had most information.
