The international print community is entering an important period of standards development — one that could bring greater alignment between established printing requirements, modern near-neutral calibration, globally shared reference data, and the rapidly expanding use of extended-gamut printing.
Several related initiatives underway within ISO Technical Committee 130, Graphic Technology, have the potential to reshape how printers, technology developers, print buyers, and color-management professionals define and communicate expected print appearance. Among the most significant are the inclusion of G7+ methodology in the revision of ISO 12647-2, the development of a unified global characterization dataset, and proposed updates to ISO 15339 that would add new Characterized Reference Printing Conditions, including conditions designed for expanded-gamut production.
Although these projects remain in development and are subject to the international standards consensus process, together they represent a coordinated effort to make print standards more relevant to today’s technologies, substrates, workflows, and markets.
G7+ Advances Within ISO 12647-2
ISO 12647-2 is one of the graphic arts industry’s most recognized process-control standards. It establishes requirements and target values for producing color output, proofs, and production prints using offset lithographic processes. Its use, like that of G7, has grown beyond offset into packaging and applications such as flexographic and digital printing, making it a widely referenced specification for print and process control.
Historically, offset process control has relied heavily on Tone Value Increase, commonly known as TVI, or dot gain. TVI, while an important production measurement, does not by itself fully control the visual appearance of neutral gray, or ensure common tonality between different printing systems. Variables such as ink hue, trapping, opacity, substrate color, screening, and overprint behavior can cause two printing conditions with similar TVI values to produce noticeably different gray balance and tonal appearance.
G7 addressed this challenge by introducing a near-neutral calibration approach based on print density curves and defined gray-balance aims. Rather than concentrating only on the behavior of individual printing inks, G7 focuses on the combined visual appearance of the printed result. G7+ builds on that foundation with updated algorithms, expanded measurement points, and improvements intended to support a wider range of modern print conditions and substrates.
The current revision of ISO 12647-2 is expected to formally incorporate the near-neutral process-control method associated with G7+ as an alternative to the traditional TVI approach. Importantly, the revision does not eliminate TVI or invalidate established offset process-control practices. Instead, it would expand the standard by recognizing an additional method already used across commercial printing, packaging, digital production, and other sectors.
ISO/TC 130 plans to have the Draft International Standard, or DIS, prepared for consideration around its fall meeting in Romania. Reaching the DIS stage would represent a major milestone, but not the end of the process. The draft must still move through international review, comments, voting, and potential revision before publication as a revised International Standard.
For printers already using G7 or G7+, the revision could bring daily production practices into closer alignment with the language of ISO 12647-2. For organizations operating across multiple countries, suppliers, and print technologies, it could also reduce ambiguity when near-neutral calibration is specified as part of a production requirement.
Moving Toward a Unified Global Dataset
A second major development is the work surrounding a Unified Characterization Dataset or Unified Data Set, often discussed through the working terms UCD or UDS.
The goal is ambitious but practical: establish a globally aligned print reference dataset that can serve as a common foundation for color communication, calibration, characterization, proofing, and process control.
Today, the industry uses several well-established datasets and reference print conditions. These resources have delivered enormous value, but regional histories and different standards-development paths have sometimes produced multiple datasets intended for similar applications. Even when those datasets are visually close, differences in paper color, solid ink values, overprints, measurement conditions, or characterization methods can complicate international file exchange and proof-to-print communication.
A unified dataset could reduce those differences by providing a common point of reference across regions. It would provide a shared characterization target that different systems could simulate or reproduce within their available capabilities.
This distinction is important because modern print production spans offset, flexography, gravure, digital electrophotography, production inkjet, wide-format printing, screen printing, textile printing, and other industrial processes. A meaningful global reference must support consistent visual communication without assuming every process behaves like a traditional offset press.
G7+ was designed with this future alignment in mind. Because its calibration framework can reference a defined Reference Print Condition, a transition from an existing reference, such as CRPC6 (GRACoL 2013), to a future unified dataset could potentially be accomplished through updated targets and software support rather than a complete reinvention of the calibration method.
For brands and print buyers, a unified dataset could improve consistency between regions and suppliers. For printers, it could simplify proofing expectations, profile selection, device alignment, and customer communication. For software and equipment developers, it could provide a clearer global target around which measurement, calibration, RIP, profiling, and verification tools can be built.
Expanding ISO 15339 Beyond Seven CRPCs
Related work includes updates to ISO 15339, the standard developed to support printing from digital data across multiple technologies.
ISO/PAS 15339 established seven Characterized Reference Printing Conditions, CRPC1 through CRPC7. These conditions represent a progression of printing environments and gamut capabilities, ranging from newspaper and uncoated applications through coated commercial printing and a generic large-gamut condition.
A central strength of the CRPC model is shared relative appearance leveraging G7. The existing conditions apply common principles for tonality, neutral appearance, and primary-color hue relationships, helping printed work maintain a similar visual character across different substrates and gamut levels.
The next phase of development is expected to include additional datasets identified as CRPC8, CRPC9, and CRPC10. While their final definitions remain subject to technical development and ISO approval, the proposed additions are expected to extend the CRPC framework into expanded-gamut printing.
Expanded-gamut production is becoming increasingly important, particularly in packaging, digital printing, and high-value commercial applications. It may involve higher-chroma CMYK printing, sometimes described as expanded CMYK, or the addition of inks such as orange, green, and violet to the conventional CMYK set.
These workflows can reproduce more brand and spot colors without requiring a separate custom ink for every job, while supporting more vivid imagery and production efficiency across groups of packaging designs. At the same time, expanded gamut introduces new requirements for characterization, separation, profiling, proofing, calibration, and process control.
Adding expanded-gamut CRPCs to ISO 15339 could provide internationally recognized reference conditions for these workflows. Rather than individual suppliers building around proprietary or isolated datasets, printers and technology providers could work from common reference data. That could improve interoperability among design systems, separation software, proofing solutions, RIPs, presses, and verification platforms.
Within that framework, G7 would continue to provide the near-neutral CMYK calibration foundation of the CRPCs, while expanded-gamut characterization and color management would address the larger color space and any additional inks. For CMYK-plus-orange, green, and violet workflows, additional colorants may be controlled using methods such as Spot Color Tone Value, while ICC profiles and separation technologies manage the conversion of design colors into the available ink set.
A More Connected Standards Framework
Together, these initiatives point toward a more connected standards framework. The revision of ISO 12647-2 would bring near-neutral calibration more directly into established print process control; the unified dataset would create a common global reference for color exchange and appearance; and the expansion of ISO 15339 would extend standardized reference print conditions into newer, wider-gamut production environments.
Those developments could create a clearer path from design intent through proof, calibration, production, and verification — regardless of where a job is printed or which technology is used.
Standards development is deliberate, and terminology, datasets, tolerances, and implementation details may evolve before these documents are finalized.
The printing industry is moving toward standards that are less dependent on a single process, region, or legacy calibration convention. For printers, brands, and technology developers, that foundation offers something increasingly valuable: a common language for predictable color in a diverse and rapidly changing production environment.
Jordan Gorski is a certified G7+ Expert and CMP Master with more than 20 years of printing and packaging experience. A Clemson University Graphic Communications graduate, he supports global training, certification, education, and standards development while serving as liaison to ISO/TC 130, CGATS, ICC, and PPC committees. Contact Jordan at 703-837-1096 / jgorski@printing.org.
To become a member of the Alliance and learn more about how our subject matter experts can assist your company with services and resources such as those mentioned in this article, please contact the Alliance membership team: 888-385-3588 / membership@printing.org.