More and more print jobs are delivered from customer to printer digitally over the Internet. Although Internet-based job delivery can be highly efficient, companies in the graphic arts and printing industry often suffer unnecessary costs related to this type of inflow of print jobs to their production workflows. One of the reasons for this is the lack of a well-defined infrastructure for delivering print jobs digitally over the Internet.
This thesis presents INFLOW – a prototype for a print job delivery system for the graphic arts and printing industry. INFLOW is a web-based job delivery system that is hosted on an Internet-connected server by the organization receiving the print jobs.
Focus has been on creating a system that is easy to use, highly customizable, secure, and easy to integrate with existing and future systems from third-party vendors. INFLOW has been implemented using open standards, such as XML and JDF (Job Definition Format).
The requirements for ease-of-use, high customizability and security are met by choosing a web-based architecture. The client side is implemented using standard web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript while the serverside is based on J2EE, Java Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP). Using a web browser as a job delivery client provides a highly customizable user interface and built in support for encrypted file transfers using HTTPS (HTTP over SSL).
Process automation and easy integration with other print production systems is facilitated with CIP4’s JDF (Job Definition Format). INFLOW also supports”hot folder workflows”for integration with older preflight software and other hot folder-based software common in prepress workflows.
Source: Linköping University
Author: Buckwalter, Claes