The Ghent Workgroup Releases Its Updated GWG2012 Specification

GHENT, BELGIUM—Nov. 12, 2012—The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) has released its brand-new GWG2012 specification. The last set of GWG specifications (version 4) were released in 2009. New functionalities—such as transparency and layers—now need to be addressed, and looking forward to the future, PDF/X-4 is going to be the new standard for the industry.

To support these changes, there is the need for a new set of guidelines to address functionality, requirements, and problems that were not addressed in the 2009 GWG specifications, such as use of live transparency in page layout applications. Whereas in PDF/X-1a (the basis of the 2009 GWG specifications), transparency was flattened during the creation of the PDF file, the best practice now as provided for by PDF/X-4 is that the transparency remains live within the PDF file and for that matter, throughout the workflow.

Using RIP technology for output that renders such PDFs do not perform flattening at any stage. Thus, visual artifacts, such as thin white lines or outlined text as known from flattened files, are history.

This kind of workflow change brings new problems and functionality that need to be addressed such as checking of transparency blend color spaces, hence the importance of a new reliable set of preflight checks and best practice guidelines that users can turn to when making such a change in their workflow.

In addition to new requirements, the preflight checks within the specification have also been updated with specific new checks for different industry segments. As an example, the newspaper industry asked the group for a check for single image pages, and improved checks for image resolution to better handle the many ads they receive as PDF files. Other improvements include more detailed checking on small black or white objects, such as text and lines, in-depth ink coverage checking, and more.

Early Adopters
Implementations of the specification by companies such as Enfocus, Adobe and callas have already been released, and are available in the latest versions of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro, Enfocus PitStop Pro and PitStop Server, callas pdfToolbox and callas pdfToolbox Server.

Andrew Bailes-Collins, senior product manager, Enfocus says, “These specifications are a great resource for people interested in moving from PDF/X-1a based workflows to PDF/X-4, to reap the benefits. The GWG has done all of the hard work; it’s up to the market now to embrace these standards and put them into practice.”

According to Olaf Drümmer, managing director of callas, “The new GWG2012 specifications make life in today’s production so much easier. It is essential that users have the new preflight profiles available in the software they already use. To us at callas, it was important that our products contain the new profiles immediately once GWG2012 was published.”

For more information about the GWG2012 specification and more, please visit www.gwg.org.

About GWG
The Ghent Workgroup, formed in June 2002, is an international assembly of industry associations and suppliers from across Europe and the United States. The Ghent Workgroup’s objective is to establish and disseminate process specifications for best practices in graphic arts workflows.

Source: GWG.