| The two Seybold
Seminars in Amsterdam were based on the strong European contribution
to PDF for pre-press. Contributions to San Francisco have included
critiques of the early versions of Acrobat and a wide range
of PDF software. The discussion in Amsterdam has also included
Content Management, starting in 2003, and electronic forms,
starting in 2004. During the recent Seybold San Francisco it
was announced that future events will be split to concentrate
on creative technology or workflow. The workflow events will
be in Amsterdam and Chicago.
The Acrobat User ForumIn June the Acrobat User
Forum met in London to look at the Seybold content and make
connections with the UK. There was a case study on Defra using
Adobe server software for Reader Extensions. Adobe now promotes
‘Intelligent Documents’ as the next stage for PDF.
Many PDF users still have an interest in hard copy so the Acrobat
User Forum includes discussion on the Job Definition Format.
Pelagon has written software for Nexpress using Courier from
Global Graphics. So far, the JDF definitions have not been used
with this. This could change later.
Seybold Amsterdam was held alongside XML Europe so there were
many chances to share information. XML is already widely used
in organisations, so JDF is not unusual as an implementation.
There is a strong ‘open source’ part of the XML
discussion. This includes enthusiasm for SVG. David Brailsford
has presented several times on the history of how choosing between
structured data and presentation has evolved over time. Recently
there is more emphasis on SVG as a possible way to make the
links.
Network Publishing
At Seybold San Francisco in 2001, Bruce Chizen’s keynote
covered ‘Network Publishing’ –“making
visually rich personalised content reliably available, anytime
anywhere on any device”. This was based on predictions
for growth in broadband and wireless internet devices through
2005. Shantanu Narayan described the products for creative professionals,
now collected in the Creative Suite. The intention is that designers
can work with software that delivers content for any media,
including web and print. PDF is one option within this.
People at Adobe seem to believe that the momentum for Network
Publishing is already established. They have not done much recently
to promote the idea in the UK. There has not been any revision
given that broadband has not actually arrived as expected. However
it may be that there has been more progress than appears. UK
newspapers are now able to present the contents of their print
editions for web sites and for ‘digital editions’
including PDF. The Guardian is known to have at least some copies
of InDesign. Quark is now fully supporting PDF workflows and
XML copy. Officially the beta test is now completed but there
is still little publicity for the Guardian ‘digital editions’
or for other publications. ABC has agreed a set of criteria
to add figures to the print certificates, though clearly shown
as digital subscriptions. Once some titles ‘opt in’
it may become more obvious that the workflows implied in ‘Network
Publishing’ are possible.
Instead of ‘Network Publishing’, Adobe now features
‘Intelligent Documents’ as the lead item on their
website press page. This concentrates on server software supporting
database links through PDF. Data can be stored within a PDF
or XML files can include a PDF for image information. A PDF
file is seen as a secure way to handle data outside the firewall
of a corporate intranet.
Reader Extensions is a way to enable the Reader with selected
functions, otherwise only available in the full Acrobat product.
Adobe has tried various ways to sell a limited version of Acrobat
and now only offer the full product or Reader Extensions. Functions
such as storing a form with data to process offline or adding
comments and mark-up to a design are not possible with the free
Reader. However the Reader has more functions than appear. It
requires a message from the server to turn them on.
Other server software can create a PDF from data and support
forms with validation and look-up tables. Digital Rights Management
can be applied to any document so that only particular groups
can read them or access can be limited to a fixed period of
time.
Portable Job Tickets
Early designs for the Portable Document Format included a Portable
Job Ticket for production information alongside the image. This
specification became part of the Job Definition Format. It seems
that Adobe has less priority for this than previously. PDF Jobready
is intended to communicate job information with PDF. However
it is only available as a software development kit. Many print
companies employ less than twenty people and do not have their
own IT support. Services such as Ready4Print are available on
a charge as used. This seems more likely to be taken up. At
Drupa there was apparently no direct promotion for Jobready.
The Software Development Kit is supported by Datalogics. They
did have a small space within the HP stand but visibility for
Jobready was fairly low. ( Fortunately Graph Expo is in Chicago
later in 2004. If Datalogics cannot be found at the event, their
address is 101 North Wacker Drive, also on the web )
Drupa is an enormous event and the Adobe presence seemed much
less than suggested by the record on its website. Information
about the JDF plug-ins for Acrobat and InDesign was limited,
almost as if they wanted feedback on a possible specification
before going public with too much detail. The web site is more
precise about what they claim was shown.
“Adobe showed how to capture project specifications with
JDF and capture creative content with PDF. While JDF technologies
have thus far been applied to the prepress and production phases
of the workflow, this JDF concept demonstration extends JDF
functionality “upstream” to the creation stage —
making Adobe the first company to tie JDF to the desktop.”
There may be an Acrobat 7 sometime in 2005. If so, it will either
have this JDF feature or there will be some explanation on when
it will be available.
JDF is much closer than sometimes suggested. It will take time
for the print industry to re-equip with new printing equipment.
But expectations around XML and web services will be shared
by many print customers. Acrobat 7 will be widely available
for people working with online documents. Some proportion of
them will understand how the JDF ‘intent’ can help
them. The first actual use of PDF came about as much from print
customers trying it out as from service providers promoting
the option. Quite possibly JDF will follow a similar pattern.
JDF could appear to be working in sales and pre-press even if
some equipment is connected by other means.
The move of functionality ‘upstream’ raises quality
issues similar to those around PDF. Service providers will be
obliged to support customers in learning new skills. At Seybold
San Francisco 2004 Mary Lee Schneider, president of the Premedia
Technologies Group at R.R. Donnelley, explained that as part
of a ‘Six Sigma’ style of approach they have ten
questions that they ask their customers in establishing a workflow.
Quality issues around document control will continue to be significant
for any printing service where the customer is contributing
at the early stages. Another article looks at ‘intelligent
documents’ and quality in general.
The web and Amsterdam
One effect of the web is that some companies put less emphasis
on trade shows and exhibits as at Seybold. Macromedia for instance
has yet to exhibit at Seybold Amsterdam. Adobe has had one exhibit
but there were limited numbers of people from Adobe Europe.
Amsterdam is at the centre of the part of Europe with reasonable
broadband. Websites are very useful for exchanging information
but events such as Seybold are able to define what is possible.
The Gilbane meeting on content management and Bill Trippe’s
introduction on electronic forms provide a basis of general
criteria on what is available.
The case studies in 2004 were not completely convincing. There
are not many projects where PDF forms are available on government
sites for download and experiment. Shantanu Narayan has told
a meeting of financial analysts that the Netherlands tax authorities
will have an electronic forms project using PDF available in
2005. This might be one case study for Seybold Amsterdam or
at least something people could investigate anyway. The UK Defra
project could have some active online examples as well.
By the way, if Macromedia were there it would
be possible to discuss how some of their offers can be compared.
Contribute now includes a way to create PDF. Flex adds something
to Flash that is very hard to distinguish from a form. The next
version of Coldfusion might have a means to create PDF from
XML sources.
Publishing
Newspaper circulations are declining
but publishers are expanding their offers through the web. ‘Network
Publishing’ connects with this but so far the possibilities
have not been explored. The ‘digital editions’ are
online versions of the printed page. PDF and other web formats
can allow more interactivity and links to other forms of media.
Blogs and message boards can be connected. OhmyNews has shown
how a blog style can be mixed with professional editorial. Once
subscribers have got used to a password logon to a newspaper
site there could be more experiments in media formats.
At last year’s Online Information the
sessions on e-books suggested that a lot of information will
be available on the web for free. One way to add value would
be to concentrate on task specific information as part of a
continuing relationship with subscribers. This was suggested
in a business context but the same principles could work for
general non-fiction publishing. So far e-books have not been
widely popular, but as broadband become more available this
may change. Certainly there is more downloading of free PDF
from the web.
Hard copy is still part of ‘Network
Publishing’
One announcement at Seybold San Francisco is that
Red Herring will return to publishing a printed magazine in
October. For most of this year it has been just a web site as
the magazine was cancelled. Maybe more information will emerge
on why they have taken this decision. The official Seybold record
may be made public by sometime next year. There was an extended
discussion on future forms of publishing so presumably there
is a solid argument as to why paper is required.
During September Shantanu Narayan will be in
London, to speak at “XML and web services 2004”
, presumably concentrating on government and corporate use of
web server software. Possibly ‘network publishing’
will still be within the scope, as well as ‘intelligent
documents’. Some of the document creation seems to have
most of the options available in Creative Suite but automated
to work with XML sources. For people in the printing industry
it would be interesting to see where JDF fits into this as just
one aspect of PDF workflows.
Previous articles
Will Pollard Opinion on “Watford”
Printweek 29 September 2000
‘Network Publishing is what we make it’
Professional Printer April 2001
PDF available on the web http://www.atford.co.uk/netpub1a.pdf
Acrobat User Forum
http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/auf
XML and Web Services 2004
http://www.infoconomy.com/pages/events/group94539.adp
Adobe on ‘Network Publishing’
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressmaterials/networkpublishing/main.html.
Datalogics on Jobready
http://www.datalogics.com/pdfjobready-demo.asp
Adobe on JDF
http://www.adobe.com/products/jdf/adobe_drupa.html
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