Subject: IPP> IPP Press Release, Draft 1.06

From: Don Wright <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Apr 97 20:38:05 EDT

I have completed the changes discussed on today's conference
call.  I have posted the .DOC and .PDF version on the server
as well as the .TXT version.  The .PDF and .DOC versions more
accurately reflect the appearance of the release.  The files
are:

ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/press-releases/press6.doc
ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/press-releases/press6.pdf
ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/press-releases/press6.txt

In order to keep this process from going on forever, I must
limit changes to:

1) Gross factual errors
2) Spelling or grammatical errors
3) Removal or addition of a company name

Don

++++

Press Release Draft

Version 1.06
April 23, 1997

Major Companies Unite to Deliver Internet Printing Standard

IETF Creates an Internet Printing Protocol Working Group to Deliver New Open 
Standard

The Printer Working Group, a coalition of  key worldwide printer and print 
server 
vendors, today announced a major effort to establish standards that will make 
printing on 
the Internet easier and more productive.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has chartered the Internet Printing 
Protocol 
Working Group with the creation of a single standard interface for printing on 
the 
Internet. Built on existing Internet technologies, the Internet Printing 
Protocol, or 
IPP, will be quickly deployed to provide easy to use printing interfaces across 
a 
broad range of printing systems and operating systems which will inter-operate 
using the protocol.

"Just as there exists a standard protocol for browsing documents on the World 
Wide Web, 
it is critical that key printing industry players implement a standard protocol 
for 
submitting documents over the Internet to remote printers.  With active 
participation 
by major printer, browser, and networking companies, the IPP Working Group is 
on a fast 
track to provide such a solution," said Charles LeCompte, President, Lyra 
Research Inc.

Currently, there is no standard for Internet print job submission and in order 
to meet a 
wide variety of customer printing needs,  printer vendors today must support a 
number of 
different protocols and variants. There is a need for a single protocol which 
can cover 
the most common requirements for printing on the Internet and intranets, 
including 
locating a printer and viewing its status and capabilities, as well as 
submitting, 
monitoring and canceling a print job.

"This new working group will define a new industry-standard print submission 
and control 
protocol allowing end users to submit and control print jobs over the Internet 
and across 
enterprise intranets," said Don Wright, Chair of the Printer Working Group and 
Lexmark 
International's Manager of Strategic Alliances.  "We are fortunate to have all 
the major 
printing companies participating in this effort including Adobe, Canon, 
Dataproducts, 
Dazel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Kyocera, Lexmark, Microsoft, Netscape, 
Novell, 
Osicom/DPI, QMS, Ricoh, SDSU/Start Tech, Sharp, Sun, Tektronix, TrueSpectra, 
Underscore and Xerox."

The Internet Printing Protocol is expected to be a client/server protocol that 
allows the 
server to be either a separate print server or a printer with embedded 
networking and 
server capabilities. The focus of this effort is optimized for printers, but it 
could 
also be applied to other output devices

The following examples illustrate some of the capabilities made possible by 
widespread 
deployment of the protocol:

 + A business analyst wants to print another company's financial report, stored 
on 
a public WEB server, on a shared departmental printer. The analyst locates a 
suitable printer using a web browser and then submits the print request to the 
printing system by providing the URL of the document. The document is 
retrieved and printed by the printing system which then notifies the researcher.

+ An independent insurance agent wants to print a copy of a report on a public 
printer at the home office of one of the insurance companies that she 
represents. She then chooses print from her application's file menu, and enters 
the URL of the home office's public printer.  The request is transmitted to the 
printing system in the home office and printed.

IPP will provide a cost-effective and reliable way to print documents such as 
reports, 
invoices, schedules, and forms to remote printers which today are often sent 
over long-
distance telephone lines using fax.

"Users will be able to print to printers anywhere within their organization, 
independent 
of locations, and can just as easily send print jobs to customers, partners 
etc. without 
the need to use e-mail or other distribution methods before documents are 
printed," said 
Carl-Uno Manros, co-chair of the IPP working group and Principal Engineer with 
Xerox 
Corporation.

"We are building upon the long, successful experiences of this group developing 
printing 
job submission and management standards," added Steve Zilles, co-chair of the 
IPP 
working group and Manager of Standards for Adobe.

History of the IPP Working Group

Chartered by the PWG, the Internet Printing Protocol working group was formed 
in 
November 1996 and began developing the necessary standards for print job 
submission 
and monitoring for the Internet based on early submissions by IBM, Novell and 
Xerox.

After a successful "Birds of a Feather" session at the December 1996 IETF 
meeting in San 
Jose, CA, this group was also chartered by the IETF on March 6, 1997.   The PWG 
earlier 
developed the SNMP Printer MIB (RFC1759) and is currently working on a Job 
Monitoring MIB; both are IETF projects.  Representatives from Adobe, IBM, 
Lexmark, 
Novell, Sun, and Xerox act as chairs, authors, and editors for the IPP 
project.  Internet 
drafts covering requirements, model and semantics, directory schema, security, 
and the 
protocol have been submitted to the IETF and will continue to be revised and 
become 
Request for Comments (RFCs).  The first formal meeting of the IPP working group 
at an 
IETF meeting was held in Memphis, TN on April 8, 1997.

How to get involved

The IPP Working Group is open to any company or individual interested in 
developing 
new standards for Internet printing.  The group meets regularly in person and 
on telephone 
conference calls.  More information about the group and specific technical deta
ils are 
available over the Internet in the following ways:

General Discussion e-mail distribution list: [email-masked]
To Subscribe to the e-mail distribution list: [email-masked]
Archive: ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/
Web-site: http://www.pwg.org/ipp

About the IETF

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large international community 
of 
network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the 
evolution of 
the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open 
to any 
interested individual. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its 
working 
groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (e.g. routing, network 
management, 
security, etc.). Further information about the IETF can be accessed on the 
World Wide 
Web at http://www.ietf.org.

###

Press Inquiries:

PWG Chair:    Don Wright, Lexmark International, 606-232-4808
IPP Chairs:  Carl-Uno Manros, Xerox Corporation, 310-333-8273
               Steve Zilles, Adobe Inc., 408-536-4766

*************************************************************
* Don Wright ([email-masked])        Lexmark International *
* Manager                               Strategic Alliances *
* 740 New Circle Rd                     Phone: 606-232-4808 *
* Lexington, KY  40511                    Fax: 606-232-6740 *
*************************************************************