The publication of ISO 15076-1:2005 (Image technology colour management — Architecture, profile format and data structure — Part 1:Based on ICC.1:2004-10) in late December 2005 represents a significant milestone for the international printing and publishing industry. This International Standard provides a cross-platform device profile format, and color management system architecture, defined by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Such device profiles can be used to translate color data created on one device into another device’s native color space. The acceptance of this format by operating system vendors allows end users to transparently move profiles and images with embedded profiles between different operating systems. For example, this allows a printer manufacturer to create a single profile for multiple operating systems. The ICC profile format and color management system architecture have become the cornerstone upon which much of the color proofing and process control tools used by the printing and publishing industry are based. Together they are enabling the international exchange of both advertising and content material that meets the industries expectations for consistency and color quality. In 2003 the International Color Consortium and Technical Committee 130 (Graphic Technology) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) entered into a cooperative agreement through which specifications initiated/developed by the ICC could be jointly pursued and put forward as International Standards by TC130 and the ICC. This agreement provides for simultaneous publication and distribution by both groups. This is the first International Standard developed under this agreement. The rigor and technical discipline required to meet the ISO publication requirements resulted in a much more precisely defined ICC specification. In turn, the availability of this document as an International Standard facilitates its use in many venues. In particular, as a normative reference in many of the other TC130 standards , such as the widely used family of PDF/X file exchange standards, and the newly published International Standard for variable data printing (PPML/VDX). Additional versions of the ICC Profile Specification, as well as other ICC specifications, are expected to be published in the future.