The Ghent PDF Workgroup, the fast growing international organisation building best practices for publishing workflows, convened in Ghent PDF Workgroup Summits In Amsterdam 19Dec06

• New members, record number of observers
• Packaging specifications released
• GWG discussion group launched
• 2007 planning

The Ghent PDF Workgroup, the fast growing international organisation building best practices for publishing workflows, convened in Amsterdam during November for its quarterly summit. Attending the GWG quarterly summit, a record number of new observers demonstrated continued interest in the 4-year-old organisation. There are now 39 members of the Ghent PDF Workgroup. The new observers include Eiichi Kaneko representing PDF/X-Plus J from Japan, Frans Van Hellemont from Xerox Belgium, Dan Caldwell from ICS, and Tom Beckenham from Specle Pty Ltd UK.

Members representing 39 associations, suppliers, printers, prepress organisations, ad agencies and corporations met to advance PDF standards for easy creation, processing, and international intra-company exchange of graphic arts files for numerous applications. The free, downloadable GWG PDF specifications, which are easily integrated into PDF workflows, are available at www.gwg.org.

Ongoing work and plans for 2007 were also discussed in Amsterdam. Key topics discussed include:

• New members HP and GMG
• New observers
• New subcommittee: compliance testing
• Availability of four new specifications in 2005 v3 set — very high resolution (no    downsampling); digital printing; screen printing; and wide format.
• Launch of user forum (subscription available under “discussion forum” on GWG website)
• Availability of new packaging specifications V2
• Preparation of new Output Suite version 2; launch scheduled for mid-December 2006.
• Preparation of first Office Document specifications, to be launched between December 2006 and January 2007.

The group met together and also in subcommittees, each of which was responsible for advancing best practices and standards to accommodate the unique needs of various markets and applications. There is also an overall “specifications” subcommittee, responsible for updates and testing of the core GWG specification, that is the basis on which application-specific specifications are built and tested by “real world” sites for the GWG.

As we have written earlier, the Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) was formed in June 2002. It is an international assembly of industry associations and suppliers from across Europe, the United States and now Japan. The GWG's objective is to establish and disseminate process specifications for best practices in graphic arts workflows.