A gripper assembly for recovering a layout (22) from a sheet material (12) is presented. It comprises a vacuum gripper (26) with a gripper body (32) on which an array of air flow openings (34a, 34b) is arranged. Air flow openings (34a) associated with one or more blanks (20) of the layout (22) are selectively open and air flow openings (34b) associated to waste (28) of the sheet material (12) are selectively closed. Additionally, an apparatus for recovering a layout (22) from a sheet material (12) comprising such a gripper assembly is described. Furthermore, a method for separating a layout (22) from waste (28) of a sheet material (12) is explained.