November 18, 2004 -- The ANSI-accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards has played a vital role in the development of the PDF/X family of international standards. The work within CGATS began with the issuance of CGATS.12-1:1999, Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Use of PDF for composite data — Part 1: Complete exchange (PDF/X-1). That work was later forwarded to the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 130 (Graphic Technology) for development as an International Standard, and was followed by the issuance of additional standards in the series, which were last updated in 2003 to use PDF 1.4. The CGATS Subcommittee 6 Task Force 1 (CGATS SC6 TF1) will meet in Tampa, Florida, February 7-9, 2005 to begin work on a proposal to develop new versions of the PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-2 and PDF/X-3 standards for submission as part of additional standards in the ISO 15930 series. It is expected that the new versions proposed will be based on PDF 1.5. Proposed updates to the ISO standards will be presented to ISO TC 130 Working Group 2 Task Force 2, the committee responsible for the development of the ISO standards, for consideration at their meeting in May 2005. Martin Bailey, Senior Technical Consultant at Global Graphics, and Chair of both CGATS SC6 TF1 and ISO TC 130 WG 2 TF 2 stated: "The popularity of PDF/X for file exchange is increasing rapidly as its effectiveness in reducing errors in prepress and the pressroom becomes more widely understood. Design programs don't sit still, however, and we must ensure that the standards move forward as well, to enable the use of new features in those programs where that can be done predictably and reliably." To facilitate informal discussion of related issues among members of the CGATS and ISO committees involved, an e-mail listserve has been created by the committee chairman for informal discussion of any issues related to these standards. The listserve is open to others, who have an interest in participating in these informal discussions. It would be especially helpful to have knowledgeable users participate in the discussion. The listserve can be accessed at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/pdfx_revision. Membership on CGATS is open to anyone having an interest in the work and increased involvement of the user community is being sought to help ensure that the standards meet their needs. Applications for CGATS membership or membership on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (which administers the U.S. involvement in the standards work in graphic technology at the ISO level) are available from the NPES Standards Workroom at http://www.npes.org/standards/workroom.html. For more information, or to participate in this work, contact Mary Abbott at 703/264-7229 or [email protected].