The Ghent Workgroup Issues Important Updates to Printers, Print Suppliers in Advance of GRAPH EXPO

GHENT, Belgium—September 11, 2015—The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) Chairman David Zwang made three announcements, including news that workflow applications from Kodak and DALIM have met all criteria for compliance with the current GWG Specifications for PDF preflight. The organization also revealed a GWG label that can be used to identify compliant preflight products that support GWG Specifications. The third piece of news was Zwang's announcement that the GWG will increase the number of non-member observers authorized to attend the next GWG meeting, scheduled for Oct. 14-16 in San Jose, California.

Zwang said that GWG executive officers agreed that it would be sensible to issue these announcements in advance of the industry's busy fall season. "It's show season starting this week with GRAPH EXPO, and going all the way through drupa next May," he said. "People have a few more dollars and a lot more information than they did four years ago, and they will be investigating their best choices for optimizing or expanding their operations."

Zwang further explains that insuring predictable, consistent performance and reliability of a print producer's foundation technology (i.e., servers, backbone software, printers)—is critical to do before adding more variables.

The GWG Specifications are built to deliver the most precise PDF preflight possible for individual market segments. GWG experts build test suites and optimize settings for best results during PDF exchange and production.

Compliance With GWG Specifications
DALIM ES 4.5+, DALIM TWIST 7.5+ and Kodak Prinergy 7+ solutions join applications including callas pdfToolbox and Enfocus Pitstop products as being compliant with the latest GWG Specifications. This means that customers of these products can ensure the performance of PDF files that are processed using the aforementioned workflows, as well.

The mission of the Compliance Testing Subcommittee is to develop and maintain test files for validation of preflight applications against one or more of the GWG Specifications. The Compliance Testing Subcommittee is in regular contact with PDF preflight or workflow vendors (as part of their testing), helping to ensure that new GWG Specifications are implemented and supported as quickly and accurately as possible by the different vendors in the field.

In addition, the subcommittee maintains a list of GWG compliant (preflight) applications and ensures that proper Application Settings are available in the Download Application Settings section of the GWG website.

GWG Specifications Compliance Certificate And Label
The GWG has established a logo to be used on certificates, labels, and badges, so that visual identification of preflight products that are GWG Specifications-compliant is now possible. Although there is no profit associated with the GWG's work product, the organization has found that both suppliers of compliant preflight products, as well as pre-production houses and printers, would benefit from branding GWG Specifications compliancy.

The GWG will continue to educate industry professionals regarding its work and the critical difference compliance makes to business' bottom line. By using the new logo, the GWG will help drive customers and end-users to suppliers that are compliant.

The GWG Invites Non-Member Observers To Oct. 14-16 Meeting in San Jose
The next meeting of the GWG will be held in San Jose, California from Oct. 14-16, and hosted by Adobe. Non-members interested in attending as observers should contact Carole Demeulemeester. GWG has raised non-member/observer limit to 15 for the San Jose-based meeting.

The GWG holds three meetings a year in various, international locations, where members freely discuss current industry trends and issues. Several free seminars are also held throughout the year, and members can participate as attendees or presenters.

Since its inception, the GWG has successfully produced and made available free, by download, specifications for the use of PDF and PDF/X-PLUS in a variety of vertical graphic arts segment applications. Members also have access to the Ghent Output Suite, widely used to test the ability of workflows to correctly handle PDF files in production.

The GWG also publishes white papers and instructional documents to help the industry understand many of the issues that affect graphic arts production. Members receive priority access to all GWG products, including specifications, Ghent Output Suite, GWG white papers and other educational materials or presentations. The industry at-large has free access to all final versions of these products.

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

Since its inception over ten years ago, the organization has consistently produced numerous process specifications for PDF exchange, as well as developed useful tools for automating processes and establishing consistent PDFs for print and publishing, available for free online.

Members are comprised of graphic arts associations including: BPIF (UK), CIP4 [Switzerland], CMBO (the Netherlands), ERA (Germany), Febelgra (Belgium), FESPA (U.K.), FTA (U.S.A.), Medibel+ (Belgium), PDFX-ready (Switzerland), Printing Industries of America (U.S.A.), rotasjon.no (Norway), TAGA Italia (Italy), UNIC (France), VIGC (Belgium), and VSD (Switzerland).

Vendor members include: Adobe, Agfa, callas software, Dalim Software, EFI, Enfocus, Esko, GMG, Heidelberg, Xerox IMPIKA, Kodak, Océ and Quark.

Industry members are: JP/Politikenhus, Litografia Rosés, PB-Consult, Phototype, Pragmeta, Sagamgraphics, Sanoma Media Belgium and Square. Educational members are: Ryerson University and University of Wuppertal.

Source: Ghent Workgroup.