Ghent Workgroup releases new specification for digital print

The Ghent Workgroup released a new specification to cater to the growing small format digital print segment. The new specification provides standardized guidelines for PDF file creation and quality control for the segment.

March 7, 2019
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The Ghent Workgroup released a new specification to cater to the growing small format digital print segment. The new specification provides standardized guidelines for PDF file creation and quality control for the segment and has already been adopted by leading preflight vendors to enable rapid acceptance in today’s workflows.

The digital print specification is released under the umbrella of the Ghent Workgroup’s 2015 specifications, as it builds on the same principles. The specification describes the rules PDF files used for digital print should follow. Software and hardware vendors can then use the specification to fine-tune file creation and quality control in their workflows and output devices.

Due to the nature of digital print, the specification is significantly different from what is used in other segments such as offset printing or packaging. Rules focusing on overprint problems for example, have been significantly relaxed because the output devices in this market can handle those problems natively. The specification also sees relaxed image resolution checks, due to the nature of the work often printed in digital. Other requirements include PDF/X-4 compliance, basic PDF file integrity verification, ensuring overprinting white objects don’t disappear, all the way up to avoiding color shifts.