Fall 2019 AFP Consortium Meeting Recap: QR Code with Image, Overprint, AFP Metadata Tagging, Device Support, and More
By Jack Condon
Recently, AFP Consortium members once again traveled from all around the world to convene in Boulder, Colorado, to discuss the latest work being done in AFP. At this meeting, we continued to work on adding and enhancing capabilities in a number of ways:
As always, meeting with intelligent, insightful people from our member companies around the world to discuss AFP was a great experience – here’s looking forward to our next meeting in Windsor, England in April 2020
- QR Code with Image – A major topic at this meeting was new functionality in BCOCA, MO:DCA, and IPDS ACRs to add the ability to print images in conjunction with BCOCA QR Code bar codes. This will allow AFP to reliably produce, among other “financial payment” bar codes, the Swiss QR Code and the Scan2Pay bar code.
- Overprint – Two new Architecture Change Requests (ACRs) in BCOCA and CMOCA joined the five existing ACRs (in IPDS, MO:DCA, GOCA, IOCA, and PTOCA) to make up the full AFP Overprint solution. AFP Overprint will allow multiple colors to be printed on top of each other at the same point on a page, without “knocking out” any existing color that is already there. For example, a user might want to print a highlight color (such as varnish) on top of a process color at the same point on the page – AFP Overprint will make this possible.
- AFP Metadata Tagging – Further discussion and refinements were made to the “Metadata Guide for AFP” document that defines a consistent metadata tagging model for use with AFP Metadata Objects.
- Device Support – New ACRs in MO:DCA and IPDS were reviewed in support of devices that trim without folding.
- AFP Forum – Discussed the rollout of the proposed new AFP Forum, which is expected to launch externally in 2020.
- IANA Media Type Registry – Reviewed proposed new AFP Media Types for submission to the IANA AFP Media Type Registry, making these file types easier to work with.
- Observer Membership – This year, the AFP Consortium added a new class of membership called an “Observer” member. Observer membership was created for businesses that provide AFP consultation and education to end users who want greater insight into the ongoing evolution of AFP. Barry Key, of Galileo Consulting, attended the meeting as our first prospective Observer class member. You can learn more about Barry and his relationship with AFP and the AFP Consortium here.
As always, meeting with intelligent, insightful people from our member companies around the world to discuss AFP was a great experience – here’s looking forward to our next meeting in Windsor, England in April 2020
