Eastman Kodak Company
343 State Street
Rochester, NY 14650-0238 USA
Revision date: April 25, 2014
White Paper
Contact NameJeffrey Saunders
2014 – IPDS Trends
New Techniques for Supporting Intelligent Printer
Data Stream (IPDS) Workflows
Executive Summary
In the past, AFP/IPDS printing has required the use of printing devices with internal, or dedicated IPDS adapters or interpreters. This limited an end user’s or print provider’s selection of printing technology: only those devices with built-in interpreters could interpret, process, and print from the high-speed data stream. As a result, AFP/IPDS workflows were generally processed in a ‘silo’ mode, separately from other printing.
Today the market is moving away from these technology-imposed limits. Changes in the IT landscape are breaking those barriers: now, AFP/IPDS documents can be processed by gateway devices (software or hardware) and printed on standard network-connected printers. This eliminates the need to purchase and maintain dedicated IPDS printing hardware, and allows a much wider variety of printing devices to be used for IPDS printing. It opens new business opportunities: commercial print providers can now process IPDS data streams for printing on their existing equipment, and corporate print centers can streamline their infrastructure and equipment.
This white paper introduces Kodak IPDS technology, an innovative software gateway technology that converts the IPDS print stream into output formats, such as Postscript or PDF, that are typically supported by the default configurations of today’s office and production printing devices. Kodak IPDS technology is an effective, leading-edge solution for print providers seeking to enter the IPDS market. It integrates AFP/IPDS workflows into three environments: cloud-based output management, enterprise-focused document management, and Managed Print Services.
It offers flexibility, reduces costs, and brings IPDS printing into Managed Print Services and its cost-per-impression business model.
White Paper
A Brief History of PC LAN and Enterprise Printing
The evolution of IPDS printing has parallels in other, well-known printing technologies of the recent past.
PC LAN printing
LAN-based office printing, for example, has its roots in early personal computing. Most early PC printers were directly connected to the PC. They used page description languages that were designed for creating an image directly on a single, dedicated printing device. They weren’t designed to understand a printing device’s status—whether it was online/offline, ready to print, offline, whether paper had jammed, etc.
As LANs developed, LAN-based printing evolved. While development was fragmented, the overall strategy that emerged was to separate printing-related tasks into three components:
• the transport protocol: the method for transferring information from a PC or server to a printing device via the LAN infrastructure
• the page description language: the instructions for printing a page of information
• device monitoring: the mechanism for monitoring the condition of the printer (quite often web or SNMP based).
Enterprise printing and IPDS
To support network-based printing, large, back-office servers were developed with support for remote, network-attached printers.
In the mid-1980s, when IBM developed the Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) architecture, the IPDS data stream was designed to include knowledge of the transport protocol, page description commands, and device status. Because IPDS could continually receive device status, and information on pages processed, IPDS printing became one of the most reliable printing options, and IPDS became a de facto global standard for printing reports and documents.
As LAN-based printing matured, it followed a different development path, and AFP/IPDS workflows became a separate ‘silo’ of data-driven report printing. IPDS remains popular for printing customer-facing statements and invoices, and for printing specialized internal reports.
IPDS capability is often a purchase requirement that, until recently, has acted to limit the models of MFP and printer that can be listed on an MPS quotation. New AFP/IPDS gateway technology changes the competitive landscape, by bringing support for the AFP application format to MPS, cloud computing and mobile devices.
White Paper
Critical Takeaways Regarding IPDS Workflows and MPS Contracts
• IPDS formatted reports usually have significant value to an organization. They cannot be ignored as part of a successful MPS engagement.
• MPS contracts specifying the need for IPDS capabilities will typically involve delivering IPDS support on only 10 to 20 % of all devices placed under the MPS contract.
• Proposing an IPDS solution that does not meet a prospective customer’s requirements (encounters failures during acceptance testing) can cause a vendor to be disqualified from an MPS bid process. • Having an IPDS solution encounter difficulty (unable to properly process some portion of a customer’s
IPDS formatted workflow) during the active life of an MPS contract can significantly increase the risk of the customer potentially asking for early termination of the MPS contract.
• Kodak IPDS technology is changing the competitive landscape by opening AFP/IPDS printing capability to MPS, cloud computing and mobile devices
Merging IPDS and Enterprise Printing via MPS
New, disruptive technological and/or operational capabilities—like cloud printing, mobile printing, and Managed Print Services—are driving major changes in enterprise printing. In response, organizations are changing how they release information to be printed, where their printing service provision applications are hosted, and how they acquire hardcopy imaging devices.
These changes have created an unexpected outcome, within organizations with high-volume Transactional or TransPromo printing workflows. In these organizations, there is a clear trend in page description languages: in brief, AFP and PDF are taking over. This trend is clearly described in an article posted to the On Demand website in 2011: http://www.pdfa.org/2011/10/the-best-of-both-worlds/
Due to its reliability, many organizations trust IPDS printing for AFP formatted data. Before Managed Print Services, and its cost-per-impression model, was adopted by large organizations, most IPDS printing was accomplished through dedicated printers or MFP’s with native onboard IPDS functionality. Any support for LAN-based office printing was included as a value-add by the manufacturer of the IPDS-capable printer or MFP.
Because organizations require LAN-based general enterprise printing—but for IPDS printing have been obliged to purchase from the smaller selection of IPDS-capable devices, it is common to find an IPDS-focused printer installed beside, or near, a LAN-based office printer or MFP.
White Paper
Managed Print Services and IPDS: New Tools for Managing Print Costs
The advent of Managed Print Services and the accompanying software tools has helped organizations to better manage printing costs and print processes. IPDS transformation products like the Kodak WinIPDS Pro suite, can move IPDS printing out of its silo and into the Managed Print Services umbrella.
As a result of gateway products, IPDS end-users are moving away from printers with embedded IPDS solutions. The newest gateway solutions are capable of providing the same printer/job status feedback as embedded solutions, while providing freedom of device choice, and allowing users to add or change devices to suit changing needs.
Kodak IPDS technology is a viable solution for a number of related trends:
• Corporate clients are now looking to commercial print providers to manage their existing AFP workflows.
• Corporations are seeking to move from print-based IPDS output to formats that serve mobile devices, and cloud-based services, such as PDF
• Commercial print providers need tools that can handle both AFP Consortium-specified AFP/IPDS workflows and CIP4-specified PDF/JDF/JMF workflows.
• Converting IPDS workflows into PDF workflows (via a gateway) allows an integration of IPDS-based application logic and business rules with other critical non-AFP based enterprise workflows, without compromising the job ticketing instructions included within the IPDS processing instructions
White Paper
The 60-Month Lease: Why Conform to AFP/IPDS Industry Standards?
The Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) architecture specifies that the IPDS communication channel be bi-directional. This allows the sender to communicate with the target IPDS device before releasing a file, so it can confirm that the device is capable of rendering the file.
This is one of the aspects that makes IPDS reliable. However, applications are often forced to include device-specific formatting to achieve certain results. This can effectively limit the printing hardware choices that are compatible with a critical application. It also means that new hardware may require software application maintenance (which AFP tries to keep to a minimum).
To address this issue, the AFP Consortium released a new standard in the fall of 2011. This Interchange Set 3, or IS/3 specification, lists the IPDS functionality that a client device or transformation service should support in order to be IS/3 compliant. In the IS/3 standard many newer IPDS features are now mandatory, including support for TrueType and OpenType fonts, native support for certain graphic image formats, support for color management objects and the Color Management Object Content Architecture, as well as support for the Rasterize Presentation Object option. It can be expected that IS/3 conformance will, over time, become extremely important when qualifying an IPDS product.
The 60 month question
A 60-month Managed Print Services contract that is signed in 2014 will be in force until 2019. By then, it is very likely that most IPDS enabled organizations will have deployed some IS/3 conformant applications. An MPS provider can reasonably expect that some of their 60-month MPS contracts will, before 2019, require IPDS transforms that are IS/3 compliant.
Critical takeaway regarding IPDS IS/3 and MPS contracts
• Before recommending an IPDS solution, MPS providers should ask current and potential customers about any five-year plans that might include IS/3 conformant AFP/IPDS applications.
White Paper
Kodak IPDS Technology Based Solutions for Managed Print Services
Environments
The
Kodak
IPDS Ultra SDK
The Kodak IPDS Ultra Software Development Kit (SDK) can be used to develop IPDS capabilities for a printer or MFP by being deployed as an application within the device. It does not need to be tightly coupled with the specific hardware, which minimizes the effort and time to market for creating an internal IPDS.
The IPDS Ultra SDK is fully IS/3 compliant. It offers a modular approach to enabling certain features (like color management and CMOCA) so that internal solutions built from IPDS Ultra can be tuned to be relevant to the capabilities of the hardware device being made IPDS compatible.
WinIPDS Pro – IPDS Gateway Software Product Suite
The Kodak WinIPDS Pro Software Suite accepts Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) formatted spool files along with associated IPDS specified job ticketing intent. In real-time it converts the data and job ticketing intent to PostScript, PCL, or Windows printer driver (GDI) formats fully compatible with many office printing and production printing focused devices currently available in the market.
The PCL, PS, and Windows – GDI backend drivers are fully compatible with a wide variety of office and production printers and MFP’s.
The PDF back end is able to create PDF files from IPDS input for Cloud, Mobile, and Managed Print Services environments. It can be configured to express page counts for individual PDF files such that MPS deployments can track IPDS printing delivered into the MPS ecosystem, using the Cost per Impression model, as necessary.
Author:
Paul Tykodi, Consulting & Support Services, Kodak Unified Workflow Solutions - IPDS
