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Welcome to CIP4!
Your company is a member of CIP4, an organization devoted to fostering process automation in the printing industries. Membership is organizational, which means that any full-time staff member of your company can sign up for a CIP4 account, get
access to great stuff and participate in any CIP4 program. Below you’ll learn how to get your own personal CIP4 account, as
well how to gain access to “members only” tools and benefits in two areas: technical, and marketing and education, but first …
make sure you share this document with everyone on your staff who may have an interest in CIP4 programs!
CIP4 Membership Quick Start Guide
Here are four quick steps to launch your CIP4 membership.
1. Create Your Membership Account
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Go to www.cip4.org
Select “Register New Member” from “Members”
menu (see yellow circle)
Submit contact information
Select a password for your account
(Note: The standard CIP4 account name is
‘FirstnameLastname’ with no space or period in
between, and without the quotes.)
Identify your time zone (used for coordination of online
meetings)
Once you’ve submitted this online registration form, your
company’s primary contact will get an email message
asking them to verify you as an employee of the member
company. Once they accept your registration, your account
is activated and you can access all “members only” sections
of the CIP4 website and join any working groups. At any
time, you may select “Personal Settings” from the same pull-down menu (see red circle) to change your contact information,
the type of email you prefer, etc.
2. Check Company Settings
Your company’s primary contact is responsible for setting
up your company information, but you can check on your
company settings by selecting “Company Settings” from the
pull-down list (see yellow circle). This information includes
information about your business, indicates whether you
have created company JDF Marketplace and Cybermall
listings, and provides key company contacts. In addition to a
primary contact, your company should designate:
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A lead technical contact
One or more marketing contacts
A contact for Intellectual Property issues (optional)
A billing contact (optional)
Links from this page list all company staff with CIP4
accounts and the working groups your company is participating in.
3. Join a Working Group
What working groups should you join? You may join as many working groups as you like (except for elected bodies, such as
the Advisory Board).
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Go to “Working Groups” under the Members pull-down menu.
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Select the link to working group descriptions for an overview of each group.
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Visit the working group page that is of interest to you where you will find a summary of the group’s scope, mission and
leadership, and links to future meeting dates, document and email archives and member lists.
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Click on “Join this Group” at the bottom of the page (see yellow circle) and you will automatically be enrolled in the
group.
Welcome to CIP4!
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CIP4 Working Group Recommendations
There are working groups addressing just about any need or
requirement you may have, but CIP4 leadership recommends
that …
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All developers should join the System Behavior and
Interoperability Working Group, whose discussions
involve everyone building JDF systems.
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All sales and marketing personnel should join the
Marketing and Education Committee, which plans and
reviews all marketing and educational programs.
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Senior management interested in business development
should also consider joining the Business Networking
Group BNG).
Each group has an email address (see red circle) and all
messages are forwarded to all members of the group, as
discussion between meetings. Meetings are held via Adobe
Connect internet software (with the exception of twice annual
face-to-face Interops and technical meetings, and BNG and JDF User Group meetings.) To join a meeting, just click on the
meeting room listed in the meeting details, login to the meeting as a guest, and follow the dialing instructions.
4. Learn How CIP4 Operates
New members usually want to know how CIP4 decides what
goes into a specification, who does what at CIP4, and how
working groups and committees are run. CIP4 is a memberdriven organization and everyone has a say in what CIP4
does; so it’s important to learn how CIP4 works. Committees
and working groups operate under rules established in the
Membership Regulations and the Standard Operating
Procedures, both which can be found under the Information
pull-down menu and under “CIP4 Membership” (see yellow
circle). We recommend that all new members read these two
key documents, as well as the IP Policy that was part of the
CIP4 membership application. Furthermore, if your company
is a Full or Associate class member, you have elected
representatives. You can learn who these representatives are,
as well as the roles and responsibilities of the Board of
Directors from “Leadership” under the Information pull-down
menu (see red circle). If you have ideas, questions or issues,
these are the people to contact and you will find it helpful to learn “who’s who” among the CIP4 leadership. Finally, you can
search email addresses and phone numbers of any CIP4 member, by either company or last name, in the “Member Roster” under the Member pull-down menu.
Marketing and Education Programs
There are many CIP4 marketing and educational programs to participate in, all managed by the Education and Marketing
Committee. Many programs include free and valuable promotion for CIP4 members to take advantage of. We suggest that you
search out the following within the first three months of joining CIP4:
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JDF Marketplace — JDF Marketplace is a directory of products and services that support JDF or PrintTalk. The JDF
Marketplace is published in PDF format several times a year, usually before major industry events. It can be downloaded
freely and is used widely by printers looking for JDF-enabled solutions. You may submit as many free listings as you
wish. Visit www.cip4.org/marketplace and select “Update and Add Listings to the JDF Marketplace.” Access is screened
by your account and password, and only employees of your company may edit or add listings. Listings may be updated as
frequently as you wish.
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JDF Integration Matrix — Another great tool for printers is the JDF Integration Matrix, which lists companies’ working
integrations between different types of systems. Visit www.cip4.org/matrix and select “Interface List (members only).”
Any integrations that involve your company will be listed, along with rules and definitions for the JDF Integration Matrix.
Select “Add New Interface Listing” to create a new listing. You can create as many listings as you wish and it’s free to
members. Your partners will automatically be asked to verify listings you create (with the exception of “Customer Confirmed” listings, which are confirmed by CIP4 staff).
Welcome to CIP4!
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CIP4 Speakers’ Bureau — Many members have key personnel qualified to speak on JDF and print automation topics, a
request CIP4 frequently gets from industry events. For that reason, we’ve created the “CIP4 Speaker’s Bureau, where you
can add any of your public spokespersons to the listing. Just go to “Speaker’s Bureau” under the Education pull-down
menu and select “CIP4 Speaker's Bureau in the members-only area of the CIP4 website”. You can create a new listing (or
modify a current listing) by adding their contact information, a short biography, information on availability and a photo.
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CIP4 CyberMall — While JDF Marketplace is the place to promote your JDF or PrintTalk-related products and services,
CyberMall is where you can advertise your company to the more than 500,000 CIP4 website visitors each year. No matter
if you are a system or software vendor, printer, consultant, integrator or so on … all members can advertise on the CyberMall! Visitors to the Cybermall are automatically given the list of companies for their country and language (based on
browser settings). You can create listings in many different languages. Create your listings by going to “CyberMall” under
the Business Development pull-down menu and then select “Update/add listings to CyberMall.”
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Marketing Materials — Under the Members pull-down menu, you will find many items you can download and use to
promote your affiliation with CIP4, such as:
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Member Placards (PDF) and “CIP4 Member” signs (PDF)
JDF Works, CIP4 and CIP4 Member logos (in multiple file formats)
Educational JDF Playing cards that can be customized and printed with you company logo
CIP4 membership ads for use in company newsletters (PDF)
CIP4 membership certificate (PDF)
In addition, as a CIP4 member, you may receive up to 50 free “JDF Profit Smartly” pins and 100 JDF Brochures. Contact
Barbara McGowan via email at b2marketing@comcast.net or telephone at +1- 978-969-3239 for more details. If you
would like to order educational JDF Playing Cards, contact Jim Harvey via email at executive_director@cip4.org or telephone at +1-410-451-5040.
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JDF Bulletin — Your company press releases and white papers on JDF or PrintTalk related products, services and technical issues may be submitted to newsletter@cip4.org for inclusion in the JDF Bulletin. The JDF Bulletin is published 4-6
times per year and is distributed to over 1,600 members of CIP4, over 1,300 non-member subscribers and over 1,200 trade
media contacts all over the world. White papers and case studies are also uploaded to the “Whitepapers” section of the
CIP4 website, which averages almost 50,000 unique visits per month from all around the world.
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Membership Promotion Program — You can add a CIP4 or JDF logo, or an “About JDF” paragraph, to your company’s website by going to “Membership Promotion Program” under the Members pull-down menu, and finding program
details, artwork and html code. Logos are linked to special “landing pages” on the CIP4 website that explain CIP4 and
JDF to first-time visitors. Membership referrals (tracked via a cookie from your website), will award you a credit towards
your CIP4 membership dues.
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JDF Product Certification Program — The JDF Product Certification Program, administered by Printing Industries of
America (PIA), enables companies to identify their products as JDF-enabled. The process requires that you pay a charge
for submitting products for testing, and once certified, you’re issued a serial-numbered certified product logo to promote
your JDF certified product in all promotion materials. For a list of currently certified products, select “Certified Products”
from the Business Development pull-down menu. At bottom of page follow the list of certified products and find links to
more certification program information and a registration form. PIA program administrator is Brandon Iskey (email:
biskey@printing.org).
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BNG Networking Directory — One of the most valuable benefits of CIP4 membership is in networking, finding new
sales channels, business partners, and sales opportunities. Business development managers, sales and marketing professionals, business owners and senior management should list themselves in the BNG Networking Directory. Go to “BNG
Networking Directory Registration” under the Members pull-down menu to list your information about formal partnership
programs, information about opportunities or the type of partners you are looking for and expanded contact information.
The BNG Networking Directory will be published only once a year and its distribution will be limited to members only.
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Cooperative Trade Show Programs — CIP4 regularly organizes JDF pavilions at tradeshows with demonstrations and
live theatres, and seminars at conferences with members speaking, and publishes special directories such as the JDF
Roadmap that are distributed at major industry events. These are uniquely organized for specific events, and you can get
your company involved in these education and marketing opportunities by signing up for the Education and Marketing
Committee. Even if you cannot regularly participate in meetings, you will get the notes and invitations that are distributed
to the group via its email forum.
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CIPPI Awards Program — The Jürgen Schönhut Memorial CIP4 International Print Production Innovation (CIPPI)
Awards were established to recognize leading printers, publishers, or prepress services that have demonstrated uncommon
leadership in their pursuit of process automation technology. Winning case studies published on the CIP4 website are the
most commonly downloaded and widely reported documents that CIP4 distributes. Member printers, publishers, prepress
services and vendors (working with their customers to organize submissions) are encouraged to compete for the coveted
CIPPI Awards. For information, go to www.cip4.org/cippi/ or select “CIPPI Award” under the Information pull-down
menu.
Welcome to CIP4!
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Technical Programs
In addition to participation in the Technical Working Groups, there are other valuable developer resources and key technical
activities to take advantage of.
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Interops — For many, the most valuable membership benefit for technical staff is access to the semi-annual CIP4 Interoperability Testing Events or “Interops.” A weeklong series of meetings, usually hosted by a CIP4 member, the agenda includes a free day-long technical tutorial for developers on Sunday, followed by “Interop” sessions on Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday mornings, a series of afternoon technical working group meetings, social events and a plenary session
wrap-up. At the Interops, a network is created with a file server allowing JDF, JMF, and PrintTalk interchange among attendees. Testing results are never disclosed to the public, so this unique learning opportunity allows member companies to
test, find and fix bugs, and establish new communication protocols with other member companies. The events rotate between Europe, Japan and North America and are listed under “Face-to-face member meetings” in the Meeting Schedule
under the Members pull-down menu. Interop participants must pre-register by selecting “Interop Forms” from the Member
pull-down menu. Further information about the Interops can be found on the CIP4 Wiki.
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CIP4 Wiki — The CIP4 Wiki has both public and “members-only” forums, and is used for technical discussions, information on getting up to speed on JDF, Interop logistics, details on JDF and PrintTalk and much more. Go to “CIP4 Wiki”
under the Members pull-down menu and login with your account and password if you wish to edit the Wiki. Please note
that all CIP4 members can add to or edit the Wiki, but Wiki accounts are not created automatically for each person having
a CIP4 account. Instead, one has to self-register at the Wiki as described on the first Wiki page.
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Research — Over the years CIP4 has archived thousands of documents, presentations and email messages. The email and
document archives contain application notes, draft standards, sample code, presentations and more non public information.
Select “Document Archive” or “Email Archives” under the Member pull-down menu to research by category, named libraries, groups or keyword.
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Tools — Find both open source and internal SDK’s, JDF software, (such as the JDF Editor or the CheckJDF Utility), and
development tools (such as Alces and Elk), by selecting “Downloads” under the Technical Resources pull-down menu.
Commercial use of this software is restricted to CIP4 Full and Partner Members, and you should read the CIP4 Software
License listed on the Downloads page for details. Go to the Downloads page and select “Issue Tracker,” the tool to use to
recommend changes or improvements to tools or to report bugs you find.
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JDF Expert Certificate Program — The JDF Expert Certificate program is a 13-part training program, available on CDROM or via streaming media that takes you through all aspects of JDF and includes four “practicums” on JDF in preflighting, prepress, digital printing and postpress. You don’t have to be a developer to take the course … the basics of XML are
explained as well … but you do need to be technically inclined. Once you buy the course, you can share it with anyone in
your company. You can also take an optional test to become certified as a JDF Expert, a program administered by IPA
(www.ipa.org/jdf/). CIP4 members are entitled for the same member discount price for the program as are IPA members,
and the discount code is “CIP4.”
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Sample Files — Several members have submitted sample JDF and JMF files that you may find useful for your own development and testing. Visit “Sample Files” under the Technical Resources pull-down menu to review and download
available sample files.
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Schema, Specifications, and ICS Registry — Although free to public and not a “members-only” service, you should
know that you can find the JDF Specification and Schema, Interoperability Conformance Specifications and the PrintTalk
specification and reference implementation all under Technical Resources on the CIP4 website.
For More Information
Additional information on aspects of CIP4 membership programs can be found at …
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Guide for CIP4 Members — (http://www.cip4.org/intern/help/guide_for_cip4_members.pdf) Explains how to use forums and action lists, attend meetings, join or leave a working group, use the document archive, etc.
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Guide for CIP4 Working Group Chairs — (http://www.cip4.org/intern/help/guide_for_cip4_working_group_chairs.pdf) Explains how to create a forum or an action list, schedule and start meetings, etc.
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Guide for CIP4 Open Source — (http://www.cip4.org/intern/help/guide_for_cip4_open_source.pdf) Explains how to access the public CIP4 Open Source repository.
This document is available from the CIP4 website at:
http://www.cip4.org/intern/help/CIP4MemberStartupGuide.pdf
Welcome to CIP4!
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