INTERNATIONAL ISO

STANDARD 28178

Second edition
2022-09

Graphic technology — Exchange

format for colour and process control
data using XML or ASCII text
Technologie graphique — Format d'échange pour les données de
couleur et de contrôle de procédé en utilisant du texte XML ou ASCII

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ISO 28178:2022
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Reference number
ISO 28178:2022(E)

© ISO 2022
ISO 28178:2022(E)

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ISO 28178:2022
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© ISO 2022
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
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Email: [email protected]
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Published in Switzerland

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 ISO 28178:2022(E)

Contents Page

Foreword......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... iv
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v
1 Scope.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1
2 Normative references...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
3 Terms and definitions..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
4 Requirements........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
4.1 General description of a conforming file.......................................................................................................................... 2
4.1.1 XML format............................................................................................................................................................................... 2
4.1.2 ASCII format............................................................................................................................................................................ 2
4.2 Tags and keywords.............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
4.2.1 General......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
4.2.2 Required preamble tags and keywords.......................................................................................................... 4
4.2.3 Optional tags and keywords..................................................................................................................................... 6
4.2.4 User-defined tags and keywords....................................................................................................................... 11
4.2.5 Data format identifier.................................................................................................................................................. 12
4.3 Data tables................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.3.1 General...................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.2 Table descriptor................................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.3.3 Table name............................................................................................................................................................................. 12
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4.3.4 Data format identifiers............................................................................................................................................... 13
4.3.5 Table data................................................................................................................................................................................ 16
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Annex A (informative) Advantages of an XML data reporting format ........................................................................... 17
Annex B (informative) Tag and keyword examples.......................................................................................................................... 19
ISO 28178:2022
Annex C (informative) Sample files..................................................................................................................................................................... 24
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Annex D (informative) Example0674f26872be/iso-28178-2022
of use of user-defined keywords.................................................................................... 30
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 37

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ISO 28178:2022(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
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expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to
the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see
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www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 130, Graphic technology.
ISOedition
This second edition cancels and replaces the first 28178:2022
(ISO 28178:2009), which has been technically
revised. https://standards.iteh.ai/catalog/standards/sist/2e689b4d-18de-4175-a149-
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The main changes are as follows:
— in 4.2.3.21, an additional tag to remove ambiguity with respect to the printing sequence and the
sequence of tabulating data in particular to ease the data exchange for multi-colour printing has
been added;
— in 4.1.2.1, additional guidance on the use of delimiters, such as point and comma, as well as the
plausibility of the sample ID usage have been provided.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

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 ISO 28178:2022(E)

Introduction
This document is intended to support all existing and future graphic arts standards that require the
exchange of measured, computed, or process control data and the associated metadata necessary for its
proper interpretation.
The following requirements were identified when reviewing the needs of such a format:
— applications based on the existing ASCII formats must not be made obsolete;
— data must be in a form that is both human-readable (once the digital file has been displayed using
standard editors, or file readers) and machine-readable;
— data must be readable by automated programs to extract the necessary information;
— data files must be extensible by end users in such a way as to allow additional information to be
included without breaking automated readers of the file;
— data files must be capable of being created by automated programs;
— the format must allow multiple language representation of data.
The file formats chosen to accomplish this task are a combination of XML and extensions of the existing
ASCII keyword‑value file format, coupled with the necessary tools to allow appropriate conversions
to and from XML from ASCII keyword‑value files. However, either the XML file format or the ASCII
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keyword‑value file format can be used independently.

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These formats make use of predefined XML tags and ASCII keywords. Values are associated with the
tags and keywords and remain in effect until another instance of the tag or keyword. Provision is
made to allow the use of data tables and to separately define the format within data tables. Multiple
occurrences of such data tables within a single file are also permitted. User-defined tags and keywords
are also allowed. ISO 28178:2022
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NOTE During the 2021 review0674f26872be/iso-28178-2022
process, it was noted that the XML format is not widely used and that its
specification in this document is insufficiently precise to ensure reliable exchange of data.

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ISO 28178:2022
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 28178:2022(E)

Graphic technology — Exchange format for colour and

process control data using XML or ASCII text

1 Scope
This document defines an exchange format for colour and process control data (and the associated
metadata necessary for its proper interpretation) in electronic form using either XML or ASCII
formatted data files. This exchange format maintains human readability of the data as well as enabling
machine readability. It includes a series of predefined tags and keywords, and provides extensibility
through provision for the dynamic definition of additional tags and keywords as necessary. It is focused
primarily on spectral measurement data, colorimetric data, and densitometric data.
This document is intended to be used in conjunction with other standards that will define the required
data, and tags or keywords for specific data exchange applications.

2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.

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3 Terms and definitions
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For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
ISO 28178:2022
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://​w ww​.iso​.org/​obp
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— IEC Electropedia: available at https://​w ww​.electropedia​.org/​
3.1
data format identifier
predefined set of characters, without intervening spaces, forming a unique word that is used to identify
the presence of a defined item of data in a subsequent data table
3.2
keyword
predefined set of characters, without intervening spaces, forming a unique word that is used to identify
the presence of a defined item of information
3.3
schema
XML document that, following the rules established by the World Wide Web Consortium, defines the
structure of a class of xml documents
3.4
value
information immediately following a keyword (3.2) that represents the data content or "value"
associated with that keyword

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ISO 28178:2022(E)

4 Requirements

4.1 General description of a conforming file

4.1.1 XML format

This file format is an XML format that complies with Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0.[46] The
format makes use of predefined tags that identify information commonly used to describe graphic arts
samples. In addition, users of this format are allowed to define tags to tailor the format to their specific
needs according to the rules of XML namespace.
The data file is divided into two sections.
The preamble is the first section. This section provides general information and describes the conditions
under which data was collected. The preamble tag is iso28178.preamble. Tags used in the preamble are
listed in 4.2.
The data section is the second section, which is further divided into two parts. The first part of the data
section provides the information that describes the type and location of the table contents; the second
section contains the data values.
The schema associated with the XML format defined in this document is contained in file iso28178_
data.xsd (available at: https://​standards​.iso​.org/​iso/​28178/​ed​-2/​en/​), which is an essential normative
part of this document. This document also provides structural XML tags that are needed for the proper
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specification of an XML document instance.
NOTE See Annex A for a discussion on the need and application of the XML data reporting format.
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4.1.2 ASCII format
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This file format is an ASCII format keyword‑value file. It makes use of predefined keywords and data
tables. Values are associated with the keyword that precedes them and remain in effect until another
instance of the keyword‑value pair. Data values are delimited by the BEGIN_DATA and END_DATA
keywords.
Keywords and values, as well as fields within data tables, are separated by white space. Valid white
space characters are space (position 2/0 of ISO/IEC 646), carriage return (position 0/13 of ISO/IEC 646),
newline (position 0/10 of ISO/IEC 646), and tab (position 0/9 of ISO/IEC 646). Keywords may be
separated from values using any valid white space character. Only the space and tab may precede a
keyword on a line. Comments are preceded by a single comment character (a single character keyword).
The comment character is the "#" (position 2/3 of ISO/IEC 646) symbol. Comments may begin any place
on a line, and are terminated by a newline or carriage return character.
NOTE The default separator for exporting data from spreadsheet applications in many regions is a comma
and not a white space character. Conforming files can be created by changing this default to a tab character and
by using the full point character as the decimal separator.

4.1.2.2 Exchanged data file structure

A file containing measurement data would normally be structured as shown in Figure 1. This structure
allows multiple tables of data within a single exchange file.

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ISO 28178:2022
Figure 1 — File structure
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4.2 Tags and keywords

4.2.1 General

Most tags and keywords may appear in the file in any order, and may appear multiple times within
the file. Values associated with tags and keywords that appear more than once shall be replaced by
successive instances except for KEYWORD, COMPUTATIONAL_PARAMETER, and WEIGHTING_
FUNCTION. Tags and keywords that describe data tables, however, shall be defined before the data
table. Table 1 lists these tags and keywords. These tags are described in greater detail in this subclause.

Table 1 — XML tags and ASCII keywords that appear in a defined order
Function XML tag ASCII keyword
data table width <number_of_fields> NUMBER_OF_FIELDS
data format delimiters <data_format> BEGIN_DATA_FORMAT
END_DATA_FORMAT
data table length <number_of_sets> NUMBER_OF_SETS
data table delimiters <table> BEGIN_DATA
END_DATA

Data format delimiters shall be preceded by a data table width tag or keyword. Data table delimiters
shall be preceded by a data table length tag or keyword. In the ASCII format, BEGIN_/END_ keywords
begin and end the data format or table data. In the XML format, tags have parameters and/or values and

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ISO 28178:2022(E)

a standard syntax is used; e.g. <data_format> data format identifiers </data_format>. Values for tags
and keywords that describe data tables shall be specified for each data table in the file; i.e. inheritance
of these values is not permitted.
ASCII tags and keywords may be composed of any combination of the following: upper case letters;
digits 0 through 9; and ASCII characters $ (position 2/4 of ISO/IEC 646), % (position 2/5 of ISO/IEC 646),
& (position 2/6 of ISO/IEC 646), - (position 2/13 of ISO/IEC 646), / (position 2/15 of ISO/IEC 646), _
(position 5/15 of ISO/IEC 646). By convention all XML tags are lower case.
In the ASCII format, unless used as part of a data format definition, keywords should not be preceded
on a line by other than white space. Unless otherwise noted, each keyword has a character string value
associated with it. All character string values shall be enclosed in quotes, regardless of whether there is
white space contained within the string. Enclosed in quotes means beginning and ending the character
string with the " symbol (position 2/2 of ISO/IEC 646). The " symbol itself is represented within a string
as "" as in the C language syntax.
NOTE The default behaviour of applications writing '.csv' files results in additional quotation marks being
added to files, for example "FILE_DESCRIPTOR ""12642-3 Target definition""", which means that such files do not
conform with this requirement.

For XML tag/keyword entries the form is <xml-tag>value</xml-tag>. If attribute names are provided
in the XML section of a definition, the information is represented in the XML-formatted data as XML
attribute using the form <xml-tag attribute-name="value" …>.
The value associated with keywords NUMBER_OF_FIELDS and NUMBER_OF_SETS shall be an integer.
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These values should not be enclosed in quotes.
Format and table delimiters do not have explicit values associated with them but rather enclose either
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the data format definition or table data.
The separation between the integer and the fractional part of a given number should be a "full point"
for all entries. ISO 28178:2022
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See Annex B for examples of the use of each tag and keyword shown in 4.2.2 and 4.2.3.
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4.2.2 Required preamble tags and keywords

4.2.2.1 General

Certain tags and keywords are required as part of each file, while others are optional depending upon
the data to be included. All keywords shall occur before the BEGIN_DATA_FORMAT keyword and the
sequence order for required tags and keywords shall follow the order shown in 4.2.2.2 through 4.2.2.9.
The STANDARD, ORIGINATOR, FILE_DESCRIPTOR and CREATED tags/keywords may occur only once
within a file.
The first line in the ASCII format should be ISO 28178. The use of this identifier indicates that the data
contained in the file adheres to this document. This information is represented in the XML format with
the <standard> tag. See 4.2.2.2.
NOTE Strings are widely used including "ECI2002", "CGATS17", "CGATS.17", "ISO 12642-2". These files often
conform to this document with the exception of this identifier.

4.2.2.2 Standard

The use of this identifier indicates that the data contained in the file adheres to the indicated standard.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <standard> String

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 ISO 28178:2022(E)

NOTE There is no ASCII keyword for this because in the ASCII format this information is carried in the first
line of the file.

4.2.2.3 Originator

Identifies the specific system, organization or individual that created the data file.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <originator> String

ASCII ORIGINATOR String

4.2.2.4 File descriptor

Describes the purpose or contents of the data file.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <file_descriptor> String

ASCII FILE_DESCRIPTOR String

4.2.2.5 Created
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Indicates the creation date of the data file. The recommended form for this date is CCYY​-MM​-DDThh:​
mm:​ss[Z | +/-hh:mm].
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Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <created>
ISO 28178:2022 String
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date String

ASCII CREATED String

4.2.2.6 Number of fields

Number of fields (data format identifiers) that are included in the data format definition that follows.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <number_of_fields> Integer

ASCII NUMBER_OF_FIELDS Integer

4.2.2.7 Data format

Marks the beginning and end of a data format definition. END_DATA_FORMAT shall be preceded by
BEGIN_DATA_FORMAT. See 4.3.4 for information on the data that would be included between these
tags/keywords.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <data_format> NA

ASCII BEGIN_DATA_FORMAT

END_DATA_FORMAT

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ISO 28178:2022(E)

4.2.2.8 Number of sets of data

Number of repetitions or sets of data, i.e. the number of rows in the data table. The associated value is
an integer.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <number_of_sets> Integer

ASCII NUMBER_OF_SETS Integer

4.2.2.9 Data table

Marks the beginning and end of a data table.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <table> NA

ASCII BEGIN_DATA

END_DATA

4.2.3 Optional tags and keywords

4.2.3.1 General
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Certain additional general tags and(standards.iteh.ai)
keywords are optional and may be used as needed. The currently
defined optional tags and keywords are defined in 4.2.3.2 to 4.2.3.19. The optional tags and keywords
shall occur after the CREATED tag/keyword and before
ISO the NUMBER_OF_FIELDS tag/keyword.
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4.2.3.2 Comment 0674f26872be/iso-28178-2022
Comments are ignored by automated readers. In the XML syntax, all characters within the <comment>
</comment> tags are ignored. In the ASCII syntax, all characters between the comment keyword and
the end of line indicator are ignored. End of line is indicated by either carriage return or newline.
Comments indicate to users that the information that follows is of informative interest. Comments need
not be enclosed in quotes. Comments may occur anywhere except within a table.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <comment> String

ASCII # String

4.2.3.3 Instrumentation

Used to report the specific instrumentation used (e.g. manufacturer, model number and serial number,
etc.) to generate the data reported. This data will often provide more information about the particular
data collected than an extensive list of specific details. This is particularly important for spectral data
or data derived from spectrophotometry.

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Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <instrumentation> String

manufacturer String

model String

serial_number String

ASCII INSTRUMENTATION String

4.2.3.4 Measurement geometry

The type of measurement, either reflection or transmission, should be indicated along with details
of the geometry and the aperture size and shape. For example, for transmission measurements it is
important to identify 0/diffuse, diffuse/0, opal or integrating sphere, etc. For reflection measurements
it is important to identify 0/45, 45/0, sphere (specular included or excluded), etc.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <measurement_geometry> String

ASCII iTeh STANDARD PREVIEW

MEASUREMENT_GEOMETRY String

4.2.3.5 (standards.iteh.ai)
Measurement source

Illumination (e.g. incandescent, daylight, colour temperature, etc.) used during spectral measurement.
ISO 28178:2022
This data helps provide a guide to the potential for issues of paper fluorescence, etc.
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Format Tag/Keyword
0674f26872be/iso-28178-2022 Attribute Data type

XML <measurement_source> String

ASCII MEASUREMENT_SOURCE String

4.2.3.6 Filter

Identifies the use of physical filter(s) during measurement. This is typically used to denote the use of
filters such as none, D65, Red, Green or Blue.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <filter> String

ASCII FILTER String

4.2.3.7 Polarization

Identifies the use of a physical polarization filter during measurement. Allowed values are "yes”, “none”
or “na”.

Format Tag/Keyword Attribute Data type

XML <polarization> String

ASCII POLARIZATION String

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