GWG2015-Specification Release
GWG2015-Specification Release
GWG2015-Specification Release
Ghent Workgroup
PDF Specification
Official name: GWG2015
Based on PDF/X-4:2010
Variant family: Heatset and Coldset Printing
[email protected]
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Goal of this document ................................................................................... 4
1.2 How to use this document .............................................................................. 4
1.3 Compliancy .................................................................................................. 4
2 Notations ....................................................................................................... 5
3 Terms and Definitions ...................................................................................... 6
3.1 Print elements .............................................................................................. 6
3.2 Print content ................................................................................................ 6
3.3 Path elements .............................................................................................. 6
3.4 Text elements .............................................................................................. 6
3.5 Image elements ........................................................................................... 6
3.6 Bits per sample ............................................................................................ 6
3.7 1-Bit Image element ..................................................................................... 6
3.8 Continuous-Tone Image element .................................................................... 6
3.9 Image Mask element ..................................................................................... 6
3.10 White objects ............................................................................................... 7
3.11 100% Black objects ...................................................................................... 7
3.12 Effective line width........................................................................................ 7
3.13 Effective image resolution .............................................................................. 7
3.14 Effective font size ......................................................................................... 7
3.15 Comparing for equal numeric values ................................................................ 8
3.16 Checking of optional content .......................................................................... 8
4 Requirements ................................................................................................. 9
4.1 ISO Compliancy ............................................................................................ 9
4.2 Page Scaling ................................................................................................ 9
4.3 Crop Box ..................................................................................................... 9
4.4 Page Size and Orientation .............................................................................. 9
4.5 Empty Pages ................................................................................................ 9
4.6 Number of Pages .......................................................................................... 9
4.7 Overprint Grayscale ...................................................................................... 9
4.8 Overprint White Text ..................................................................................... 9
4.9 Overprint White Paths ................................................................................. 10
4.10 Overprint 100% Black Text .......................................................................... 10
4.11 Overprint 100% Black Text defined in DeviceGray ........................................... 10
4.12 Overprint Thin 100% Black Line .................................................................... 10
4.13 Overprint Thin 100% Black Line defined in DeviceGray .................................... 10
4.14 Font Courier ............................................................................................... 10
4.15 Rich Black Text ........................................................................................... 10
4.16 Small Text ................................................................................................. 10
4.17 Effective Line Width .................................................................................... 11
4.18 Use of Spot Colors ...................................................................................... 11
Ghent Workgroup Specifications – GWG2015
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1 Introduction
1.1 Goal of this document
This document describes the requirements that a PDF must comply with to follow the
GWG2015 specification.
The GWG2015 specification is a specification built upon current ISO standards (PDF/X-4)
but adds a number of specific requirements for different market segments. Each set of
requirements that are specific to a market segment is called a “Variant”.
1.3 Compliancy
A PDF file that meets all requirements listed for a specific variant in Section 5 shall be
considered to be conforming to that variant. When talking about conformance, the
variant family and the variant name shall be specified.
Example: This PDF complies to GWG2015_CMYK – GWG_MagazineAds_2015
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2 Notations
PDF operators, PDF keywords, the names of keys in PDF dictionaries, and other
predefined names are written in a bold sans serif type font; for example, the key
Trapped.
Operands of PDF operators or values of dictionary keys are written in an italic sans serif
font; for example the False value for the Trapped key.
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Example: 2 text elements with a point size of 5.45 (rounded to 5.5) and 5.44 (rounded
to 5.4) are defined as 'not equal'. But 2 text elements with a point size of 5.45 (rounded
to 5.5) and 5.54 (rounded to 5.5) are defined as 'equal'.
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4 Requirements
Note: Only requirements defined in the list for a given variant have to be met.
Note 1: The other requirements of this document never discard any of the requirements
of the applicable PDF/X standard, rather to the contrary: a valid PDF file shall always
comply with all of the PDF/X requirements and shall in addition also comply with the
GWG requirements for the respective Variant.
Example: compression using LZW is not allowed even if it is not explicitly mentioned in
this document since it is prohibited by PDF/X.
Note 2: It is a common understanding that XMP validation on a PDF/X-4 file is only done
on document level XMP and not XMP present elsewhere in the PDF file, e.g. for a single
image object.
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with more than 1 colorant having a value greater than 0.0 as specified in the table of a
specific Variant.
Note: The text font size is expressed in points, which is equivalent to units in PDF user
space.
1) The name object(s) contained in the second element of the Separation or DeviceN
colorspace array shall be interpreted (after expansion of NUMBER SIGN sequences, if
any) as a UTF-8 string.
2) The string shall be tokenized into three components - a prefix, a number, and a suffix.
The number being a sequential set of values from 30h (DIGIT ZERO) through 39h (DIGIT
NINE), with prefix defined as any characters preceding it and the suffix as any characters
following.
If the color component name for a spot color does not contain at least one digit, this
requirement shall not apply at all for this color component name.
If the PDF file contains two or more color component names for spot colors with the
exact same name, this requirement shall not apply at all for these color component
names.
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Additionally, print content shall not use the following color space as an intended color
space:
• Lab
Print content elements that are not image elements or that are image mask elements,
shall not use any of the following color spaces as an intended color space:
• DeviceRGB
• CalRGB
• CalGray
• ICCbased (i.e. ICC based grayscale, RGB, Lab and CMYK color spaces)
• Lab
Additionally, print content elements shall not use the following color space as an alternate
color space:
• DeviceRGB
• ICCbasedGray
• CalGray
• ICCbasedCMYK
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DeviceGray
DeviceRGB
DeviceCYMK
CalGray
CalRGB
ICC based gray
ICC based RGB
ICC based CMYK
ICC based Lab
Lab
Separation - CMYK process colorants
(Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black)
Separation - CMYK spot colorants
(anything except Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black/None/All)
Separation - CMYK special colorants
(None/All)
DeviceN
Pattern
Indexed
!*!( ,)()&)+,*!,.,! 2-#$,)&)+,*!
()-&&)0! 2,2(-1
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5 Variants
5.1 GWG_MagazineAds_2015 CMYK
Requirement Severity Value
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