Business News

CIP4 Announces PrintTalk 1.5

Wednesday 15. July 2015 - CIP4 Releases PrintTalk 1.5 Specification for Print Industry Web Automation

The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization announces the release of the PrintTalk 1.5 Schema and Reference Implementation. PrintTalk is a specification for the exchange of print eCommerce information that is useful for the exchange of data between customer systems, Web-to-print eCommerce systems, and print estimating, scheduling and MIS. Version 1.5 of PrintTalk is tightly integrated with the 1.5 version of JDF that was released several months ago.
First demonstrated in 2000, PrintTalk is an “envelope” for JDF; the business information is PrintTalk, and the product description within is JDF. PrintTalk specifies an automation framework for a myriad of print buying transactions such as requests for estimates, estimates, approvals, etc. The early cooperation with CIP4 ensured that data gathered in the print buying process could be moved forward into production via JDF, thereby directly linking a print buyer’s intent with production, and eliminating the need for re-keying of critical job parameters.
“Extending the convenience and efficiency of automation to the customer is a priority for most printers,” said CIP4 CEO, Henny van Esch. “JDF automates print manufacturing. PrintTalk then extends the process automation to both the customer and to the supply chain of that service provider. Smaller printers are requiring that elements of PrintTalk be incorporated into pre-packaged web storefronts, while the larger ones include PrintTalk in sophisticated self-developed web portals.”
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen is one CIP4 member has also made use of PrintTalk to enable their web-to-print solutions: “Prinect, the print shop and media workflow of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, is based on open industry standards. JDF and PDF are certainly the largest elements”, according to Christopher Berti, vice president, Prinect, Heidelberg. “PrintTalk has also been a valued element of our Prinect solutions since 2002 and is becoming more and more important with the growth of web to print. Whereas JDF helps to automate the production workflow, PrintTalk accelerates the business processes and cash flow”.
PrintTalk 1.5 adds requested capabilities to subscribe to order-status updates, request stock levels, support for multiple JDF items on the same order (Bill of Materials), and manage percentage calculations on invoices. CIP4 has developed this update to complement JDF 1.5, but PrintTalk is also backward-compatible.
PrintTalk and JDF are the open standards for process automation in the print industry. They may be freely incorporated by companies or individual developers to meet the needs of today, and provide the flexibility to address future opportunities.