New specification provides consistency for the creation and storage of digital product images.

London, 30 July 2007 – GS1, the independent supply chain data standards body, has launched a new standard to create consistency in the use of digital images between trading partners. The GS1 Product Image Specification has been developed for product owners, suppliers, manufacturers and their imaging solution providers who need to provide product images in a globally accepted format for use with online stores, online advertising, image planograms, product catalogues, marketing collateral, print advertisements and posters. The standard addresses the proliferation of image formats currently being used in the marketplace.

The new standard enables companies to save time and money by producing and storing digital images to an agreed format. They can also be manipulated in a simple and accurate manner for a variety of uses, such as online retail applications. Trading partners are given the assurance that the recipient of their images will understand the format of their product images. The use of the specification will also remove the need to check every single image and make the necessary corrections.

“As an image provider to the UK online grocery stores, we need images that are sufficient quality for the many different formats required. Images need to be photographed in the correct way to provide a consistent look and feel. They also need all variable marks to be removed, for example, pricing or best before dates. For the still shot, single marketing image, the GS1 Product Image Specification delivers exactly those criteria,” said Rob Tarrant, managing director, Brandbank.

Over two years, the GS1 global community has further advanced the specifications originally undertaken by the Voluntary Inter industry Commerce Solutions (VICS) association. GS1’s imaging specification work group included representatives from leading companies such as 3M, Home Depot, Boots, Carrefour and PepsiCo.

The specification covers all aspects of marketing images, planogram images and file naming. It includes guidelines on image colour and quality agreed between trading partners, product photography, file format, minimum and maximum image sizes, file resolution, photo shot views, cropping and clipping paths. The internationally accepted GS1 Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) is used to uniquely identify the product and provides the basis for the file naming conventions taking into account its construction depending on the photo angle, language and file nature.

“GS1, leading industry manufacturers, retailers and solution providers have worked together to develop product image specification standards that will ease the burden of obtaining the right image for the right application,” said Gary Lynch, chief executive of GS1 UK. “Companies that require this content for the purpose of e-commerce, marketing, advertising and planograms will clearly benefit from this new specification.”

GS1’s product image specification is expected to become a pre-requisite in the next phase of the image standards process which will determine how an image is moved within the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN). A consistent image specification is vital in enabling files to be provided within the GDSN messaging set, achieving one source for images through a common system which allows files to be available on demand.

About GS1 UK

GS1 UK has driven innovation in the supply chain for over thirty years. It is part of the global GS1 organisation, dedicated to the development and implementation of global data standards and solutions for the supply chain. GS1 standards are the most widely used in the world. GS1 UK helps industry to implement these data standards through the use of bar codes, RFID, Global Data Synchronisation (GDS) and electronic business messaging.
www.gs1uk.org

For more information contact:

Lisa Henshaw or Kirsty Sewter
Fourth Day PR
+44 (0)20 7403 4411

Suraya Adnan-Ariffin
GS1 UK
+44 (0)20 7092 3575

Book mark with this

Delicious      reddit      Digg      Stumbleupon