The slides are now available in PDF format from the Acrobat User Forum presentations at the Workflow Theatre during Digital Solutions

www.acrobat-services.co.uk/auf

I was invlolved in these meetings so may not have a sound perspective. My take though is that they coincide with a new stage in the UK when there are examples of aspects of PDF previously reported on the web as existing elsewhere. Actually the Defra forms will not be online till next spring.

The site at www.atford.co.uk has been updated with some information on Digital Print World. This event looks more interesting as new stands are booked. Adobe will be part of a Workflow Cinema. Presumably this will be different to a Workflow Theatre with frequent requests to 'show the video please'.

It will be interesting to see if Adobe offer new information on Transit. Jaws Courier is available through a web service but Adobe seem not to say much about job ticket information. It used to be part of the PDF. There is much talk of 'document solutions' but these are intended for enterprise in general. Many print service providers are too small or medium to get much attention.

I am thinking about a longer opinion style piece on the Institute of Printing annual debate in December. They are disputing whether the print industry still needs skills. Often this reflects a view that skills are not what they used to be. If the people who create PDF are to get the same consistency of results from litho that they achieve with an email attachment there will be a need for some new skills. The print industry needs to understand support for distance learning. Also how to organise preflight and inspection while remaining polite.

Digital Solutions has been over for a couple of days and I am beginning to get an overall take on it. There could have been more people there and this may be because the expectations and promotion mismatched on what was there. The Digital Camera Show was not promoted as such. Maybe more management types attend a workflow show if they think there won't be too many anoraks looking for cheap cameras. I'm not too sure about this as actually quite a range of people look at what is on offer. So the camera stands were still there and getting interest. Fuji was the main brand represented with their own stand.

However the conventional litho mainstream was probably not there in large numbers. The workflow presentations from Agfa and Creo should have had massive audiences based on the content. Networked Graphic Production (NGP) is a concept that is under development. The Apogee X as described will probably not change much before Print City at drupa. So the workflow theatre was a chance to look at how JDF can work. Reports of rivalry between an NGP camp and Print City seem to be exaggerated. Actually most JDF systems can work with each other as well as any XML standard works with Microsoft.

The scope of Digital Print World is limited to digital print but issues may come up such as workflow for litho and moving content to the web.

Maybe there is a question for all print exhibiitons, though this is hard to assess. drupa is fully booked. Even if IIR develop an annual digital show over the next three years there could still be many people in the British printing industry who will concentrate on the mechanical engineering available at IPEX.

Brief news from Digital Solutions

Jaws PDF Courier can create and deliver reliable PDF with job ticketing. Positive Focus are distributing this and offering a web serice - ready4print. There is currently a server based in the Netherlandsand one expected soon in the UK.

There will be a presentation about this on the 22nd in the Workflow Theatre at 3.40

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Although there is not officially a Digital Camerta Show this year, there are several stands with digital cameras. For example A.J. Purdie have stocks of Nikon, Canon and Sony.

Another test, seems to be working ok.

Long gaps in this blog are because I update the sites for www.atford and the Acrobat User Forum. I do get confused as to which opinions to put in which spot but this seems to be ok so far.

I am going to project a year forward on the Acrobat User Forum site so the content for this year's Digital Solutions meetings makes more sense. So far the emphasis on structure and server software has not really got much attention from the graphics professionals or at least the media who think they understand this audience. The response of the people at the workflow theatre will be interesting. By next October the JDF aspects of workflow should be better understood. PDF forms online will be used more widely so some priont companies will be included. Graphic designers will need to understand how to use material both for print and online.

The www.atford site is to imagine this sort of future. I have started to include news stories such as one on Global Graphics and JDF. My impression is that Adobe have lost some focus on hard copy. There is not much detail in the UK on how they relate to JDF. Transit seems to have disappeared without any explanation. In time there will be something coming through Digital Print World so this can be updated later.

I have started a discussion topic at Planet PDF

Please add in any comments there

More follows during next week

Digital Solutions Exhibition: 21-23 October 2003 - London ExCeL

This is a test of the direct blogging feature on my new Google toolbar

Links to event coming up soon. More later.

The Seybold event is settling into some sort of perspective now that I am finding other sources of information through the web and magazines. It seems that Adobe are being quite selective in where they promote the new server software. an article on PDFzone comments on their lack of presence at eGOV in Washington. Meanwhile they have attended a SAP conference so presumably this is the sort of environment where the pricing makes sense. The US Army have made extensive use of PDF for forms.

Maybe there will be more to say by the time of Seybold San Francisco. For example, is Transit to be updated or publicised? I would suggest the order of events happens in reverse to the sequence in Amsterdam. Start with a panel discussion on whehter the server software is on a pricing level that any normal person could consider. Allow time to study the Adobe website if there is no other source of product detail. Then discuss with CIP4 members if the XML job ticket information could be part of the PDF or somewhere else. Then ask the Gilbane content management discussion to cover this as another example of what they are looking at. If this order can't fit with the schedule, maybe something can develop online meanwhile.

http://www.pdfzone.com/news/101799.html

http://www.gilbane.com/gilbane_at_seybold_03.html

http://www.seybold365.com/sf2003/conference/

http://www.cip4.org/activities/schedule.php

http://www.adobe.com/products/server/main.html


Printweek reported the Amsterdam JDF discussion at great length (June 19th) and supported the idea in an editorial. It has become clear that the Seybold move to Europe has connected with European interest in hard copy. The next Seybold Amsterdam in April 2004 will be just ahead of DRUPA so more will be known on how JDF is likely to be implemented. this blog will resume around the time of events but the issues will also be reflected in websites that are updated more slowly.

websites

http://www.atford.co.uk (imagined destination for UK print)
http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk (print emphasis)
http://www.acrobat-services.com (assumes bandwidth)

events

Digital Solutions
http://www.ondemandexpo.co.uk Digital Print World
http://www.digitalprintworld.co.uk/

If you're not convinced about JDF / PDF by now, you have at least two more chances before 2004.

The good news is that the dates for Seybold Amsterdam 2004 are confirmed as April 19-22. Actually the exact days may change so check http://www.seybold365.com

I think the bad news is turning out to be the wasted opportunity caused by limited input from Adobe. The opening keynote from James King was universally appreciated and covered the history of establishing Acrobat as is already well known. Information on new server software came up by accident or not at all. The Gilbane Content Management day had no Adobe speakers. The track on 'PDF in the Data-Connected Organization' did include a demonstration of Readerr Extensions from Frank Delanghe for D Soft. However this was almost at the end of the conference so no links back to the content management discussion were possible.

www.dsoft.be

In the closing 'interactive expert panel', Stephen Jaeggi added his own wish for a better PDF future. The charging model for Reader extensions is prohibitive for any situation other than really large rich organisations such as government. He would like to see some way of charging per view that made wider use possible. The impression that came over is that Reader extensions software is not really intended to be used at this time.

www.prepress.ch

Maybe it is hard to co-ordinate the Adobe budgets for a European event so it is good that Seybold have given lots of notice for the next event.

More came out about the discussion on whether JDF informatioin should be embedded in PDF or sent in another file. Margaret Motamed , who presented the CIP4 day, put the question back to the expert panel, suggesting that either approach could be used. Menno Mooij suggested that actually people should do both. Then the people closer to the RIP could do a comparison. Either way, a PDF/JDF workflow will be clarified by the next Seybold Amsterdam.

More follows, sometime next week

Almost forgot to mention the alternative session yesterday on CIP4. I didn't attend this, but Peter Dyson mentioned discussion on whether JDF information should be part of a PDF or in a related file. He suggested 'One of the files will get lost. You'll give them different names.' I think he was just trying to get a response from the panel, who came up with several ways round this sort of problem.

CIP4 Heidelberg Presentation

The really good news is that there will probably be another Seybold event in Amsterdam. Hans Hartman said that the expectation for a first event was between 200 and 300, so they are pleased with the actual attendance of 450. There is space for maybe four times as many though in the main forum so potential for more people in Europe to hear about this.

http://www.seybold365.com/amsterdam2003/

James King keynote covered ten years of Acrobat and PDF. The original design aims included fitting Acrobat onto one floppy and running on 640k DOS. Now it becomes clear that Amber (version 3) was the first one that did 'the publishing things'. 'Before that, we targeted the office.'

There may be more versions of Acrobat tools, such as the Professional and Standard with Acrobat 6. Apparently the thinking is that "more people could use standard if it wasn't priced so high". Strangely, 6 Standard seems to be more expensive than Acrobat 5 and to not include the forms creation features. Maybe other options will follow later.

The discussion on PDF seems to work well with a basis in European print. The proofing discussion was fairly technical, based around activities of the European Color Initiative.
http://www.eci.org/eng/index_e.html

A rare reference to the internet came through a presentation on WebProof, using Acrobat6 and WebDAV for proofing. Comments can be added outside of Acrobat for those who don't have it.
http://www.webproof.com

The first day included coverage of Enterprise Content Management, something that usually takes several days. It was comprehensive within the time but my surprise was at how little mention there was of the Adobe server software and how PDF could fit with other systems. This did come up, but there was no Adobe presence on this occasion.
http://www.gilbane.com/amsterdam03.html

Tomorrow David Brailsford will be talking about PDF and XML within a stream on the 'data-connected enterprise' . Maybe some of the links to content management will come up there.

There will also be the release of a Seybold survey on PDF usage in Europe. It will be interesting to compare this with the first one based mostly on responses from the USA.

No mention of 'Network Publishing'. Creo spoke about 'Networked Graphic Production' within their seven minutes. So the scope is a bit limited in concentrating on print workflow. Still, this is a solid basis. Maybe web design will creep in as a topic next time.

More follows, maybe Saturday.

Still working ok

Forgot the actual link

Seybold PDF Summit Amsterdam

http://www.seybold365.com/amsterdam2003/

This is a test to check if this blog resource is still working.

Next week I am lucky enough to be going to a Seybold Seminar in Amsterdam. This seems to me to be a major event. The Seybold content is concentrating on some hard copy issues that make sense in Europe. There will still be some internet coverage and presumably a wider scope in San Francisco later.

My own opinion is that PDF should have a basis in hard copy and that it is worth spending time on this. There seems a good chance that Seybold will repeat this event in future years. More UK attention would be useful. The print media have not given much of a buildup. Maybe there will be enough reporting to build a bigger audience for next time.

This blog will stay as IPEX 2002, though covering Seybold and DRUPA. The idea of 'Watford' as a destination for UK print will only come about as part of a European discussion. Quite what IPEX 2006 will be like remains to be seen. The organisers are now also working on a London digital show for November. This will be very official with content from PIRA. It will be interesting to see how it compares with Digital Solutions in October. I have an interest through the meetings at Digital Solutions organised by the Acrobat User Forum. Acrobat 6 is looking good so by the end of the year there could be a UK print industry view on whether it is mainstream.

Meanwhile Jim King from Adobe is looking back on ten years next week. The issues have not all been imagined by people in pre-press. On first look Acrobat 6 seems to be the product there should have been in the first place.

The title stays as IPEX 2002 but could mean any plausible UK event.

This site will change to cover DRUPA in early 2004. Some claims on JDF implementation will be clear in time for Digital Solutions in October.

The best news is that there will be a Seybold PDF summit in Amsterdam in June. Time travel could go two ways. Try to hold back the Seybold futurists so they deal with hard copy. Imagine what print can offer sometime later as if DRUPA was already happening. Acrobat 6 could be out by then so the web will be relevant also.

There is now a selection of PDF from various sources at IPEX. IT started as TIFF EPS or JPEG but usually the PDF is smaller.

http://www.acrobat-services.com/ipex

A few points after checking websites at home

The previous link for Founder leads to a website in Chinese. There is English language information on products and future trade shows at www.eaglerip.com

Bandwidth now back to normal UK levels so the Flash at Colorperfexion takes a while to load. Maybe an html alternative would be a good idea. From the Xerox hall 3 they presented an attractive prospect of managed colour including rgb digital cameras. Partners include Apple so Colorsync should be covered as well as Windows. Be patient with the Flash till you get a chance to scroll through the text.
www.cpxuk.com


Printlink offers web connections into InDesign and Quark using XML. Program by Sansui, spec from Ascent so it should also work with forms design. Apparently under development, the website is currenly just a jpeg. One to come back to. www.printlink.info

On Wednesday I finally got round to spending time at the Cross Media Theatre. Unfortunately the BT speaker was ill so it turned out to be non-stop Adobe. The carrier bag featured hard copy on InDesign, a special from Macworld and Digit. However much 'broadband' had featured on other days, Adobe appeared to be concentrating on strengths relevant for the show. Sessions on Photoshop or Illustrator seemed to come back to integration with InDesign. There was much confidence that people now have a choice for page makeup. We were even invited to visit the Quark stand provided our first question was about tables. There were no suggestions that there would be a problem in Quark with placing PDF or creating PDF so presumably no such problems exist.

Attention was drawn to a Macworld article on typography-
"The art of good typography waned when DTP took over from typesetters, and it has taken more than a decade to recover. Now that the industry has learnt how to 'do it yourself', it's time to relearn how to 'do it right'."

Other shows will continue some of the themes from IPEX.

IMPRINTA 2003 has been identified at the CIP4 meeting as a stage when progress on JDF will be clearer. Actual demonstrations with litho machinery will wait till DRUPA. Possibly it will be easier to demonstrate workflow issues at IMPRINTA by concentrating on computers and software. There will be 'SolutionParks' on issues including PDF/X and JDF.
http://www.messe-duesseldorf.de/imprinta03/en/solutions_2.html

Meanwhile Digital Solutions at Excel this October will add a new exhibition called GoPublish. This is likely to include workflow issues and discussion on PDF. Last time Heidelberg arrived with some kit and a NexPress video. Maybe MAN Roland will be there in 2002 with a 3d animation of a DICOweb.
http://www.gopublishexpo.com

Printweek reports good news for Epson from The Guardian

Following remote proofing projects at the Financial Times, Colorbus RIPs are now in use at the Guardian. Factors influencing the decision include cost and ICC standards.

Details on the Printweek website
http://www.printweek.com/news_story.cfm?ID=10513

Adobe Completes Acquisition of Accelio Corporation

Meanwhile, Adobe are moving further into business forms and server software. Maybe PDF will be used for job tickets, even if it is also XML somehow.

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200204/200204accelioclose.html

Printme definitely works. Throughout IPEX there are places to try it out. Log on at www.printme.com

PDF is one of the supported formats. If Seybold Reports conclude that PDF is not good enough for litho, I will just use Printme instead.

More at the Electronics for Imaging stand.

I usually get feedback that I've mistaken some aspect of the Job Definition Format but attempting to describe it is one way to check how far understanding has gone.

The basis is a spec rather than a file format, although the spec is suitable for XML. PJTF- the portable job ticket format - is shown on the diagram but as a contribution to the current spec in the area between creation and pre-press. There is no assumption that the XML data will be stored as part of a PDF, so if a PDf is used it is just for the page description. The JDF will include all instructions. There is no intention to use Postscript code within PDF for device control.

There is reasonable confidence in XML being a standard. Triplearc offer one of the first products based on JDF and this is written in .NET. There will be a meeting for developers during GraphExpo in Chicago later this year. Members of CIP4 can uise C++ and Java code. This will be updated soon after the 1.1 upgrade later in April.

Creo fully support JDF and see 'Closed Loop - Open Systems' as a linked idea to 'Networked Graphic Production'. Agfa and Man Roland seem to be working towards an even better demonstration of JDF workflow at the next Drupa. Heidelberg made it very clear in the press conference that JDF will be fully supported in all their future products.

Comment

It would have been helpful for Adobe to have been there, just to confirm explanations on how this all fits with PDF.