Digital and Offset Printing: Seeking Workflow Oneness

At PRINT 09, the company demonstrated the Equios-Pre4m hybrid workflow concept. It is PDF- and JDF-based to provide “end-to-end automation” of print production, from job quoting and file submission through finishing and delivery.

Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A. has also been working to roll out a new hybrid production system, the Fujifilm Workflow XMF. It is said to be designed to cross-connect offset, digital and wide-format production via a “JDF engine” that uses APPE technology to preserve PDF content in its original form and store instructions for workflow processes in a JDF Job Bag. Fuji-
film’s imposition engine enables
users to create and edit impositions “live” in the system using dynamic templates to change parameters for different output devices.