Ghent Output Suite Allows for Workflow Effectiveness Tests

GHENT, Belgium—The Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) announced availability of the new Ghent Output Suite, designed to help professionals determine whether PDF workflows are handling PDF files as expected.

The newest series in the Ghent Output Suite version 2.0 covers the most common issues relating to PDF for print workflows and consists of eight new PDF patches resulting in a total of 19 PDF test patches in all, along with revised manuals and individual readme files for each patch. GWG has also made some minor adjustments to some of the existing patches and documentation in order to make them clearer and easier to understand.

Stephan Jaeggi, technical officer for the Ghent PDF Workgroup, cites an example of a successful Ghent Output Suite application: “The Ghent PDF Output Suite patches are being used for the test pages from PDFX-ready, the Swiss organization that supports its membership with certification. By sending in prints of the certification pages, a print shop can prove that their workflow can handle PDF/X files correctly. In a short period, 42 companies have already received a PDFX-ready Output Certification.”

The Ghent Output Suite is also designed to aid developers of applications that handle PDF files. In a recent graphic arts exhibition, Pascale Ginguené, marketing officer for GWG, conducted tests of various RIPs and proofers using the Ghent Output Suite. It was revealed that some of the solutions didn’t handle all the production scenarios correctly. Subsequently, one of the vendors whose solution was tested used the Ghent Output Suite to re-test and pinpoint potential issues, and consequently modify its workflow solution for the benefit of its customers.

The Test Suite is distributed as a series of PDF patches. Each patch is numbered and contains several related tests. The patches can be used on their own, but the intention of the Suite is that the patches be grouped together (as PDF files would normally be grouped together within a workflow). The reason for this is that it is likely that some problems will only appear when certain patches are processed together. It is also likely that application settings and RIP settings will have a significant effect on the results.

All the issues tested by these patches are real-world issues that can be found in a production environment; however, these patches do not reflect normal production files and the results may, in some cases, appear extreme. The patches have been carefully constructed to allow effects that are normally too subtle to be seen clearly and unambiguously; and this should be taken into account when evaluating the results of any tests based on these patches. On a technical note, all patches conform to either the PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-3 ISO standard; they do not always conform to the Ghent PDF Workgroup specifications.

It is likely that this Suite will be updated, new patches will be added, and existing patches will be revised. For this reason the documentation for each individual patch is distributed along with the patch.

Eight New Ghent Output Patches
The following new patches have been added in version 2.0:
• Patch 1.1—Overprint Mode
• Patch 3.1—Gray Image Overprint
• Patch 5.1—Subset Font Substitution
• Patch 5.2—Subset Font Substitution
• Patch 8.1—DeviceN support 5 color
• Patch 8.2—DeviceN support 4 color
• Patch 12.0—White overprint & knock-out
• Patch 12.1—Black overprint & knock-out