JDF BASICS -- It's Just the Ticket

At the core of JDF is the Job Messaging Format, or JMF. The specification describes JMF as a subset of the broader format that is designed to handle the communication of data between equipment and systems in a printing plant. Communication can occur at the central command level or directly from subsystems, such as a color control unit on a press. "JMF can be used to establish a queue, discover the capabilities of a JDF-enabled device, determine the operational status of a device, and so on," the spec notes.