Global Graphics CTO voorzitter nieuwe ISO werkgroep voor een gestandaardiseerde idee-tot-afdruk PDF-workflow

          Global Graphics CTO Martin Bailey

De ISO organisatie heeft al veel grafische deelprocessen genormaliseerd en van internationaal erkende standaards voorzien. Nu wil de organisatie, gesteund door rip- en workflowfabrikant Global Graphics (bekend van de Harlequin RIP) het hele proces van idee tot afdruk standaardiseren. De ISO TC130/WG2/TF5 werkgroep heeft als taak om een PDF workflow op te zetten waarin het eindresultaat, onafhankelijk van de afdruktechniek, voorspelbaar en gestandaardiseerd is. Lees meer over deze zeer ambitieuze doelstelling in het onderstaande persbericht.

Global Graphics chairs new ISO task force for PDF workflow

A new ISO task force has set to work on producing a PDF standard to guide production workflow decisions and will make it possible to describe what a final printed piece is supposed to look like.   

The new task force is being chaired by Global Graphics’ CTO Martin Bailey and has been formed in response to requests from transactional printers to be able to include media selections and simplex/duplex controls in a PDF file. 

When the PDF/VT Competence Center in the PDF Association reviewed this request they concluded that the benefits of a suitable solution would apply across the entire printing industry, not just in variable data applications. 

Martin Bailey comments, “the new standard will enable graphic designers, file creators and buyers to describe how their final work should look without having to specify the details of the processes required to make it. The thought process is that the digital front end (DFE) on a digital press can map from that to the actual steps needed. 

“As a simple example, a request for a specific substrate should be fairly easy to map to an entry in the media library in a DFE and therefore to tray selections (on a sheet-fed press) and to installing the correct ICC color profile. In closed loop workflows such as web to print the first mapping shouldn’t be necessary at all, because the media selection will be pre-populated from the same data as the media library. 

“Our first goal is a standard for graphic arts, but there has already been discussion of following on with equivalents targeted more specifically at packaging and at wide format. If you’re interested in getting involved please contact your national standards body and tell them you want to work in ISO TC130/WG2/TF5. If you don’t know who to contact in your country, drop me a line and I’m happy to make introductions.” 

Martin Bailey can be reached on martin.bailey@globalgraphics.com