Robert Link - Canon
Join us for a conversation with AFP Consortium Board Member Robert Link to discuss the state of presentation architecture and the AFP Consortium. Robert is presently Vice President & Functional Manager, Research and Development, Canon Production Printing, Germany.
Q: What was your original motivation in joining the AFP Consortium?
Robert: Canon Production Printing (formerly Océ) joined the Consortium right from the start in 2006 at a time when the industry was taking the mighty step from monochrome to color printing. The timing was right to get involved, and it continues to be important. Like the addition of the graphic arts function set in AFP, which was a significant milestone. This allows PDF documents to be carried inside of AFP – combining the best of what both AFP and PDF have to offer: The speed and error recovery built into AFP with the flexibility of PDF for graphic arts printing applications.
Q: What are the biggest trends you see taking place in the world of presentation architecture?
Robert: In general, applications for classic transactional printing with AFP are being transferred to or created in PDF directly; however, these PDF applications are still printed using AFP. In addition to transactional printing, other high value applications such as direct marketing printing continue to be strong markets. We’re seeing growth, especially in graphic arts printing more and more. These applications are increasingly using the graphic functions defined in PDF. In the end, our customers will tell us what they need to get their print production running in the best way.
Q: Speaking of customers, what are the top benefits of AFP in terms of user value?
Robert: Transactional customers, such as banks and insurance companies, using pure AFP benefit greatly from the job integrity benefits of AFP, where security and data integrity combined with high-performance printing are of the utmost importance. But the benefits of AFP extend across all industries and provide value in other ways. Graphic arts businesses using PDF might not have the same requirements around security but can also benefit greatly from AFP’s strength in error handling, such as logging of errors and progress, to secure productivity and output.
Q: How do you see the impact of AFP evolving?
Robert: Security and encryption are increasingly important, not only in terms of internet and cloud security, but also in how we encrypt customer data and put it into the workflow. As security requirements evolve, having data encrypted as long as possible in the data path of the engine is important. To support this, AFP defines encrypted objects that are transferred in an unencrypted data connection. The encrypted objects are decrypted as late as possible. Businesses are also beginning to require more customized solutions, especially in graphic arts, industrial printing, and packaging, and we have to see how AFP can play an important role here.
Q: How is AFP a uniquely competitive presentation architecture?
Robert: AFP works within the total print system, including post-processing, to bring the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ together in a seamless way, helping present information on the page effectively. This is a very strong, unique feature of AFP. As mentioned, it also contributes to better security, data integrity, and high performance—all critical requirements for printing customers. I see the role of AFP continuing to evolve alongside customer demand, as we’ve seen it historically do over time.
Q: Any other insight you’d like to provide?
Robert: Environmental sustainability is imperative, and the AFP Consortium can be a contributor here. Big picture, the AFP Consortium brings competitors and partners together to discuss alliance standards of the future with the customer value in mind. The benefits of AFP and standardization impact the whole printing industry by helping users save on labor, printing supplies, paper, and energy. This will only become more important over time, and I’m excited to be part of this journey.
Q: What was your original motivation in joining the AFP Consortium?
Robert: Canon Production Printing (formerly Océ) joined the Consortium right from the start in 2006 at a time when the industry was taking the mighty step from monochrome to color printing. The timing was right to get involved, and it continues to be important. Like the addition of the graphic arts function set in AFP, which was a significant milestone. This allows PDF documents to be carried inside of AFP – combining the best of what both AFP and PDF have to offer: The speed and error recovery built into AFP with the flexibility of PDF for graphic arts printing applications.
Q: What are the biggest trends you see taking place in the world of presentation architecture?
Robert: In general, applications for classic transactional printing with AFP are being transferred to or created in PDF directly; however, these PDF applications are still printed using AFP. In addition to transactional printing, other high value applications such as direct marketing printing continue to be strong markets. We’re seeing growth, especially in graphic arts printing more and more. These applications are increasingly using the graphic functions defined in PDF. In the end, our customers will tell us what they need to get their print production running in the best way.
Q: Speaking of customers, what are the top benefits of AFP in terms of user value?
Robert: Transactional customers, such as banks and insurance companies, using pure AFP benefit greatly from the job integrity benefits of AFP, where security and data integrity combined with high-performance printing are of the utmost importance. But the benefits of AFP extend across all industries and provide value in other ways. Graphic arts businesses using PDF might not have the same requirements around security but can also benefit greatly from AFP’s strength in error handling, such as logging of errors and progress, to secure productivity and output.
Q: How do you see the impact of AFP evolving?
Robert: Security and encryption are increasingly important, not only in terms of internet and cloud security, but also in how we encrypt customer data and put it into the workflow. As security requirements evolve, having data encrypted as long as possible in the data path of the engine is important. To support this, AFP defines encrypted objects that are transferred in an unencrypted data connection. The encrypted objects are decrypted as late as possible. Businesses are also beginning to require more customized solutions, especially in graphic arts, industrial printing, and packaging, and we have to see how AFP can play an important role here.
Q: How is AFP a uniquely competitive presentation architecture?
Robert: AFP works within the total print system, including post-processing, to bring the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ together in a seamless way, helping present information on the page effectively. This is a very strong, unique feature of AFP. As mentioned, it also contributes to better security, data integrity, and high performance—all critical requirements for printing customers. I see the role of AFP continuing to evolve alongside customer demand, as we’ve seen it historically do over time.
Q: Any other insight you’d like to provide?
Robert: Environmental sustainability is imperative, and the AFP Consortium can be a contributor here. Big picture, the AFP Consortium brings competitors and partners together to discuss alliance standards of the future with the customer value in mind. The benefits of AFP and standardization impact the whole printing industry by helping users save on labor, printing supplies, paper, and energy. This will only become more important over time, and I’m excited to be part of this journey.
