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ISO 15930-9:2020 – New PDF/X-6 standard published

ISO has published the new PDF/X-6 standard as International Standard ISO 15930-9:2020 for digital artwork. The new standard is based on PDF version 2.0, standardised in ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0), and specifies the complete and partial exchange of digital data intended for print reproduction.

  • ISO 15930-9 PDF/X-6
    ISO 15930-9:2020

    PDF/X-6

New features of PDF/X-6

The new PDF/X-6 standard, developed by ISO/TC130 WG2/TF2 experts, defines three levels of compliance for the exchange of print files:

  • PDF/X-6 complete «blind» exchange
  • PDF/X-6p external output condition
  • PDF/X-6n external output condition, N-channel

PDF/X-6p applies to documents with an external ICC profile as output condition (as successor to PDF/X-4p based on PDF 1.6), while PDF/X-6n applies to N-channel profiles as output condition (as successor to PDF/X-5n based on PDF 1.6).

PDF/X-6 includes among others the following new features of PDF 2.0:

  • Black point compensation (ISO 18619:2015) at document level
  • Page-based print output condition
  • Page-based metadata (DPart metadata) based on ISO 21812-1:2019
  • Spectral data information for spot colours based on XML from CxF/X-4 (ISO 17972-4)
  • Mixing Hints (Interaction of spot colours in print)

PDF/X-6 also now allows annotations, including digital signatures, form fields (with some restrictions) and video in the printable areas of pages.

All new PDF 2.0 properties are ignored or treated as "unknown data" in older programs.

The PDF/X standards series ISO 15930

The ISO 15930 series of standards covers a wide range of PDF/X variants, which are identified by an appended number and a year.

Version PDF 2.0 is specified as ISO 32000-2:2017 with a total of 984 pages.

Development of the ISO 15930 series of standards
2001

PDF/X-1a:2001

ISO 15930-1:2001
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Use of PDF — Part 1: Complete exchange using CMYK data (PDF/X-1 and PDF/X-1a)

2002

PDF/X-3:2002

ISO 15930-3:2002
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Use of PDF — Part 3: Complete exchange suitable for colour-managed workflows (PDF/X-3)

2003

PDF/X-1a:2003

ISO 15930-4:2003
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 4: Complete exchange of CMYK and spot colour printing data using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-1a)

2003

PDF/X-2:2003

ISO 15930-5:2003
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 5: Partial exchange of printing data using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-2)

2003

PDF/X-3:2003

ISO 15930-6:2003
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 6: Complete exchange of printing data suitable for colour-managed workflows using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-3)

2010

PDF/X-4 und PDF/X-4p

ISO 15930-7:2010
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 7: Complete exchange of printing data (PDF/X-4) and partial exchange of printing data with external profile reference (PDF/X-4p) using PDF 1.6

2010

PDF/X-5

ISO 15930-8:2010
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 8: Partial exchange of printing data using PDF 1.6 (PDF/X-5)

2020

PDF/X-6

ISO 15930-9:2020
Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange using PDF — Part 9: Complete exchange of printing data (PDF/X-6) and partial exchange of printing data with external profile reference (PDF/X-6p and PDF/X-6n) using PDF 2.0

Future

Further sources of information on PDF/X:

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