Ghent, Belgium – The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) has created a new landing page and published a new White Paper focusing on Packaging and Label production. This follows the recent announcement of a new ISO Standard 19593-1. The paper reviews today's trends, while the landing page includes discussion with leading players regarding the growth of the packaging sector and the upsurge in specialist and unique applications. It also reviews the development of digitization for printing and packaging technologies and processes. It focuses on GWG's work with packaging production specifications to date and the opportunities for the future of the entire packaging pre-production workflow.

The new White Paper highlights the mission and ongoing work effort of GWG and its many partners - vendors, associations, educational institutions and industry stakeholders, and discusses the implications of ISO Standard 19593-1 and the potential it has to enable change for the future of the packaging and label community. It reflects the ongoing drive to engage and collaborate with existing and new partners to develop and maintain process specifications and associated documentation for best practices in all workflows across many sectors. David Zwang, Chairman of GWG states, “This latest ISO standard is a significant step along theway and the beginning of a new era of production automation for packaging and labels.”

Offering 24/7 support, GWG’s dedicated landing page for the packaging and label community will provide easy access to specifications plus log-on links to a series of webinars. The page will also link to a variety of useful information which includes the White Paper plus a diversity of testimonials from members, vendors and users. It will also give the option for companies to get involved and join the GWG.

Some of the GWG members give their comments:

Frank Vyncke, Senior Software Engineer at Hybrid Software explains, “All suppliers today are looking at automating their workflows. It is a way to reduce costs, but automation only works if all the relevant parameters are known and, by preference, are included in the PDF file that is being processed. Communication between the prepress house and the print producer requires every essential piece of information to be brought together in one pdf file and processed in a reliable way for the automation to work. By creating all the necessary processing steps and production information in a single file - the advantages are evident. Now, with ISO 19593-1 - all the uncertainty will disappear– this will mean reliable automation, reliable reprints and better buyer-producer communication – all resulting in cost savings, less waste and faster lead times.”

Lieven Plettinck, Director of Software Engineering at Esko states,”This new ISO standard for packaging and labels nails down one particular way of doing things for everyone – it copes with all the variants – it is a global language with global benefits. We will continue to work with the GWG to reach out and encourage new members and participation and to further the use of this new ISO Standard for the benefit of the packaging and labelling sectors.

Valentin Vachkov, Product Manager at EngView Systems says, “The new ISO standard and the PDF specifications for packaging will no doubt change the day-to-day working practices for many industry professionals and transfer processing data in a unified and standardized form.”

Christian Blaise, SQUARE says, “Having one dynamic PDF will mean maximum efficiency, guaranteed reliability and easy archiving for repeat jobs. It will also maximise production levels and improve quality. Interestingly there will be a significant redeployment of staff skills as the need for manual labour declines. Being a part of the GWG is exciting – we feel we are all contributing to something fundamental that will change the future.”