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NEWS RELEASE

Ghent Workgroup releases new specification for digital print

GHENT, BELGIUM – 6 March 2019 - The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) today releases a new

specification to cater to the growing small format digital print segment. The new

specification provides standardized guidelines for PDF file creation and quality control for

the segment and has already been adopted by leading preflight vendors to enable rapid

acceptance in today’s workflows.

“In a recent Ghent Workgroup survey, digital print was identified as a key

area missing good guidelines for the usage of PDF,” says Elli Cloots, Vice-

Chair at the Ghent Workgroup and Senior Product Marketing Manager at

EFI. The small format digital print segment is similar to traditional

commercial print, but the methodologies and equipment used are

different enough to require specific guidelines. “Having this new specification helps

significantly to improve standardization, and thus the possibility for automation, in this

growing segment,” continues Ms. Cloots.

The digital print specification is released under the umbrella of the Ghent Workgroup’s 2015

specifications, as it builds on the same principles. The specification describes the rules PDF

files used for digital print should follow. Software and hardware vendors can then use the

specification to finetune file creation and quality control in their workflows and output

devices.

Elli Cloots

www.gwg.org

Due to the nature of digital print, the specification is significantly different from what is used

in other segments such as offset printing or packaging. Rules focusing on overprint problems

for example, have been significantly relaxed because the output devices in this market can

handle those problems natively. The specification also sees relaxed image resolution checks,

due to the nature of the work often printed in digital. Other requirements remain of

paramount importance. These include PDF/X-4 compliance, basic PDF file integrity

verification, ensuring overprinting white objects don’t disappear, all the way up to avoiding

color shifts when using the wrong transparency blending color space. And of course,

companies can always add additional requirements on top of what the Ghent Workgroup

already suggests, but now there is a good set of base rules to build on.

Availability

The specification and application settings built from it, are available from the Ghent

Workgroup web site today. As is everything else created by the workgroup, they are available

for free.

To see which applications are compatible already, and download application settings, visit

the Ghent Workgroup’s application settings page: https://www.gwg.org/application-settings/

If you are interested in reading the technical specification document, this too is available for

free from the GWG site: https://www.gwg.org/digital-print-specification/

About Ghent Workgroup

The Ghent Workgroup, formed in June 2002, is an international assembly of industry

associations, suppliers, educators and industry members from around the globe. The Ghent

Workgroup’s objective is to establish and disseminate process specifications for best

practices in graphic arts workflows.

www.gwg.org

Since its inception more than fifteen years ago, the organization has consistently produced

numerous process specifications for PDF exchange, as well as developing useful tools for

automating processes and testing and establishing consistent PDFs for print and publishing –

all available free at www.gwg.org.

Members are comprised of graphic arts associations including CIP4 (Switzerland), CMBO (the

Netherlands), Febelgra (Belgium), Fespa (UK), Medibel+ (Belgium), PDFX-ready (Switzerland),

Printing Industries of America (USA), and VIGC (Belgium). Vendor members include Adobe,

Agfa, callas software, CHILI publish, DALIM Software, EFI, Enfocus, EngView Systems, Esko,

GMG, Heidelberg, HYBRID Software, Kodak, Océ, Ricoh, Quark, Ultimate Technographics, and

Xerox IMPIKA. Industry members are JP/Politikenhus, Litografia Rosés, PB-Consult,

Phototype, Pragmeta, RRD, Igepa Sagamgraphic, and agileStreams. Educational members are

Ryerson University, the University of Wuppertal, Media University Stuttgart, the University of

Ljubljana, and the University of Novi Sad.

All products and services are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners

and are hereby acknowledged.

Press contacts:

Ghent Workgroup

Cindy Van Luyck,

Carole Demeulemeester,

marketing@gwg.org

+32-471-654588