Download the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader
from http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.
NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing
and Converting
Technologies supports and administers the activities of
the ANSI-accredited Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies
Standards (CGATS). For more
information contact standards@npes.org.
CGATS was formed in 1987 following a year-long assessment
of the need for an umbrella standards committee by the Image
Technology Standards Board (ITSB) of the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), and received ANSI accreditation
in 1989. The goal of CGATS is to have the entire scope of
printing, publishing and converting technologies represented
in one national standardization and coordination effort,
while respecting the established activities of existing
accredited standards committees and industry standards developers.
CGATS writes standards only where the need exists and no
other committee is undertaking the writing.
Thus, in addition to developing standards for the industry,
CGATS also provides a vehicle for other industry organizations
that have specifications to work under the CGATS "umbrella"
to move their work into the standards arena, and have the
work further developed and approved as an American National
Standard. Several such joint efforts have been undertaken,
resulting in the development of an ANSI CGATS standard.
The committee works to improve the efficiency of national
standards development, facilitates information exchange,
coordinates multi-discipline standards activities and provides
liaison for international standards development.
CGATS has standards, either approved or in draft, relating
to pallet loading of printed materials, metrology, terminology,
plates, process control, electronic transmission of publication
ads, digital data exchange, color data definition, design
workflow for packaging, and ink and color characterization
for packaging. The activities involving digital data exchange
and color data definition were activities formerly under
the IT8 Committee. Beginning in 1994, that work continued
under the administrative structure of CGATS.
The CGATS main committee consists of Participating (voting)
members and Observing (non-voting) members. An Executive
Committee is responsible for planning and coordination of
the subcommittees, working groups and task forces. The Executive
Committee approves new work items and assigns the work to
the appropriate committee for development.
Work on the standards is done within subcommittees (SC),
working groups (WG), or task forces (TF). In accordance
with ANSI procedures, all standards undergo a periodic review
every five years to determine whether to reaffirm, revise
or withdraw the standard.
Participation on CGATS committees and at meetings is open
to anyone having an interest. Minutes and other committee
documents are available online (see links above), or from
the NPES Standards Department, standards@npes.org.
U.S.
& International Standards
