Cambridge, UK and Centreville US; 2 March, 2005 – Global Graphics, the technology experts for open document and print solutions, has made plug-ins to create PDF/X compliant files available as standard with the latest version of its award-winning application Jaws PDF Creator, following close cooperation with Ifra, the world’s leading association for newspaper and media publishing and the European Color Initiative. Ifra and ECI standard ICC profiles, (compliant with ISO 12647) are used to support the creation of PDF/X files via plug-ins offered as a standard feature for Jaws PDF Creator Version 3.6, giving extended functionality to pre-press and print users. “We've worked with both Ifra and ECI to ensure that their standard profiles can be distributed with commercial software, because we want to proactively support open standards”, says Martin Bailey, Global Graphics’ senior technical consultant. “We feel that the best way to assist most people in the print industry is to ensure consistent and predictable processing, combined with the flexibility for expert users to apply alternative profiles if they need to.” PDF/X is a robust subset of the PDF specification designed to enable reliable transmission of files from one print location to another. Jaws PDF Creator Version 3.6 can be used to make files conforming to the PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/X-3:2002 standards. In addition to working closely with Ifra and ECI, Global Graphics has also worked with GretagMacbeth, creators of the ProfileMaker software, and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, creators of the Prinect Profile Toolbox, to enable full support of industry standard print characterizations with the PDF/X plug-ins. The most widely used of the hierarchy of ISO color standards to date are those addressing newsprint and commercial print. Ifra has produced colorimetric versions of the ISO newsprint standards having measured the results of printing sets of test patches and sample jobs to standard conditions for newsprint. Besides entering these in the ICC print characterization registry, they have also produced representative ICC color profiles. In commercial print FOGRA has made the same kind of test prints, from which they’ve generated standardized print characterizations and entered the results in the ICC print characterization registry. In this instance it is ECI that has generated the representative profiles. Manfred Werfel, research director and deputy CEO at Ifra, comments, ”Ifra has been supporting the development and implementation of an international newspaper printing standard since the beginning of the nineties. We are happy that the ISO 12647-3 norm is gaining acceptance by all market participants. Our standard color printing profiles are downloaded from www.Ifra.com by thousands of users worldwide and more suppliers are including the standard profiles into their software. The latest example is Global Graphics. This encourages us to continue our standardization activities in order to make newspaper printing easier and safer for advertisers and in-house reproduction.” Florian Suessl, ECI’s vice chairman adds, “We at ECI are extremely pleased to see Global Graphics supporting our work to expand awareness and use of the ECI profiles, and the underlying ISO print characterizations in this way. Standardization in process control is a quick and easy way to reduce errors and increase efficiency for the print industry." “GretagMacbeth as the leading supplier for color management solutions has a longstanding relationship with Ifra and ECI. As our industry adopts standards in the printing industry, then the customers’ color expectations will be met with more consistency. “ said Mark Geeves, vice president of business development with GretagMacbeth. "We are pleased that Ifra has chosen our ProfileMaker 5 software to ensure that their customers get the best possible color output with their latest profiles." Detlef Freyer, Product Management Prinect with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG says, "The high quality of the profiles made with our product enjoys a good reputation in the industry for a long time and we take it as a great honor and again as a confirmation of this proven quality, that the ECI has chosen our Prinect Profile Toolbox for the creation of a number of ICC profiles for offset printing standards based on ISO 12647-2." Powerful features for pre-press and print users Jaws PDF Creator excels at distilling files containing device-independent CIE-based colors used for high-end proofing and print production applications. CIE-based color spaces, such as CalGray, CalRGB, -Lab or ICC profiles, are all stored within the Jaws PDF file. The software also contains reliable font embedding, and powerful image compression capabilities. Pre-press and print users gain the range of plug-ins to support PDF/X as well as plug-ins developed by Global Graphics and approved and recommended by the Ghent PDF Workgroup. Jaws PDF Creator 3.6 supports the PDF 1.4 specification and 128-bit encryption to enable a high level of flexibility and security. Jaws PDF Creator V.3.6 gives users the full range of features previously available, including a high level of security, fast web downloads and accurate color handling, as well as closer integration with Microsoft Office with the provision of a Macro for Microsoft Excel. Easy to install, Jaws PDF Creator 3.6 lets users create PDF files by either ‘printing’ to a PDF file from within any application, or by ‘drag-and-drop’ to the Jaws PDF Creator icon on the desktop. Files produced by Jaws PDF Creator are compatible with all Adobe Acrobat products and any other PDF tools. Users can opt for three pre-defined configurations that automatically optimize the PDF file for high-resolution printing, printing to desktop printers, or web publishing. They also can define and save their own custom output configurations.