2004 – JDF, chem-free CtP & tabloid

Most press reports describe the 2004 drupa show as the ‘JDF-drupa‘. Even though the newly released JDF 1.2 specs are the first that can be considered ‘mature’ and a ‘JDF Now’ campaign is launched to promote its use, actual JDF usage is still limited to a few early adopters.

JDF logo

Punch International acquires basysPrint, whose UV-Setter family of CtP systems uses conventional printing plates which are cheaper that digital printing plates. This is called CtCP or computer-to-conventional-plate.

basysprint UV-Setter 710

Presstek, specialists in process-free CtP technology, acquires ABDick.

Agfa introduces :Azura, its first chemistry-free CtP plate. The company also acquires inkjet press developer Dotrix, the Italian plate manufacturer Lastra and ProImage, an Israeli software company that focusses on newspaper workflow systems.

Tigerlily (Pantone 17-1456) is the color of the year.

After using the broadsheet paper format for 216 years, The Times switches to the shorter and narrower tabloid format. It is one of the many newspapers to go for this more convenient format.

YouSendIt Inc. is founded. The company creates one of the first cloud-based file exchange services. It is used a lot for delivering print ready files to printers. In 2013 the company is rebranded as Hightail, to represent its move beyond file sharing and into file collaboration services.

Canada’s 20-dollar note is the IBNS banknote of the year.

Canada 20 dollar bill

If the typeface below looks familiar, that is not surprising. Calibri, designed by Lucas de Groot, is the default typeface in many Microsoft Office applications.

Calibri typeface example


These are some important or remarkable events from 2004:

  • Nearly 200 people die in the Madrid train bombings.
  • An undersea earthquake causes an enormous tsunami that devastates Asia.
  • SpaceShipOne is the first privately developed aircraft that completes a spaceflight.
  • The Summer Olympics take place in Athens, Greece.
  • Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, dies.

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