I am most deeply involved with the Content Creation Work Group for CIP4, and work with the members of CIP4 to ensure their needs are met by the Content Creation Working Group's efforts. A lot of thought has gone into the JDF specification, and I am proud to have been allowed to become one of them. Without question, some of the most intelligent people in the industry are involved with CIP4. You can learn most of what there is to know about what CIP4 is, by visiting their website at cip4.org.

Why CIP4?
It is the logical conclusion that a very small percentage of actual print facilities will have the luxury of buying a complete content-creation to palleting and posting in one fell swoop. Most of these facilities would have to build their workflows from a diverse pool of hardware and software options. Hence the need for a specification to attempt to define the process of a print-job in a truly standardized way.

I have been involved with standards in the print and publishing industry in the past, but none so deeply thought out, and complete as the JDF specification. While many people in the print community do not see JDF as "ready for workflow" yet, I have seen first-hand that it is real, and it does work, but like all complex technology, it is not going to be easily implemented without at least some effort.

It was not until my deep involvement with JDF that I began to appreciate the efforts of the extremely smart and diligent professionals that the vendor community has graciously allowed the time and resources to be able to contribute to this organization. There are few software specifications in the print-world as well thought-out as JDF.