Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication (VIGC) tested 20 such tools, including Adobe Acrobat and Mac OS/X Preview as well as online and mobile versions, and found that for a PDF/X standard file, many did not support the full reference.

The organisation found iPad apps to be "unreliable" for either pre-press or design, while Mac OS/X Preview failed to support 'overprint' leading to potential error at the printer.

VIGC's PDF expert Didier Haazen said: "Not everyone is aware that a PDF viewer essentially does the same as a RIP. It translates the information inside a PDF on a specific output device, in this case a screen. This is why our test is so important. If you use an inappropriate PDF viewer, you can't be sure that what you see on your screen is what will come out of the RIP, out of a digital press.

In our test, we have clearly seen that many developers didn't implement the complete 'PDF reference', which is more than 1,300 pages."

The organisation is encouraging printers to inform their customers of the importance of using reliable PDF viewers in order to avoid potential errors that could lead to costly reprints.