In the latest of our interviews with AFP Consortium leaders, we spoke with Xerox’s Yves Bougardier about how AFP has evolved — and how it’s still growing and changing. Q: What do you see as the single most important value AFP can bring to an organization? Yves: I think it’s important that I mention I come from […]
In the latest of our interviews with AFP Consortium leaders, we spoke with Xerox's Yves Bougardier about how AFP has evolved -- and how it's still growing and changing.
Q: What do you see as the single most important value AFP can bring to an organization?
Yves: I think it’s important that I mention I come from a print background, so when I answer, it does not seem I am forgetting archive, presentation or similar capabilities. But to me, AFP’s greatest advantage is its reliability. It facilitates communication between software and printer, including color, objects and so on. And it also checks itself: With AFP, an operator knows which statements and pages are being printed and that all statements and pages are, in fact, being printed.
Q: Why do you feel the AFP Consortium is important to the print industry? What is the biggest value the consortium brings to the print industry?
Yves: The consortium is a critical aspect of the print industry, and that is thanks in large part to its members being vendors and people who work in the industry. We know what customers expect, and we are able to answer those expectations now and for the future. The future of a platform so important to the industry is being shaped by actual industry stakeholders.
Q: Do you see AFP becoming more broadly deployed beyond transactional print? For instance, I know you've discussed graphic arts in particular. How does AFP make that jump? Or, how does AFP make the business case for its use in those other areas?
Yves: In the past, AFP was relegated to transactional print. However, AFP has been able to evolve. AFP Graphic Arts (AFP/GA) added capabilities to manage and include PDF applications, which significantly expands use cases for AFP. Folding the graphic capabilities of PDF into the reliability and thorough monitoring and management of AFP was a big win. It makes AFP a good, viable choice for processing marketing applications or color magazines.
As for how AFP might expand into new markets, the opportunities are there. AFP has the ability to integrate tracking and auditing, so a print services provider knows exactly what has been produced. The market is doing more and more with this valuable data. For example, not too long ago, print service providers (PSPs) were predominately using offset to print brochures and catalogues. But with the rise of digital and inkjet, PSPs are finding they can print close to the same quality as offset, but with variable data and customization for more precise targeting and greater engagement. AFP enters the equation to help the PSP know if the catalog has been printed correctly – integrity is key, as a PSP’s reputation is crucial to its business prospects.
Q: How do you see the marketplace in ten years? How will AFP and PDF work together? Will there be more options for organizations to look to?
Yves: AFP and PDF can and do work together. They can stay, survive and thrive in the same market. AFP can now embed PDF elements while maintaining the various advantages of AFP, which is excellent for communications with piece-level tracking. I think they will continue to work together. Because of the AFP Consortium, AFP’s evolution tracks very closely with customer requirements, and we try to keep AFP up to date to meet those needs.
Q: What is the most innovative application you’ve heard of that leverages AFP technology?
Yves: I’ve seen a number of exciting applications. One user who was printing everything offset but has now moved to inkjet, reliably producing books, catalogues and magazines for clients, using AFP to help. Another example is targeted discounts based on demographic research – customer-specific coupons. For applications like that, precision and reliability are absolutely necessary. One of AFP’s key selling points is it was designed and developed to handle variable data. It can be more difficult for PDF to manage that. AFP was made for that and it can do that very well.
Q: What is the one thing about AFP that you think people should know that they likely don’t today?
Yves: The ability to embed PDF, TIFF and JPEG objects, among others, in AFP datastreams. It’s getting more recognition, but we need to talk more about that.
Q: In your opinion, what was the most important evolution of or change to AFP?
Yves: For me, the most important evolution is the AFP Consortium itself. The consortium serves as a link between the people writing the code and the market that uses it, so we can respond to the voice of the customer.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish through your efforts with the AFP Consortium?
Yves: As an AFP Consortium member, my goal is to talk more about AFP. Previously, the only people talking about AFP were the people who already worked with AFP. We need to go closer to our customers, our print providers. We need to evangelize and educate. The print world is changing. We are changing with it. But we still need to be known to be a part of this new generation of print.
Q: What would you like to see AFP do that it isn’t doing right now?
Yves: It’s rather technical, but I’d like to see deeper integration with the printer. For instance, I’d like users to be able to manage more printer settings from within AFP. That provides a streamlined path to greater automation. With this kind of change, when a customer prints job, it can be made so the printer will automatically have the correct settings (resolution, print size, color management, etc.) for that job. That avoids a lot of issues with automation.