Digital data exchange in digital prepress technology: The adoption of a new standards

Portable document format (PDF) is an electronic file format which is used for representing two-dimensional documents independent of software, hardware, and predominant formats for creating, storing and delivering electronic documents. The PDF/X family of standards was and is continuing to be, developed by ISO/TC130, Graphic technology. The goal is to provide an efficient vehicle for the exchange of combinations of vector and raster digital data, representing print ready material, within the graphic art industry. This is a multipart standard with several levels of compliance. The intention is that if a sender and receiver of PDF/X files use applications that have the same level of compliance, digital data workflows can flow seamlessly between them and be processed without surprises to achieve the rendering intended by the client. The current family of PDF/X standard consist of PDF/X-1a:2003 (ISO15930-4:2003), PDF/X2:2003 (ISO15930-5:2003), PDF/X-3:2003 (ISO15930-6:2003), PDF/X4:2010 (ISO15930-7:2010) and PDF/X-5:2010 (ISO159308:2010). An overview of this current family of PDF/X standard is reviewed.