Quark Joins Ghent PDF Workgroup to Improve Publishing Workflows Around the World
Quark Inc. today announced its membership in the Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG), an international assembly of graphic arts professionals established to create, test, and disseminate best practices and specifications for publishing workflows.
“Ghent PDF Workgroup has done an excellent job in creating PDF output specifications for real-world production environments. The significant level of real user involvement in Ghent PDF Workgroup is the reason Quark joined. We’re dedicated to supporting industry open standards that are important to our customer,” said Jürgen Kurz, senior vice president of product development. “As an active member of the Ghent PDF Workgroup, we look forward to communicating with representatives of the global graphic arts community – not only about today’s specifications, but also about future standards and practices that will shape the graphic arts workflows of the future.”
Quark is key addition to vendor member roster
Saskia Desmet, GWG executive director, said that Quark’s membership in the GWG is critical and highly appreciated. “Quark is an integral part of the publishing landscape, and no publishing consortium is complete without its participation,” she says. “Quark’s valuable input, representing its years of experience and the interests of vast numbers of PDF publishers, arms the GWG with tremendously helpful, relevant data for the world’s PDF community.”
As a result of Quark’s anticipated contributions, GWG will be able to develop more comprehensive specifications and best practice guidelines – and all more rapidly.
GWG opened membership to solution vendors in April 2004, and many prominent organizations have joined since that time.
What are GWG specifications?
In the world of GWG, a specification is a set of guidelines to which a PDF file should conform. A practical example of a guideline could be the color spaces allowed in a PDF file or the image resolution required for images in a PDF file.
GWG defines a number of different specifications. Multiple specifications exist to support different market segments, different output processes, or different workflows. As a practical example, a magazine advertisement workflow will have totally different guidelines than a newspaper workflow. Enhancing the existing (ISO PDF/X) standards with practical, vertical market specifications and best practices allows for more secure and productive digital workflows.
GWG comprises user representatives and vendors, who share ideas and test methods for the most practical, accurate, and convenient exchange of print-ready files between creators and producers of print.
About Quark
Quark Inc. (www.quark.com) is a leading developer of tools and technologies for collaborative content workflows from the desktop to the enterprise. Quark has been providing award-winning software for professional publishers since its flagship product QuarkXPress changed the course of traditional publishing. Today, as Quark software is used by millions of customers around the world, the company is guiding the creation of vital open standards to promote productivity and interoperability throughout the industry. With a new generation of products and solutions, Quark is helping its customers create, manage, personalize, and distribute content to a variety of media formats and devices at low cost. Founded in 1981, Denver-based Quark Inc. is privately held.
About the Ghent PDF Workgroup
The Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG), formed in June 2002, is an international assembly of industry associations and suppliers from across Europe and the United States.
The GWG’s objective is to establish and disseminate process specifications for best practices in graphic arts workflows.
Members comprise graphic arts associations in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, The United Kingdom and the United States, as well as observer-status organizations from Sweden, Norway and Germany. Vendor members are to date: Adobe, Agfa, Apago, Artwork Systems, Creo, Enfocus Software, Esko Graphics, Global Graphics, Heidelberg, pub-specs, Quark and Screen.
For more information about the GWG, its members and objectives, visit (www.ghentpdfworkgroup.org).
