The evolution of PDF/X: how it all began
Martin Bailey's fascinating perspective on the beginnings of PDF and PDF/X.
In spring 2022, Martin Bailey (technologist at Global Graphics and co-developer of PDF subset standards) published a highly readable article on pdfa.org about the history of PDF/X from his personal perspective.
The article offers valuable behind-the-scenes insight. It explains the early days of PDF/X from the viewpoint of someone directly involved and also provides context for the current state of the standards.
Bailey describes the beginnings: as early as 1991, he attended a Seybold seminar, an important institution for production printing professionals. At that event, John Warnock presented his idea of an "editable PostScript." Bailey found this still-vague idea exciting because, as technical director of the largest PostScript service office in London, it was highly relevant to his daily work. Initially, these were only early signals, but Adobe later introduced PDF.
How PDF changed the printing industry
The release of PDF also affected the printing industry and changed prepress workflows. Bailey experienced this directly in everyday work. Initially, the first PDF versions were not particularly well suited for production printing. Reliable work only became possible with PDF 1.2, and even then workflow tools had to be adapted.
Further development continued after 1995, but PDF was still not sufficient for all print scenarios, as Bailey describes. A key factor in this phase was CGATS, the organization for standardization of printing processes. Bailey joined around 1995 and later became chair. The goal was clear: make PDF more reliable for production print workflows.
This challenge was unusual at the time, as there was little experience creating technical software standards of this kind. Through this work, Martin Bailey helped shape the first PDF/X (PDF for eXchange), which was published as a CGATS standard in 1999. However, closing the gap between existing workflows and pure PDF workflows was difficult, and this early standard was still not ready for many production environments.
ISO working group from 2000
In 2000, work began on an improved PDF/X-1 standard in ISO. Lessons from early mistakes were incorporated, and an ISO working group was established with Martin Bailey as chair.
Bailey describes further hurdles, including debates about CMYK-only delivery versus device-independent color. The result was the definition of both a CMYK-focused standard and a second standard that allowed device-independent color. Bailey summarizes:
"The CMYK standard was closer to completion and so was published in 2001 as ISO 15930-1, which defined PDF/X-1 and PDF/X-1a, and the standard that allowed device-independent colour came out a year later as ISO 15930-3, which defined PDF/X-3."
At first, this looked like a compromise, but in hindsight the combination of PDF/X-1a (CMYK) and PDF/X-3 (device-independent color) was likely the best possible outcome. Both standards were reissued in 2003 in evolved form, removing the original PDF/X-1 conformance level and leaving PDF/X-1a in ISO 15930-1.
What happened to TIFF/IT?
In 2003, TIFF/IT was still commonly used alongside PDF/X-1a. TIFF/IT was strongly focused on display advertising and had a reputation for reliability, where early PDF workflows often struggled.
Bailey describes that many incoming PDFs still needed correction at the time. Prepress companies and print service providers were heavily affected. But once PDF/X-1a reached sufficient maturity, error rates dropped significantly, which ultimately accelerated the end of TIFF/IT in many workflows.
Further PDF/X conformance levels
Over time, many additional PDF/X conformance levels were developed, most notably PDF/X-4. Martin Bailey describes the core balancing act in standardization:
"On the one hand, the standard must be developed further, but on the other hand, it must not become confusing with too many conformance levels. And each new conformance level must provide sufficient benefit to both developers and users to make the effort to implement and use it worthwhile."
More information on all PDF/X standards and their characteristics:
https://www.pdfa.org/twenty-years-of-pdf-x-part-iii/
According to Bailey, PDF/X is currently used primarily in direct marketing, advertising, publishing, newspaper printing, labels, packaging, large format, product decoration, and industrial printing for textiles. In summary: PDF/X is an excellent choice for most print areas where designs are delivered in PDF.
Bailey also addresses remaining gaps, some of which are addressed by PDF 2.0 and related specifications. One concrete example is preparing PDF files for presses with extended-gamut inks (e.g., CMYKOGV). He also references useful complementary resources such as the Ghent Workgroup PDF/X+ specifications, the Altona Test Suite, PDF/VT (ISO 16612-2 and -3) for variable data printing, PDF processing steps, and print product metadata.
About the author: Martin Bailey
Martin Bailey is a technologist at Global Graphics and has worked on PDF subset standards since 1994, first with PDF/X in CGATS and later in ISO. He has served as UK representative on ISO committees for PDF/X and PDF/VT, was project editor for PDF/VT-3, and has chaired and co-chaired relevant PDF Association working groups.
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