PDF/X-5 and PDF/X-6

[Mike Witherell]

The first ratified in (2008 or) 2010 and the second in 2020. 

Why are neither referenced in InDesign?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Have you tried asking ID's AI? 😛

I don't see them implemented anywhere. Is it a matter of Adobe sort of washing its hands of the PDF standard and a primary role in maintaining it?

[Vítor Pedro]

I ask the same question.

[Eugene Tyson]

It’s a good question you’d expect them to show up as presets in InDesign by now. The odd thing is they don’t, even though InDesign already supports the core features these standards rely on, external references, transparency, colour management, layers and so on.

The main reason seems to be that the print industry has been very slow to move past PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-4. Those two still cover the vast majority of workflows, so Adobe has never felt real pressure to make the newer flavours visible in the dropdown.

Another factor is that Adobe doesn’t “own” the PDF standard in the same way it used to. They handed a lot of that over to ISO, and while they still have a seat at the table, they’re not driving the spec the way they once did. That shift probably explains why newer standards don’t get bundled straight into InDesign.

It’s not that InDesign can’t produce PDF/X-5 or X-6 files you can get there by using Acrobat Preflight or custom joboptions it’s just not surfaced in the UI. So in practice it feels more like a lack of packaging than a technical gap.

[bt85260]

What job options would meet the X/6 standards?

[Eugene Tyson]

If a printer requires PDF/X-6, the simplest route is to ask them for their .joboptions file. That way you’re matching their workflow exactly, since requirements can vary a lot.

InDesign doesn’t surface X-6 as an export preset. The usual approach is to export to PDF/X-4, then use Acrobat Pro Preflight to validate and convert to X-6. From what I understand, that’s how most people are doing it today.

It’s worth noting that X-6 is built on PDF 2.0, so while InDesign already supports the underlying features (transparency, ICC profiles, layers, etc), Acrobat is the piece that adds the formal X-6 compliance flags and metadata.

It’s still relatively new, and adoption is pretty slow, so unless a partner specifically asks for it, X-1a or X-4 usually covers the bases. But if someone does need X-6, best to follow their joboptions and workflow to the letter.

Just a little something I found interesting here:

https://proofing.de/pdf-2-0-and-pdf-x-6-the-new-pdf-standards/