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Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Updates Require New GWG Guidelines for PDF Creation from Office Applications
Thursday 06. August 2009 - To make it easier and faster to get quality results in PDFs created from Office applications, the Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) has issued new best practice process guidelines. The new guidelines were developed in response to recent changes made to Office applications and the Adobe Acrobat family of products.
The new Office Printing PDF Creator Guidelines are available for free download at: www.gwg.org/url
Says Menno Mooji, co-chairman of the GWG Office Document Printing Subcommittee and a founder of ISI Publishing Innovators, “With the software changes in Microsoft Office Service Pack 2 and Adobe Acrobat 9, new ways of creating predictable PDFs are now possible. As a result, weve released a document outlining best practices that cater to the new developments.
“The Office Document Printing Guidelines recommend a predictable PDF workflow between Office product users and print providers.”
The Guidelines cover
Image Quality & Color
Fonts
Transparency
PDF Creation Tools for Microsoft Office
Creation of PDFs from other applications (using Adobe PDF Printer and Jaws Creator), and
Considerations for processing PDFs.
All of the Guidelines have been created and tested by the GWG Office Document Printing subcommittee.
“When creating PDFs from different applications for professional printing, it is critical to maintain the integrity of the original file in order to ensure it will print exactly as intended,” Leonard Rosenthol, GWG Office Document Printing Subcommittee co-chair and PDF Standards Architect for Adobe, explains. “Different components such as images, color, fonts and more within office documents can be affected when you create or convert the document to a PDF file. It is important therefore to use proven ways to create a PDF.”
About The Office Document Printing Subcommittee
The GWG Office Document Printing subcommittee works on issues related to generating reliable print-worthy PDF documents from non-professional layout applications such as those found in popular office suites.
Current activities underway by the group include:
Creation of print ready PDF from Mac OSX Office applications.
The future use of PDF/X-4 and PDF/A-2 in creation and production as a next step in exchange of print ready PDF.
About the Ghent Workgroup
The Ghent Workgroup, formed in June 2002, is an international assembly of industry associations and suppliers from across Europe and the United States. The Ghent Workgroups objective is to establish and disseminate process specifications for best practices in graphic arts workflows.
Members are comprised of graphic arts associations including: AIDO (Spain), BPIF (UK), BVDM (Germany), CMBO (the Netherlands), DDPFF (Denmark), Digital AdLab UK, ERA (Germany), Febelgra (Belgium), FESPA (UK), FTA (USA), IDP Group (The Netherlands), IPA (USA), IdeAlliance (USA), Madrid Graphic Arts Cluster (Spain), Medibel+ (Belgium), Nederlands Uitgeversverbond/Cebuco (The Netherlands), PDFX-ready (Switzerland), PPA (UK), rotasjon (Norway), TAGA Italia (Italy), UNIC (France), VFG (Austria), VIGC (Belgium), and VSD (Switzerland).
Vendor members are: Adobe, Adstream, Agfa, Callas, CGS, Dalim Software, Enfocus, EskoArtwork, Global Graphics, GMG Color, ICS, Kodak, OneVision, Quark, Screen Europe, and Specle.
Industry members are: Associated Newspapers, Bleuprocess, Four Pees, Hearst Publishing, Medit Consult, Phototype, QuebecorWorld , Sanoma Magazines Belgium, UNIC, Square, and University of Wuppertal.