Context Information in the Production of Print Products.

Print production is undergoing substantial changes due to the development of new printing techniques and novel prepress methods. These techniques enable even inexperienced users to produce digital parts of a publication, if not whole content, designated for press later on. One of the consequences of this is that more and more interacting and remotely located partners are involved in the prepress production process. However, the digital interaction between partners who may not have met before is not self evident since, especially in new business relationships where intents, timelines, methods and planning, procedures are not self defined. In this paper we present an analysis of the current workflows in print production. In the past there has been the tendency to automate all duties that may be digitized; it is apparent that there should be an infrastructure that permits automation of at least some of the duties that have to be been performed in a context of verbal communication, written job tickets and remarks. In this paper a possible infrastructure for a system like this is described. Suggestions for an architecture involving job tickets, tools, databases and interfaces are presented.