Jonathan Moore, digital workflow project manager at The Cond Nast Publications, has also been named as the group's new chair, while new versions of pass4press and pic4press have been released.

Print4press, which was unveiled at the PPA Production Conference, aims to build on the existing print standard, ISO 12647, with improvements for the UK publishing market.

The ISO standard currently covers only five paper types. Moore said that while it would eventually include more, "tweaks" needed to be made for the UK market including establishing a standard for using super-calendared grades.

He added that the group hoped to roll out the first version at next year's PPA Production Conference.

Version 6 of pass4press requires that publishers use PDF/X-1a to submit pages, meaning that the guidelines conform to specifications of the Ghent PDF Workgroup.

Moore said: "Most people will now be using versions of Quark and Adobe that are new enough to feature PDF-X, so it's now fair to expect people to use it."

Moore replaces Emap production director Andy Franks and IPC Southbank production director Debbie Read, who have stepped down as co-chairs of the committee.

Meanwhile, pass4press is to stop distributing its free online preflighting software, which will be available for download from its website until the end of the year.