The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) publishes a new standard for the large format printing and signage segment. The international gathering of graphic arts professionals dedicated to workflow has incorporated the concept of viewing distance and scale factor into this new specification to standardize all sign and display printing jobs.
This new specification, contained in GWG2015 - Sign & Display, should facilitate the delivery of PDF files for this market segment.
The viewing distance is the average distance between the final printed job and a typical viewer. It can be one meter for banners and 75 meters for road signs. Generally, the greater the viewing distance, the lower the resolution of the image may be.
The scale factor is widely used in the large format printing market. Files for printing can quickly become very large, and software is not always up to the task of handling these very large files. Graphic designers therefore create their PDF files at half, 1/10th or even 1/48th of the final format to be printed. The new GWW standard takes this scale factor into account.
Another new feature of this new specification is that it opens the color spaces that can be used in a PDF file.
"This is important because of the number of wide-range output devices used in this market. For the first time, a GWG specification allows the use of color spaces such as calibrated RGB or L * a * b * for all elements of a PDF document" explains the organization.
GWG makes its recommendations for creating PDFs for prepress as well as a preflight profile for checking PDF files available free of charge on its website.
