Cambridge, UK and Centreville, VA: July 3, 2007: Global Graphics’ chief technology officer Martin Bailey has been appointed by standards development body Ecma International to chair a new technical committee that will work on producing a formal industry standard for the XML Paper Specification (XPS), the new print and document format introduced by Microsoft with Windows Vista.
The Technical Committee 46 (TC 46) was created at the Ecma International General Assembly on 28 June.  Ecma states that the aim of TC46 is to “provide a standard, secure and highly trustworthy format that enables a wide set of applications, devices, tools and platforms to implement compatible paginated-document workflows.” 
Martin Bailey comments, “We’re taking a specification that’s very new but already has a large potential user base, and feeding that into an open standards process. That’s an unusual opportunity to gain the best of both worlds: the speed of development by a single vendor, combined with the mandate to address the broad base of user requirements that a standards body brings.”
Bailey is chief technology officer at Global Graphics where he specifies and designs many aspects of Global Graphics’ industry-leading printing and document technology which extends across several page description languages including PostScript, PDF and XPS.   Recently awarded a CIP4 Fellowship for his contribution to the development of the Job Definition Format, he is active in representing Global Graphics on a number of industry bodies and standards committees including chairing CGATS and chairing the ANSI/CGATS SC6 Task Force 1 and ISO TC130 WG2 TF2 which develop PDF/X.  He is also involved in standards work relating to variable data printing and reliable print workflows.
Global Graphics has played a prominent role in the development and launch of the XPS specification from the very start.  A recognized expert in interpreting, rendering and converting PDLs, Global Graphics’ leading edge expertise and engineering capability were factors in the Company being chosen by Microsoft in 2003 to provide consultation services on the XPS specification as well as develop a prototype and a print reference XPS RIP for Microsoft.
Global Graphics maintains that lead today by offering the most extensive range of high performance XPS RIPs and XPS file conversion tools on the market.  These products include XPS RIPs to drive consumer print devices, corporate printers and MFPs as well as production digital presses and prepress equipment; and a comprehensive conversion library to convert between XPS and other page description languages including PostScript, PCL, and PDF for use in printer drivers, print workflows, and a wide range of non-print applications and services.
Founded in 1961 and based in Geneva, Ecma develops standards for Information and Communication Technology and Consumer electronics for submission to international standards organizations such as ISO.