[Desktop_printing] [PDF/A] Common statements from the summit - list review

McDonald, Ira imcdonald at sharplabs.com
Thu Apr 13 18:29:29 PDT 2006


Hi,

Again, let's please be more precise.

PDF/A is a strictly conforming _subset_ of PDF/X and
is defined in ISO 19005-1 (September 2005).  PDF/A is
the first part of this newer multipart ISO standard.

PDF/X is defined in the multi-part standard ISO 15930.
Quoting from ISO's own article:

"PDF/X: A family of graphic technology standards that 
standardize the used of the Adobe PDF for eXchange of 
print-ready material.

PDF/X-1 (ISO 15930-1): Complete exchange of CMYK data.

PDF/X-2 (ISO 15930-2): Exchange of CMYK and/or colour 
managed data where some of the data required for final 
output (e.g. fonts, high resolution picture data, etc.) 
is uniquely identifed but exchanged separately from the 
main body of the data exchange.

PDF/X-3 (ISO 15930-1): Complete exchange of CMYK and/or 
colour managed data."

See the full text of this ISO article on PDF/X at:

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/Scit/ScitNe
ws/ISOBul_2002-01_PDFX.pdf


Now, at the risk of many flames, I'll say that IMHO
no amount of money or power will _ever_ make another
vendor's forthcoming "XPS" format displace the ubiquitous
use for years in the professional prepress/production
industry of PDF/X, nor the commitment of many governments
to the use of PDF/A as their normative archive format.

Cheers,
- Ira


Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI  49839
phone: +1-906-494-2434
email: imcdonald at sharplabs.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: desktop_printing-bounces at lists.osdl.org
> [mailto:desktop_printing-bounces at lists.osdl.org]On Behalf Of Bastian,
> Waldo
> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 11:40 PM
> To: Hin-Tak Leung
> Cc: desktop_printing at lists.osdl.org
> Subject: RE: [Desktop_printing] [PDF/A] Common statements from the
> summit - list review
> 
> 
> >John Cherry wrote:
> ><snipped>
> >> Print Job Data Format
> >> ---------------------
> >> We want to move to PDF (ISO xxx) as the core format for print job
> >> handling (while maintaining backwards compatibility with 
> PostScript).
> >
> >I am not aware of the full pdf spec itself being an iso 
> standard, but a
> >subset called PDF/X is ISO 15930 .
> 
> Is there also a subset called PDF/A ? That's the one that is intended.
> 
> Cheers,
> Waldo
> 
> 
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>   
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