Ghent, Belgium - October 19, 2007 - The international Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG), which in five years has become one of the world's most respected graphic arts best practice organizations, today announces it has released new updates to its series of specifications for the use of PDF/X- 3 PLUS in popular DTP, PDF generation and PDF verification applications in the graphic arts industry. The fast growing GWG is making it easier to produce and exchange reliable digital documents throughout the publishing workflow.  The updates are now available for immediate use and downloading, at no charge, at the organization's web site: www.gwg.org
The thirteen principal Ghent PDF Workgroup specifications are built upon PDF/X-3:2002; adding restrictions and guidelines on top of what is already specified in the PDF/X standard. Being compliant with PDF/X-3, the thirteen principal specifications allow the use of ICC-tagged RGB and CMYK colors in PDF documents.
The GWG's updated PDF/X-3 Plus specifications cover the delivery and file exchange of print ready PDFs according to international standards for graphic arts and publications applications including:
- Advertising for newspapers and magazines
- Commercial Screen / LFP Printing and Offset / Digital sheet printing
- Commercial (cold set) web offset printing (newsprint), with allowance for medium resolution (100 - 300 dpi images / 550 - 1950 dpi line art)
- Commercial (heat set) web offset printing & gravure
These new specifications join recently released specifications for packaging markets (January 2007) and for large format digital printing and screen printing (February, 2007).
Says GWG Specifications Subcommittee co-chair, Peter Maes, "These latest specifications represent a collaboration of our all-volunteer group of technological leaders and experts who have worked hard to identify, specify and test the GWG specifications and best practice recommendations -- all in a very accelerated time frame.  Our goal is to continually offer the industry up to date, free and practical tools for creating more reliable publishing workflows."
The specifications were developed by a cross section of representatives from the GWG's 40+ member groups, including many international user associations and premier vendors of graphic arts solutions and tools. Educational institutions and, most recently, publishing companies, have also begun joining the ranks of GWG members. The newest include Hearst, Quebecor World, Sanoma Magazines, and BVDM, The German Printing and Media Industries Federation.
The 2007 specifications are an upgrade from the last comprehensive specifications released in 2004, with renewed PDF/X-3-specific specifications, and a series of additional checks including RGB / ICC workflow specific recommendations. For a detailed list of these additional checks see attached addendum.
Download free GWG specifications, test suites, whitepapers and more at: www.gwg.org