Challenges and Opportunities in Web-To-Print Workflow for Production Digital Printing

Abstract

Production workflow for digital printing is rapidly evolving, driven by the marketplace and customer demands. The need for service providers to efficiently handle an increasing volume of jobs drives adoption of automation technologies.Applications for digital production printing continue to grow: from traditional monochrome statement printing to “offset replacement” for certain high-end commercial print jobs, to personalized print for direct mail, and to “transpromo”. Each new application, as well as the business needs of the customer from which it originates, creates the demand for a specialized workflow. To be efficient, those demands must be aggregated into standardized workflows that allow service providers to benefit from automation.Customers represent the beginning of a workflow. Today, their jobs may come from a Web 2.0 “social network” system (i.e., photo sharing), or from a Web-To-Print application, or from a corporate CRM or ERP system. The input from these disparate sources must be “normalized” into a standard format for print manufacturing.This paper will provide an enumeration of several good approaches, techniques and technologies for automating the production process from the desktop or network of the document owner through to the final delivered product, by employing digital printing and production workflow systems.