April 26 2005 – Edina, MN and Ghent, Belgium –IPA, The Association of Graphic Solutions Providers, and the Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) announce the first IPA Workflow RoundUP, designed to address critical issues faced in prepress and print production, as well as educate the industry on workflow best practices. Participating suppliers include Blanchard Systems, Screen USA, CGS Publishing, Creo Americas, EFI, Fuji Enovation, Heidelberg, and Kodak Polychrome Graphics; with many more to be announced. Leading workflow solution suppliers will process specially designed test files and targets developed by a combined GWG and IPA team of international graphic arts workflow experts. Participants will move their files through a range of products and processes representative of the entire production chain; including page layout, PDF creation, and output processing to a proof. Workflow RoundUP tests will be available for download through the IPA Website so that all industry professionals may take part in the testing process. Participating suppliers and users will bring their resulting PDF files and proofs to the IPA Technical Conference, scheduled for June 7-9 in Rosemont, IL. “Everyone wins in the workflow roundup,” says David Zwang, IPA Workflow RoundUP Team Leader and GWG vice chairman. “These results will be used to educate the industry as well as rapidly develop best practice guidelines, as necessary, for all the participating workflows. The goal is to make each workflow’s PDF files produce consistently and successfully anywhere in the world.” As such, Zwang says, supplier participants will have crucial best practice information to provide to customers. IPA Technical Conference attendees will witness analysis of common workflow challenges in the areas of ICC profile support and color management, overprints, raster/vector object handling, transparency, font handling, and more. Tests and their creators include: CMYK Overprints - Goosen Rijnders (Cebuco, Netherlands) CMYK +Spot Overprints - David Zwang (Zwang & Co. representing IPA & GWG) Grey Black and White Overprints – Peter Maes (Roularta, representing Medibel+, Belgium) & Peter Claes (Sagam NV, representing Febelgra, Belgium) Font and Character Substitution - Leonard Rosenthal (Apago Software) Gradients - Elli Cloots (Enfocus Software) Output Intents - Martin Bailey (Global Graphics Software) Device Independent - Olaf Drummer (Callas Software) Default Color Space -Andy Psarianos (FE Burman Ltd., representing PPA, UK) Font Support - Stephan Jaeggi (PrePress-Consulting, representing VSD, Switzerland) Spot to CMYK Conversion – Mike Skurski (pub-specs LLC) Embedded Profiles – Eddy Hagen (VIGC Belgium -- the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communications) IPA is accepting supplier registrations until May 14. Test files will be available for download from the IPA website for both supplier and user participants beginning May 15. For information on the Workflow RoundUP, go to http://www.ipa.org/conferences/tech2005/index-workflow.php3. To register for the IPA Technical Conference, call IPA at (800) 255-8141 or visit: http://www.ipa.org/tech.