US Involvement in Graphic Arts Standards Activity - A Partial History

For most of its history, the United States graphic arts industry has had a cautious relationship with formal standards activities. The earliest accredited activities were in the area of printing equipment safety. Outside of the safety area, formal standards activities were usually ignored by the graphic arts industry and even trade association specifications were looked at with suspicion. The formation of ISO/TC130 in the 70s was ignored by the US industry. The arrival of color electronic prepress systems (CEPS) in 1980 became the motivation for a number of people to begin a drive to develop formal standards activities in the US. This resulted in the creation of IT8 and CGATS. The need to gain international recognition of the early graphic arts data exchange standards, created by IT8, became the motivation for the reactivation of ISO/TC130 - Graphic technology. Unfortunately most of the records of these activities are in the form of oral history. This paper will summarize some of that history in written form.