It’s a technical report prepared by a special Electronic Design Workflow for Packaging task force of the Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS). The report was approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is available from NPES The Assn. For Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, which administered and funded the technical report. Working together since 1999, the packaging workflow taskforce consisted primarily of representatives from prepress companies like CreoScitex, Schawkgraphics, and Barco Graphics. But Printpack and CCL Label were on board to represent the packaging converters segment, and the consumer packaged goods companies were represented by Hershey Foods and Kraft Foods. Recognizing that without cooperation along the supply chain, delays and overruns are common, the task force developed a report that provides a model for “best practice” workflow. “This technical report is intended to facilitate communication among all participants in the packaging development process from concept to preparation of an approved production file,” says the introduction to the report. “This reference workflow provides consumer products companies a tool to lead their supplier teams to new levels of success.” The complete report is available for $20 at www.npes.org. A second CGATS task force is focusing on ink and color characterization for packaging. —PR
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