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News Flash **** News Flash **** November 2008

3DAP TO RELEASE VERSION 3 (v3) PROOFING STANDARDS

The 3DAP committee will release Version 3 (v3) of their proofing standards early next year.  

In announcing "roll-out" details of Version 3, the Committee has adopted the Australian version of the international printing standard ISO 12647-2, and will incorporate the ISO 12647-7 tolerances for proofing quality control.  3DAPv3 will enable greater control in the printing processes by making available via their website, recommended separation profiles to suit the final printing requirements.

The change has been driven by Australia’s printers adopting the AS 12647-2 ISO printing standard and one of the many benefits is a common colour space for both web and sheet-fed print applications which will narrow the divide between the two printing methods depending on paper type.
The updated 3DAP standards will provide many benefits to the pre-press, publishing, and printing industries, giving a more predictable proofing and printing environment. The standards will encompass two different ISO paper types which will cover the majority of magazine printing requirements.  

(1) Paper Type 1 & 2 -  Sheet fed covers and heavier weight, high brightness coated web offset papers (MWC)
(2) Paper Type 3-  Lighter weight coated web offset magazine papers (LWC)

It should be noted that with these changes, the need for informative client guidance will be paramount to ensure all the quality expectations of advertisers, publishers and printers are met.

While the 3DAP Committee expects the publishing industry will make the change relatively quickly and smoothly, the cross over period from 3DAPv2 to 3DAPv3 will be until March 1 2009. Suppliers responsible for producing advertising material will be encouraged to adopt the 3DAPv3 standard as soon as possible and in conjunction with their publisher’s specifications. This will reduce colour issues on press with editorial and advertising pages being supplied to a uniform standard.

To help inform the industry on the changes a revamped website will shortly be launched with the updated profiles and news on 3DAP initiatives. Information alerts will be distributed widely and members of the 3DAP Committee will make themselves available to speak at industry events and participate in online forums.

For more information contact: the 3DAP Chairman:
James Hawkes; Colour Manager; ACP Magazines Ltd 
Jhawkes@pblmedia.com.au

Please check www.3dap.com.au routinely for the launch of the new site.

Introduction

3DAP (Digital Data Delivery for Australian Publications) is an industry group committee that was formed to address the needs of a totally digital production environment for the magazine publishing industry, in particular, the workflow required for computer-to-plate.

These guidelines are expected to be phased in over a period of time and it is therefore important to contact the magazine publisher to confirm that they wish to receive digital files and that they are able to accept PDF files in their current workflow.

Announcing 3DAPv2 Proofing Guidelines

"The Digital Data Distribution for Australian Publications (3DAP) are pleased to announce Version Two (V2) proofing guidelines to the Australian Market.". The complete press release is available for download.

The 3DAPv2 Guidelines Document is now available (Adobe PDF)

Announcing 3DAPv2 Guidelines

Based on feedback from the industry, and extensive use of 3DAP Guidelines for delivery, the Committee has revisised the guidelines for the file format to 3DAPv2.

A summary of the changes are:

• Enforce use of 32 bit CMYK, not indexed CMYK images.
• Increase Monochrome Images to 2400dpi.
• Removing Transfer Functions.
• Removal of OPI comments.
• Remove any UCR/BG information.

We have provided a detailed description of these changes.

Improved Digital Proofing Documentation

The current list of Approved Digital Proofing Systems has reached 11. To improve the process, the 3DAP Committee has detailed the procedures used to approve Digital Proofing Systems.

The Committee

The focus of this committee has been to ensure that advertising material prepared by different sources for use in publication printing can be faithfully reproduced together on the same press sheet. It is also important for the same material inserted in multiple publications to be consistent. In order to achieve this, the major magazine publishers and printers in Australia previously endorsed a specification published as "The Guide to Publication Production for Heat-set Web Offset Printing ".This is based on the supply of final film separations and a chemical or machine proof produced from those films. The 3DAP committee has released guidelines to assist all parties supplying advertising as digital files and proofs to their publishers and printers.

The 3DAP guideline for the creation of digital files for advertising is based on the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF.) For clarity, the PDF file that is generated in accordance with these guidelines is called a 3DAPv2 PDF file.

The 3DAP committee will continue to review file standards and digital proofing into the future and we welcome feedback from others in the industry regarding these guidelines. Feedback can be sent via email to info@3dap.com.au