The IAPR International Graphics Recognition Workshop (GREC) is the main activity of the IAPR-TC10. The seventh edition GREC2007 was held in the Grand Hotel Rayon, Curitiba (Brazil) in September 20-21, 2007 previous to the 9^th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition ICDAR2007 (see related article in this issue).  GREC2007 was chaired by Josep Lladós, Liu Wenyin and Jean-Marc Ogier. 39 valid papers were presented in the scientific program.  The workshop had 49 registered participants from 13 countries.

Following the tradition of the previous workshops in the series, the scientific program was organized in a single-track 2-day workshop. It comprised 6 sessions dedicated to specific topics. Session topics included: Technical documents, maps and diagrams understanding; Symbol and shape description and recognition; Information retrieval, indexing and spotting; Sketching interfaces and on-line processing; Feature and primitive analysis and segmentation; and Performance evaluation and ground truthing. We aimed to restore the original GREC model, a true workshop with interaction rather than a mini-conference. With this purpose, only extended abstracts were published, thus giving the opportunity to present works in any stage of maturity. Electronic proceedings with full papers were available to registrants allowing “electronic” discussions prior to the workshop. Authors gave short presentations, leaving time for panel discussions. Finally, the role of chairpersons was of key importance in this format. Session chairs were asked not just to introduce speakers, but to read papers before his/her session, and to prepare a survey presentation on the topic and a list of questions to foster active discussions and encourage participation. Chairs did a great job in preparing their corresponding sessions, and we had a truly interactive workshop.

The last session of GREC2007 consisted in a panel discussion chaired by Karl Tombre. He prepared an excellent summary of the issues discussed during two days, and addressed the hot topics on the present and the future of Graphics Recognition.

Continuing with the tradition of past GREC workshops, the program of GREC2007 included graphics recognition contests. In particular, two contests were held: an arc segmentation contest, organized by Daniel Keysers, and a symbol recognition contest, organized by Philippe Dosch and Ernest Valveny.

The GREC2007 participants had the opportunity to socialize, spending one day after the workshop in the historic city of Lapa. It was a nice trip with a lunch in a farm surrounded by araucarias, an indigenous tree of the Parana State.

The next workshop, GREC2009, will take place in La Rochelle, France, in July 2009. It will be organized by Jean-Marc Ogier (Université de La Rochelle).