I am sitting here right now in the Adobe Headquarters in San Jose. This is the first time the Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG) (www.gwg.org) has met this side of the States. This little group which started in Ghent Belgium is now truly becoming global.
For those that don't know, GWG is formed of the worlds industry experts in print production. There's a group of around 40-50 people representing markets around the world and major vendors as well that dedicate a load of their time free of charge to trying to solve complex communication problems in print. We then come up with recommendations and specifications for market specific versions of PDF/X, and XML ad tickets. Basically we try to save the industry a load of time and effort in research to make print as simple as possible.
I was excited this morning to present the GWG Job Ticket subcommittee meeting. We created the Job Ticket as an XML based format to replace the common practice of "encoding" information into file names. We've had a lot of success with this format recently. Specle has been involved for the last 2 years in this. We had a significant interest in finding a way to "address" information in a database (namely Specle). SpecleCreate is designed around it.
We've now got a load of support from the US and in the UK for this format and it now looks like there's a good chance that publishers will start requiring the fields in the GWG Ad Ticket be communicated to them either through XMP or ad portal.
We're now heading out. What many people don't know about the GWG, is that although its formed of the most highly informed, and seriously technical people - defining standards all over the world for how print and ads are prepared - they are also one of the biggest bunch of party animals you've ever met! A really fun group.
The Thursday night of the GWG meetings has become a bit of a ritual. Can hardly wait.
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