We first looked at some of the challenges of using a ‘standardized’ PDF format for packaging production in this article. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in the adoption of PDF, albeit in more proprietary workflows for packaging production. However, as we found, this hasn’t held back implementation since this increased adoption facilitates the automation and optimization of packaging design and production workflows.

While a ‘standardized’ PDF file format to support the unique needs of packaging is still not here, we are now much closer to the realization of that goal. With the release of PDF 2.0, also known as ISO 32000-2:2017, the first significant update since 2008, we are further along on the path to a standardized solution. PDF 2.0 is on its way to implementation in DFE workflows, and you should start to see it in product upgrades throughout 2018. In addition to many other newly added features in PDF 2.0, there is support for CxF/X-4 (ISO 17972-4), which allows spectral color values to travel along with the PDF file. In further complement to that, the development of iccMAX (ISO 20677), which is currently in draft, will provide a way to support the standardized use of extended gamut, spectral values and non CMYK colors in images, amongst other valuable features that support packaging design and production requirements. 

The recently published ‘Processing Steps for Packaging and Labels’ Part 1 (ISO 19593-1) provides a way to include processing steps beyond design content in the PDF file. Using Optional Content Groups (OCGs), or what most think of as layers in a PDF file, you will be able to include finishing and other processing information in the PDF file as well. The GWG (Ghent PDF Workgroup) is working on further extension of this standard, along with new ways to use the optional content structure to support other workflow requirements. One of the final pieces of this new standardized workflow structure will be the introduction of PDF/X-6 (ISO 15930-9), still in development, which will tie all of this together in a file for reliable, standardized packaging print production. It is anticipated that PDF/X-6 will publish sometime in 2019, and then brands will be able to have their special colors used in packaging design and production workflows in a standardized and non-proprietary way.