Pf march april 2015 e version

Vol. XVI • No. 98 • april 2015

rs. 20

Our President, Mr. P. Chellappan gave a talk on Postscript during IMPRINT’15 held

in the Printing Department, Anna University on 12.03.2015

(Details given inside)

Mr. K. Vipinendran, Associate Professor, Dept. of Printing Technology, Anna University

gave a Lecture on the Art and Science of Relationship on 10.04.2015

(Details will be published in Next issue)

March - April 2015 / Vol. XVI, No. 98 / Print Forum 1

From President’s Desk

P [email protected]

Dear Members,

As George Patton once said, “A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow.” At the beginning of this new financial year, as a forum, let us continue executing the good plans and working towards those perfect ones.

On March 30th, 2015, Sri KT.Chary, a veteran print educationist and the doyen of Chennai’s print industry, attained his heavenly abode. It is indeed a great loss to all of us and on behalf of the Forum, I convey our condolences to his bereaved family.

During IMPRINT 2015, the Annual Technical symposium of the Department of Printing Technology, Anna University, I had an interesting task of introducing the Postscript language to students from all over the country. Re-visiting my alma mater, I tried to make the presentation catchy and crisp enough to capture the attention of about 150 students half my age, and one way of doing that was by showing them the practical application of the language and directly relating it to their field of interest - printing. While flipping through this issue, you can see the details of this presentation.

The other presentation covered in this issue is the lecture by Mr.Atul Gandhi of Macart Equipment (P) Ltd on ‘Understanding Raster Image Processing’, which took place in February.In the month of April, Mr.Vipinendran, Associate Professor, Dept. of Printing Technology, Anna University, gave the forum a thought provoking talk on the ‘Art and Science of Relationships’

With the boom in the e-commerce segment, and online retailing of books through sites such as Amazon, FlipKart and Magzter we have witnessed the closure of one too many of our favourite neighbourhood bookstores. Despite this world-wide phenomenon, book lovers who yearn for the smell of books and bookstores can visit Buenos Aires, the world capital of bookstores, which has managed to keep the bookstore business running successfully. A small write-up on Chennai’s own Higginbothams is the cherry on the cake.

With increasing emphasis on packaging printing, the use of white ink cannot be understated. Our excellent editorial team which can feel the pulse of the industry have given us interesting reads about white ink masking in Photoshop and the influence of white ink in the growth of printing volumes. There are also several other light reads relevant to our field of interest.

Finally, I would like to sign off by congratulating our Executive Committee Member Mr. Nizam Appas for having been appointed as Head - South India for M/s. M.K. Printpack Pvt Ltd., a leading Packaging & Printing company of over 3 decades standing, based in Haridwar.

The PrintingTechnologistsForumREGISTERED No. 149/1989

2, Venu Reddy Street, GuindyChennai 600 032

e.mail: [email protected] web: www.theprintforum.com

Office-bearers P. Chellappan, PresidentMobile 93810 01810Rm. Senthilnathan, Vice-President IMobile 98410 41997Dr. B. Kumar, Vice-President II Mobile 94440 51707M. Venkatesan, Hony. General SecretaryMobile 98842 74908K.B.S.Shanmugasundram, Hony. Jt Secretary Mobile 98842 74912 R. K. Sridharan, Hony. TreasurerMobile 98416 47690

Committee Members V. S. Raman, 99403 19704R. Venkatasubramanian, 98402 60413S. Giridharan. 98840 30519 V. Vaidyalingam, 93828 67972Nitin Shroff, 98400 22652K.R.S.S. Mahendran 86953 29444 N. R. Kumar, 99401 72067Alan Baretto, 98417 21406Murugavel, 95001 22075

Co-opted MembersT.E. Srinivasan, 98403 55284L. Ramanathan, 87540 16030Nizamappas, 99625 28890

Advisory Committee (Past Presidents of THE FORUM)M. S. NagarajanV. SubramanianVipin SachdevDr. N. SankaranarayananR. NarayananD. RamalingamR. JayaramanR.S.Bakshi

n

All communications about THE FORUM and the Journal are to be addressed to Hony. General Secretary The Printing Technologists Forum 25, Peters Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014.

2 Print Forum / Vol. XVI, No. 98 / March - April 2015

Print ForumRegd. with RNI Under No. 71818/99

March - April Vol. XVI / No. 98The Official Journal ofThe Printing Technologists ForumChennai

In this issue . . .

Rs. 120 per annum (Six issues)

World Capital of book stores 2

Higginbothams Jewel of Chennai 3

FORUM’s Technical Lecture on Postscript 4

IFORUM’s Technical Lecture on RIP 6

Enfcous Pitstop Review 8

Online boost to Publishing 9

Colour Check saves Printer 10

Making A difference 11

Homage to KT Chary 12

IPT News 14

White ink in Photoshop 15

White ink printing 16

Mueller Martini News 17

Customer Feedback 18

Blurred lines 19

Agfa’s new security design software 21

Tree Planter to screen printer 22

World’s First Free Publishing Zone 23

Ways of saying Thank You 24

Letterpress in Digital Age 25

Proposal for simplifying tamil script 26

n Copyright for all materials published in print forum remain with the authors/editors/publishers of the respective magazines books/newspapers from which materials are reproduced.

n the facts set out in print forum are from various sources which we believe to be reliable and true to the best of our knowledge. However, we cannot accept no legal liability of any kind for the publication contents, nor for the information contained therein, nor conclusion drawn by any party from it.1

n FurtheritisnotifiedthatneithertheEditor,PublisherorthePrinter,orthePresidentandhisTeamofTheForumwillberesponsibleforanydamageor loss to anybody arising out of any error or omission in print forum. members/readers are advised to satisfy themselves about the merits and details of each before taking any decision.

n Articles and materials appearing in the pages of print forum are drawn from a number of sources : books, journals, newspapers and internet - current as well as very old. to many editors of various technical journals and newspapers, the accomplished authors and business leaders who have shared theirwisdomsandtheirwordswhosearticlespublishedinthesejournals,andtheirpublishers,weoweourdebtsandgratitudewhichisdifficulttoassess or acknowledge. We always acknowledge the sources of every article and materials published in every issue of print forum at the end of the articles, with our courtesy.

n Oursisamembersupportednon-profitorganisationandourmainobjectiveistospreadprint-knowledgetoallwithinourlimitationsandconstraints.

Publisher B. G. Kukillaya Ph: 4228 7300

Editor P. Chellappan M : 2454 1893

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The world capital of bookstores!

With a population of 2.8 million people within the city limits of Buenos Aires, there are 25 bookstores for every 1,00,000 people, putting Buenos Aires far above other world cities like London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow and New York.

All across Argentina’s capital, lodged between the steakhouses, ice-cream shops and pizzerias, is an abundance of something that is becoming scarce in many nations —bookstores.

From hole-in-the-wall joints with used copies of works by Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel de Cervantes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to elegant buildings with the latest children’s books in several languages, Buenos Aires is filled with locales that pay homage to print.

The city has more bookstores per capita than any other major city in the world, according to a recent study by the World Cities Cultural Forum, an organisation that works to promote culture.

With a population of 2.8 million people within the city limits, there are 25 bookstores for every 1,00,000 people, putting Buenos Aires far above other world cities like London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow and New York. The closest is Hong Kong, which has 22 bookstores per 1,00,000 people.

Behind the high number of bookstores, 734 by last count, is a combination of culture and economics.

Culture boomed along with the economy in the early part of the 20th century, and even if the economic path grew rocky, ordinary Argentines embraced and stuck to the habit of reading. To this day, many across the region call the Argentine capital the “Paris of Latin America” thanks to its architecture, wide streets and general interest in the arts, music and literature.

During the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, many top writers and editors fled to Argentina, further cementing the country as a literary capital and powerhouse for printing.

In 2014, there were 28,010 titles in circulation and 129 million books were printed in the country, according to the Argentine Book Chamber, making it one of the most prolific book printers in Latin America.

Rare books

Many stores carry rare books that are hundreds of years old. At Libreria Alberto Casares, bookworms can gaze at a collection that includes a French translation of Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega from 1650 and Gregorian chants on papyrus dating back to 1722.

In buses and subways, in parks and cafes and even in malls, it’s common to see people flipping pages of whodunits, histories and poetry. “I was born with paper books and I’ll die with paper books,” said Aida Cardozo, 65. “Computers are for responding to emails and using Facebook, but not to read a novel,” she said.

Books also receive help when it comes to staving off the digital deluge. There are no sales taxes on books, notable in a country where most products get 21 percent slapped on top of the sticker price. And heavy import taxes on books, and electronics such as e-readers, help keep the local printing industry strong.

While Argentines are increasingly glued to their mobile devices, customers who want to use foreign retailers like Amazon have to pay a 35 percent surcharge on their peso-denominated credit cards.

The use of e-readers like the Kindle is still relatively low. Less than 10 percent of the 1.2 million people who attended the city’s annual book fair last year said they used electronic devices to read books, according to a fair survey.

Ignacio Iraola, the Southern Cone editorial director for publishing house Grupo Planeta, said the economic factors make printed books an attractive business for bookstores and make books a popular gift in tight economic times. n

Courtesy : http://www.thehindu.com

The beautiful El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore located in a former theatre in

Buenos Aires.


Higginbotham's : The Jewel Of Anna Salai

What started as a small bookstore on Mount Road in Madras has been a haven for book lovers for over 170 years

Established in 1844, Higginbotham’s is the oldest surviving bookstore in India. It was started by Abel Joshua Higginbotham, a librarian at the Wesleyan Book Depository in what was then Madras. By 1859, it became one of the premier bookstores of the country, as John Murray refers to it in his Guidebooks to the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay.

The same year, the governor of Madras, Sir Charles Trevelyan,

wrote to Lord Macaulay that “among the many elusive and indescribable charms of life in Madras city is the existence of my favourite book shop Higginbotham’s on Mount Road”.

What started as a small bookstore on Mount Road (now Anna Salai) in Madras has been a haven for book lovers for over 170 years. In 1875, when King Edward visited India as the Prince of Wales, Higginbotham’s had the honour of being appointed the bookseller to His Royal Highness;

the framed plaque is still displayed at the store.

H i g g i n b o t h a m w e n t o n t o became the sheriff of Madras in 1888, the year the bookstore was renamed Higginbotham & Co. It was Higginbotham’s son C.H. Higginbotham who established branches in big southern cities and ran the Southern Indian Railway’s bookstalls, a tradition that continues. In 1926, Associated Printers bought the bookstore and merged its printing press with it.

A f t e r i n d e p e n d e n c e , t h e Amalgamations Group took over the chain of bookstores in 1949. That Higginbotham’s has managed to survive when many others in the trade have faded out is due to the efforts of past chairmen S. Anantharamakrishnan and A. Sivasailam as well as current chairman A. Krishnamurthy. The historic building on Chennai’s Anna Salai was given a facelift in 1989. The bookstore will soon have a website and also launch an e-book application.

“We are different. Unlike new bookstores which burn money on premium real estate, all the stores (except the ones in railway stations) are self-owned,” said Siddharth Rao, senior general manager, information technology and communications, India Pistons Ltd, part of the Amalgamations Group, which runs Higginbotham’s.

Higginbotham’s is profitable, he said, but declined to comment when asked if all its 70 stores, including the ones at railway stations, were making money. A large chunk of its revenue comes from selling books to universities, colleges and schools.

H i g g i n b o t h a m ’ s i s b e i n g repositioned as a place where book lovers can come and spend some time, leisurely reading or browsing over a cup of coffee. Its flagship stores in Chennai and Bengaluru will be the first outlets to be renovated along these lines. n

Courtesy : mintonsunday.livemint.comInside the Higginbotham’s bookstore in Chennai.


P.Chellappan, a Production Engineer and Managing Partner of PM Digital Products, gave a professional presentation on PostScript to B.E. Printing Technology students from all over India gathered for the Annual National Level Seminar, IMPRINT, Anna University, Chennai.

PostScript is a Page Description Language with Text, Graphics and Programming capabilities. Simple and powerful, the pages can be rendered on any output device with the help of a PostScript interpreter.

Chellappan, is also a partner in Asian Printers and Palaniappa Brothers, a book publishing firm of repute. In 1986, he introduced DTP in his press with the purchase of an Apple Computer (Mac SE30) and an Apple Laserwrite 2NT, a PostScript compatible printer. One of the areas where DTP was used was in typesetting pages for bi-lingual diaries. This involved repetitive and tedious manual work to typeset day, date and month in two languages for all the 365 days of the year. The process took two to three days. Being

FORUM’s Technical Lecture

Introduction to PostScript

A lecture on the above subject was held on Thursday, 12th March 2015 evening at IMPRINT’15, The Department of Printing Technology, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University by our President, Mr. P. Chellappan, Managing Partner. PM Digital Products.

a person with knowledge of software development, he immediately began exploring ways to automate the process. That is when he found out the usefulness of the PostScript language and a PostScript printer. By downloading a PostScript program onto a PostScript printer, he could print all the pages neatly aligned without any errors in a matter of minutes. It was convenient, fast and accurate.

After a lapse of two decades, he started PM Digital Products, a state-of-the-art digital printing firm with special emphasis on value added prints. One of the value additions was variable data printing (VDP). This is where the knowledge gained almost two decades ago in Postcript language came of use. He developed in-house a specialized Variable Data Software, which helped PM Digital provide its customers with exclusive variable data capabilities normally not available in off-the-shelf VDP software. In addition to variable data printing, PostScript is used regularly on a day-to-day in several areas like image processing, die line

for CNC cutting, data generation etc. It has helped PM Digital stay ahead of the competition.

W h a t t o o k t h e c a k e i n h i s presentation was on the spot demonstration of practical examples. PostScript was used to layout text, graphics and images on pages. He also gave a basic introduction to PostScript Programming Language. In addition to the data types, simple posctscript commands, color space (Grayscale, RGB and CMYK) and units of measurements (Points, 1 Inch = 72 poinsts), he explained clearly the basic concepts of Stacks and Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) which forms the backbone of the PostScript language.

As the President of The Printing Technologists Forum, Chennai, Mr.Chellappan was keen to share his knowledge with the students. n


Atul C Gandhi, Director, Macart Equipment Pvt Ltd., ripped open the RIPs to the audience at the Koodal Hall, Anna University on 13th February 2015 which was well attended.

He started with the simple statement that RIPs are used in offices too. With well written program, they can be used for laser printers. He concurred that many printers do not know much about RIPs. Now in this digital age, RIPs are used for Direct Transfer of Imaging. Simply put in computer language, it is Dot, No Dot. Frequency Difference decides the Imaging.

WHY RIPs?It is a bitmap to printing data. As for its APPLICATIONS, they

• Manage Printing Devices • Image Editing • Page Setup • OperationsIn Inkjet 7 levels of dots can be used. In RIP, the algorithm is to be written by Self.

FORUM’s Technical Lecture

Understanding Raster Image Processing (Rip)

The CHALLENGE lies in

• Creating Grey Scales in binary mode or in just in one dot size

• Reducing artificats • Smooth Gradation • Protect Image details and

shaping • Processing Raster • Overcome printing on e-paper

with its drawbacks • Color ManagementAt Macart they overcome it by DITHERING

Macart’s Star RIP is used whereby Collection of Dots is done.

• Each pixel to create an image data, thereby

• Dithering is used for distributing pixel value

• Shifting of Errors is doneRIPing software will need more processing spaces. They will be achieved by GPUs and parallel computing.

Printing Electronics is where RIP is used successfully.

A lecture on the above subject was held on Friday, 13th February 2015 evening at Koodal Hall, Institute of Ocean Managament, Anna University, by Mr. Atul Gandhi, Managing Direcor, Macart Equipment (P) Ltd., was intense and at the same time interactive.

Mr. Atul Gandhi. Managing Director, Macart Equipments (P) Ltd.,

BOXJETThis is the speciality of Macart. Macart has designed and developed a totally new inkjet printer which can directly print on corrugated boxes ar sheet from the same printer.

This Printer is totally digital and can print in full colour at speed more than 500mm’sec. it means it can print more thgan 3000 boxes of 500mm length in a hour. With this new technology, there is no need of offset plates as the ink is directly deposited on the substrate using Piezoelectric inkjet printheads Printers now can print just one or thousands ofd boxes of different designs, sizes and with variable data at one blick of button.

Inkjet& RPI, the conventional printers in the gathering could take home to a different technology about which they had little knowledge. Particularly, the students who had learnt some theory could add some practical knowledge from the expert, nay inventor’s first hand information.

Earlier, former Forum President R S Bakshi summarized the vast experience of inventions of the speaker as a prelude to the evening presentation. Concluding, current President P Chellappan who makes good use of RIP himself thanked the speaker highlighting the points in his professional manner.

Report by D Ramalingam


Enfocus PitStop 13 officially released

After a successful beta test period, PitStop 13 is now in general release. Beta users reported that the features included in this release solve their most problematic PDF quality challenges. Available as a subscription or a license model, PitStop 13 provides , as one beta tester described it, “more production, more efficiency and easier communication.” PitStop 13 preflight engine developments include Enfocus-exclusive automatic bleed generation, simpler preflight messaging and more precise preflight restrictions to take better control of the production process while making it more seamless.

enfocuspitstoppro13-inEnfocus developed its Add Bleed Action to solve one of the biggest challenges in the industry – the lack of bleed in supplied PDF files. Customers also wanted a way to help non-technical users understand the error and warning messages that were generated in the PitStop Preflight reports. PitStop 13 now enables users to customize these important messages that can also be translated into other languages – even languages that aren’t currently supported by PitStop.

Preflight Restrictions is “the most important change to PitStop Preflight since its introduction.” This new feature gives users endless options for customizing the checks and fixes included in a preflight profile. Creating a much more targeted preflight check means users spend less time managing irrelevant warnings and errors. Users can easily set these Preflight Restrictions using only minimal changes to the PitStop Preflight editor interface.PDF2IMAGE is a new feature in PitStop Server CLI that gives users more options for creating and managing images from PDF files. As the name implies, PDF2IMAGE lets users create PNG or JPEG images from PDF files. This feature also allows Action Lists to be run on the PDF, so the PDF can be adjusted or graphics added before the conversion. Users can also configure the image output to include only certain elements of a PDF, such as text. PDF2IMAGE will be available in PitStop Server CLI, PitStop2Switch this summer, and as a Switch configurator immediately. PitStop 13 is compatible with Adobe Acrobat X, Adobe Acrobat XI and Adobe Acrobat DC and is available on either a license or subscription basis. n

Courtesy : http://graphicartsmag.com

Stamps printed by Wet Offset Process

The Postal Department formally launched a set of commemorative postage stamps to mark five decades of Indo-French collaboration in space technology.

The commemorative stamps fea ture SARAL/Alt ika and Megha-Tropiques satellites and were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande on April 10 at Elysee Palace in Paris.

Chief Postmaster-General Mervin Alexander said that people may not be writing letters anymore but stamps continue to play an important role in diplomacy. This is a joint release and the commemorative postage stamps were simultaneously released by India posts and La Poste in France.

The stamps have the same set of designs and have been issued in the denomination of Rs.5 and Rs.25.

These stamps have been printed by a special process called wet offset process at the India Printing Press in Hyderabad. Around 9 million stamps have been printed and they will be made available at 60 philatelic bureaux across the country including Puducherry.

The first-day cover and miniature sheets have also been issued along with postage stamp.

Mr. Alexander said that joint philatelic release of stamps is very rare.

India and Japan had released a set of commemorative stamps during the visit of the Japanese Emperor to India last year. n


Online boost to publishing sector

Online stores have proved to be a boon for the struggling publishing industry of the country, with sales of books increasing by 33 cent.

According to data by Bookscam, this steady growth has helped the industry and also the authors.

Chairman of Leadstart Publishing Company Swarup Nanda said, “The book market has remained steady since the last seven years. When Flipkart first started, it was a major bookseller and the whole idea of selling books changed because of that site. The discounts offered were by the website and not the publishers. But it has helped the publishing industry, authors and also the online stores.”

This wider reach has made many to opt for books which were earlier a cumbersome task in book stores. Now with books just a click away, it has become a “good pick” for many of them.

Another publisher Prashant Gandhi said, “Online sales have allowed for a wide range of self-publishing companies to come up. It has become easy for young authors to experiment with publishing books. Initially, the fees are taken for a lot of 1,000 books and if they sell, then it is further increased. With some books, it is found to click very well.”

The satisfaction or getting readers’ views too has become easy, as the online stores have book reviews by readers.

Mohammed Naseem, a publisher who is into e-book business, said, “The e-book market is yet to pick up in India. There are not many writers who are opting for publishing their books only in the e-book format. It’s a combination of paperback and e-book. But there are bound to be more changes in the industry with development of apps to help authors sell their books better.”

As there is still no assessment of readership numbers in India, sales data is taken as the yardstick.

But publishers are happy with the knowledge that there are enough people out there who are into reading and that ensures that the industry will continue to have a long innings. n

A six-month online programme on managing digital products and e-projects.

Whether it is for educational institutions or business, digital products are more in demand than ever before. To extend the knowledge of professionals who wish to manage digital products and e-projects, Goethe-institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Academy of German Media and National Book Trust India are together offering a six-month online course.

The course will include:

A two day kick-off workshop at national book trust in Delhi by experienced lecturers from the academy of german media. The workshop will give the participants an insight into the digital market as a whole and serve as a startup for the learning phase to follow over the next six months.

Extensive online lectures on market overview of e-publishing (strategies, goals, business models, etc.), Use of media (devices, formats, functionalities, etc.), Analysis of target groups, development of business models and promotion.

A follow-up workshop to exchange ideas and discuss various aspects of the respective business models of participants with expert lecturers from germany.

A personally-mentored research work catered according to participants’ interest.

Multiple choice online exam on the vast knowledge gained through the six months.

The focus of the course is to maximise the participants’ e-publishing knowledge according to the latest market trends in the publishing and allied industry. From publishing professionals to freshers in the field of publishing, the course has something for everyone. Lecturers for the programme include dr. Harald henzler, managing director of smartdigits, munich and fabian kern, managing director, digital publishing competence, munich.

By attending the course, participants can expect to gain:

• An extensive overview of the future market.

• Knowledge of various devices, formats, functionalities and other media available.

• A personalised and well researched business model according to the project participants would want to take up in future.

• A detailed research on target groups and how to make products a success in the existing competitive market.

By the end of the course, the participants will be facilitated with an official certificate acknowledged by national book trust india and the academy of german media.

The course will be held between april and october and the fee is Rs. 10,000. Interested publishing professionals can apply by sending information about their professional background and a brief motivational statement to [email protected]. n


Colour check saves printer thousands

A North Queensland printer has dramatically cut down on reprints and ink costs and is bringing in more business by getting the latest colour certification.

Peter Martin, owner of Lotsa Print in Port Douglas, says reprints are down 75 per cent and ink costs 15 per cent since he achieved the ISO 12647 certification in August, saving $25,000-30,000 during that time.

“This is the best thing we have done in the past five years,” he says. “We can print on anything and have excellent consistency of colour across all printers and media.”

Martin says he got his business certified after ‘baffling’ problems with colour consistency and accuracy were drawing complaints from clients.

He enlisted the help of David Crowther at Colour Graphic Services (CGS), who assessed the colour on several sample jobs by Lotsa and found significant issues and suggested getting ISO certified would fix them.

After four hard days at CGS and then colour fingerprinting Lotsa’s Ryobi 920 five-colour offset press and Fuji Xerox iGen4, the company passed the certification.

Martin says it is too early to tell exactly how much more business is coming in, but sales are up on last year so far, clients are impressed and he is hoping to use the certification to attract government contracts.

“Staff and clients immediately saw a clear improvement in our output. Yes it was good before but now it was exceptional, skin tones, gradients, pictures and everything had that clarity and real life colour,” he says.

“We now print with great confidence – if a client queries the colour, we advise that we are certified and they accept that it is correct and their file has the wrong colour.

“We even found issues with the CTP that has now changed the way Agfa does service on their CTP units nationally, and had a competitor even comment to a supplier that our colour was bullet proof because we did the ISO.”

Mart in says having the ISO certification makes a big difference because Lotsa is able to identify and correct problems before they affect print work.

“We no longer need to rely on press density settings or visual inspection to know if colour is correct – a quick 60-second scan and report tells us precisely where we are on colour accuracy, and staff can now do it every day and not rely on my assessments,” he says.

“We can see when the press or CTP is starting to wander and can take pro-active steps to correct it – before it would wander right off before we started getting complaints.

“Bloody printing machines move around a lot and you can do a lot of printing in a couple of weeks before someone notices, and all of it will have some level of error. As a small printer the savings really add up over time.”

Martin encourages printers to take advantage of a free colour check offered by CGS at PrintEx15 next month, which only eight printers have signed up to so far.

“We all believe as printers that our colour is top notch, yes we all notice it does wander at times but overall we are happy with it. That is just what we thought too,” Martin says.

Printers can bring in a few work samples and an ISO colour strip or test sheet printed on their machines to be checked against the standard and see if they have any problems.

Certified: Peter Martin says getting ISO colour certification the best thing Lotsa Pring has done in fiver years. n

Autoprint - the little Giant!

CN Ashok, Direct Autoprint is a Chartered Accountant by profession and KG Suresh, Jt. Managing Director is a qaulified engineer and it is these two who have carried Autoprint through to the point where it is being called as the "Little-Giant" in the Indian Print Industry.

But why do we call Autoprint the "Little Giant"? Well a few reasons are - it is the only company which claims to have at east one instalation in every distrcit of India, it launches a new product every year and sells three machines each day in some part of the world!

The ten thousandth machine sold is a Dion 450+ 4 colour sheetfed offset pritning machine to M/s Jivandeep Printers based out of Lakhimpur (UP).

Dignitaries planting a sapling on the occassion commemorating the sale of the ten thousandth machine by Autoprint. From L-R : Mr.Kumaravel, Mr.Suresh, M r . L i m a y e , M r . K h u r a n a , Mr.Ashok, Mr.Dev Nair and Mr.Ashokan

Today the 'Little-Giant' mames a range of single color and four colour offset printing machines ina ddition to a range of post press machineries used for UV and Acqueous coating, Die Cutting and Variable data printing. n


Making a difference: the Bhagavad Gita in an art edition

Mr.R.Panneerselvam, the founder of Mahatma group of schools in the city is known for his love for books. At home he has a personal collection of 5,000 plus books mostly on philosophy, spirituality and almost every best known biography in the world.

But it is his latest purchase that he can’t get over – a signature edition of The Bhagavad Gita. It arrived a fortnight ago and he is now busy making a special table with wheels and a glass box to encase the prized edition with a price tag of Rs.37,000.

“I spend my money on books, newspapers and magazines,” smiles Panneerselvam, who strictly dislikes free or discount offers on books. A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, he quotes and shares that not even his friend from Srinivasa Publishers in Sivakasi could convince him to accept the premium edition of The Bhagavad Gita as a gift. “The moment I saw it,” he says, “I knew the finely ornamented special edition will make a grand gift for my students.”

Now Panneerselvam is keen to buy a copy each for all the four branches of Mahatma School. So what makes this edition of The Bhagavad Gita a mega masterpiece?

The book has been crafted with extreme care with precious and eco-friendly materials imported from all over the world, says Rajesh of the House of Nightingale. It took them

two years to print the first copy that was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. The second copy was gifted to Kokilaben Ambani who, impressed by the publication, has now ordered more copies for her family members.

If the high quality paper is from Europe and ink from Japan, the special material for the cover is from Netherland, the spine of the book embossed with fine art is from Germany, the swarovski crystals and stones embedded on the cover are from Austria, the metal gilded case for the book is from U.K and the reading stand from Switzerland.

The special edition with exclusive binding features and ornamentation has used all ultra-premium and environment-friendly material that, says the publisher, can be preserved for generations. The text of 700 verses with translation is based on various schools of thoughts including the Advaita, Visishtadvaita and Dvaita.

Mr.Panneerselvam’s excitement is on a new high. He can’t wait to share the thrill of re-reading the Bhagavad Gita in all its splendour with his teachers, students and their parents, other staff and any visitor.

“Each day, we will turn a new page”, he says, “and I know whoever visits the foyer will pause to read the page.” It will work because, he adds, in all the Mahatma Schools the practice of daily reading is already ingrained.

In each school’s reception, a story is displayed every morning in English and Tamil. And it seems Mr.Panneerselvam’s reading habit has rubbed off on to several others as well. “You will always find somebody reading it,” he says.

As far as he is concerned, daily from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. when he shuffles between the four branches of the school, he not only reads four English and five Tamil dailies but also meticulously clips the interesting items for his voluminous scrap book that dates back to 1964.

He has volumes of these scrap books with newspaper clippings that have been segregated and neatly pasted under various categories like science and the universe, higher education, medical advancement, development ski l l s , lead pol i t ica l or any controversial news, obituaries from the Time Magazine, editorials from The Hindu, and everything related to the school that he established with his wife, Premalatha, in 1983.

Mr.Panneerselvam says he has always lived with books. His father too had a collection of 1,000 plus books and many of them were classics and printed in the early 20th Century. His father established the E.Rm. Erulappa Konar Memorial Library in 1954 on North Masi Street in memory of his grandfather. Those days the library was visited by top leaders and VIPs from Periyar, MGR, Karunanidhi, Bharathidasan, Kannadasan to Members o f Parliament and Ministers from the Centre. He still has the priceless leather-covered visitor’s diary containing pages of handwritten notes from each of the visitors. The library was donated to Yadava College in 1980.

That he breathes books is evident from Mr.Panneerselvam’s penchant for constantly finding out new things to read. And he has already placed an order for the Guru Granth Sahib and The Bible for his students and is now searching for the Holy Quran. n

Courtesy : www.thehindu.com

When the students of Madurai-based Mahatma Montessori School return after the summer vacation they will have a surprise awaiting them in the foyer of the Baba Building.


The Printing Industry has lost the Pithamaha of Printing Education in India on 30th March 2015. A teacher Par excellence who deserved the best teacher award by any standard has breathed his last.The last of the dedicated teachers of Printing Industry took leave of his beloved students to attain the abode of the almighty. The unbiased teacher who treated rich and poor, the dull and the Intelligent on the same scale, has joined the majority. The teacher who possessed a distinctive memory in the field of printing left his memorable books to be studied by the aspiring students. A workaholic, who was seen always working to provide a better academic environment to His students chose a divine environment

Born on 15th June 1919 in a humble family in a small Hamlet near Thiruvindaloor near Mayavaram. Passed SSLC examination on March 1934 from National High school Mayavaram. Passed licentiate in printing technology on May 1940 in 1st class and 1st rank. During those days students who stood first in LPT were recommended and sponsored by Govt. of India for higher education in United Kingdom. Due to onset of world war the government denied him the opportunity. Passed BA economics from the University of Bhagalpur. Served as Asst. Foreman in Govt. Printing press Madras. From 10th June 1942 to 23rd March 1947, he served as Hawaldar grade 1 in

Sri KT Chary

Veteran print educationist and doyen of Chennai print industry passes away

Indian Army. He was awarded India service Medal and War Medal during his service in Indian Army. He was discharged from the Army in consequence of reduction of Indian Army on demobilization. During his tenure in Army he was praised by His officers like Lt. Col. Pilcher, H.W. Thompson, Garden Milferd Milferd Smith etc. as an excellent soldier fit to be commissioned. On discharge from Indian army he served as an Instructor under the vocational training scheme for ex service men, a scheme formulated by Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India in Tanjore. Due to reduction of establishment in the organization his services were terminated on 15th June 1950. He served as a Supervisor in Tata power press in Mumbai [Bombay then]. Since his father expired he has to return to Madras then. He joined as an asst. Lecturer in the regional school of Printing Broadway. He rose to the level of section head and Vice principal in the Institute of Printing Technology Tharamani. He was awarded full technological certificate by the City and Guilds of London Institute incorporated by Royal Charter in the year 1966. On retirement from the institute of Printing, he joined Salesian institute of Graphic Art from 1975. He was instrumental in making SIGA as an institute for training students to appear for the Diploma in Printing Technology. During those days there was only one Govt. institution for training students in Printing. SIGA was the first

private institution allowed to train students to appear for Diploma in printing. It was due to the unstinted effort by Shri K.T. Chary SIGA was recognized by The Director of technical education Chennai. During his tenure as a visiting lecturer in SIGA Shri. K.T. Chary authored a book in Lithography and several other examination related books on printing. He was a technical adviser and consultant for St. Louis Printing Institute for Deaf and Dumb, Canal Road, Adayar. He took these jobs only for the betterment of poor students and not for the money involved. He took a very meagre amount from these institutions for his services. Helping the student community was his top most priority. He was Printing Consultant, GC Member of AIFMP, Assessor and Evaluator of Printing and Allied Machinery, Former scrutinizer of SIDCO projects, Editor of Student Technologist and Tamil magazine called Achu thozhil. He was founder member of Association for Research and Development in printing. He was columnist in BMPA News and KOPA. He was an associate editor of Screen print India. He was a pioneer in publishing a directory for printers. He has many many books on printing to his credit. He was towering personality in the field of Education in printing in India. He stands heads and shoulders above all teachers in imparting knowledge to aspiring students. At the age of 87 he was a visiting

Lecturer in Madras Christian College teaching subjects like Pre press, Image setters, Estimating, Costing etc. As a teacher, Author of Printing books, Researcher and administrator, Shri K.T Chary has been a source of inspiration and guidance to thousands of youths to undertake a serious study in printing technology. Every year K.T.


Chary saw to it that his students were selected to Jobs they deserve by recommending to various Industrial establishments. He had a vision and burning desire to make association for Research and Development in Printing [AFRADIP] a place to reckon for research and development in printing technology. He helped private students who desired to appear for Diploma course in printing from Railway press, Govt. Press etc. Thus he paved a way for those students to get their promotions after passing the examination privately. He conducted seminars to solve the problems arising in the field of Printing Industry, He had readymade answers for most complex problems in the field of Printing. Every second Saturday he conducted meetings on behalf of association for research and development in Printing. At the age of 71 he visited Drupa alone in Dusseldorf, West Germany; He also visited Drupa in the years 1995 and 2000. He visited IPEX in Birmingham during the years 1998 and 2002. He was also a freelance writer contributing articles and Letters to Editor to Hindu, Indian Express, Mambalam Times, Outlook etc.

In the death of Shri K.T Chary the printing stude nt community has lost a dedicated and loving teacher and the Printing Industry an able advisor n

Print industry mourns the loss of veteran educationist K T Chary

Veteran print educationist and doyen of Chennai print industry K T Chary died on 30 March, at the age of 95.

A firebrand personality, Chary was highly respected by the fraternity for his undying enthusiasm for the art.

In his condolence message senior print technologist and chairman, Graphic Art Technology & Education Kiran Prayagi said, "Very sorry to hear about the sad demise. He was friendly to everyone irrespective of age, qualification, religion, etc. At Drupa 2000 he was the oldest man walking around."

Starting his career as an assistant lecturer in the regional School of Printing Broadway, Chennai, Chary rose in ranks and served at almost all leading print institutes in Chennai including that of a vice principal in the Institute of Printing Technology, Chennai. He is also credited of being instrumental in the recognition and awarding of diploma degree for the first private print education institute, Salesian institute of Graphic Art.

"KT chary was a person of immense knowledge in printing and an excellent adviser. It is a big loss for the printing world. My hearty condolences to the family," said R Suresh of ST Reddiar. As an academician Chary published several pertinent books for the industry and also founded the Association for Research and Development in Printing.

In a major show of strength Chennai print associations and institutions- MPLA, Print Technologists forum, Institute of Printing Technology, Salesian institute of Graphic Art etc joined hands to mourn the loss. "His role to the chennai print fraternity is irreplaceable and it was our duty to honour his achievements and contribution besides he was someone we all looked up to for his no-nonsense advice and guidance," said P Chander, past president, All India Federation of Master Printers and a key organiser of the meet.

Condolence messages poured in from across the country from print personalities like Pankaj Sethi, Govind Bhargava, Tushar Dote who expressed their sadness of the loss. n

Courtesy : printweek.in

Teaching

is the profession

that

teaches all other

professions


Institute of Printing Technology, Tharamani, Chennai (IPT) held its 90th Annual Day on 11th March. Mr. N. Muralikrishnia, M.E., MISTE, who assumed charged Principal recently arranged as his one of his functions the Annual Day in a grand manner catching up with the arrears. For some reason or other, Annual Days were not held for past couple of years. He had put the trio, Ilamaran, Ramasubramanian and Purushothaman on the job. In a well organized evening, Ilamaran gave the welcome address, Ramasubramanian submitted the Report on Annual Sports and Purushothaman gave the Vote of Thanks.

The Principal in his Annual Report traced the history of IPT right from its Trade School days. In a structured Report, he gave details on Admission, Laboratories, Library, Scholarships, Academic Activity Co.curricular activities Placement, Board Examination, Prizes won by students, CIICP activities, Development activities etc.,

Admission88 students + 3 students from o t h e r S t a t e s u n d e r C e n t r a l Government Quota were admitted in First Year, in Seconf Year 17 were admitted lateral entry scheme.

LaboratoriesThe existing laborotaries were being refurbished. DTP has been upgraded. Pressand Postpress is being looked upon for possible upgradation.

IPT NEWS

Annual Day Celebrations

LibraryIt is well equipped with continuous additions.

ScholarshipsTotal amount of Rs. 5,49,705 were disbursed in 2008-09 as Government Scholarships for SC/ST, MBC and BC students.

Academic ActivitySeminars and Guest Lectures were arranged on Interviewing Techniques & Resume Writing", and "Web Offset In Future". As part of Industrial Training, First Year students were sent to the Industry for 30 days as exposure. Faculty were sent for Seminars. Second and Third Year students were sent on local visits to print related organisations.

Co-curricular activitiesAs part of NSS camps Mass Leadership, Blood Donation and Yoga & Therapy were the areas.

Placement100% placement was achieved concerns from all areas of Printing drawing students (Prepress , e-publishing, Inpress, Postpress and

Postpress, to mention a few intake companies, ITC, Thomson Press, UPSL, SPS, TnQ).

Board ExaminationThe list of top two students from all six semesters were read upon.

Prizes wonNoteworthy was students took part in competitions held by other institutions and won prizes. Other than these, IPT itself held competitions in Technical Paper, Design, and Kavithai.

CIICP activitiesUnder Canada India Institutional Co-operation Project (CIICP), short term courses were held on Basic 7 Advanced Graphic Design and Spoken English.

Development activitiesPrincipal got sanctioned 19 lakhs+ from the Commissioner for long pending building maintenance. The Commissioner had also helped in getting 1.20 crores sanctioned from Central Government Efforts are being made to upgrade facilities in all the laboratories.

Annual SportsSports competitions were conducted in games and athletics foe both girls and boys.

Rakesh Kukillaya, UPSL, presided over the function, P. Chander, former President, MPLA & AIFMP, alumnus of IPT felicitated as also D. Ramalingam, seniormost almunus, Director, Stationery & Printing, Tamil Nadu gave the Keynote Address. He pointed about well equipped infrastructure in State Government Press, one of the oldest ones in the country. They employ a lot of IPT alumni. Recently, a hundred of them were taken in.

All in all, a very well organized and well conducted function it was. Principal had gathered many of the ex-Principals and honoured them. n

Report by D Ramalingam


White Ink in Photoshop

White ink allows you to print on transparent, translucent, coloured and even metallic media, opening the door to new applications in new markets.

B a c k l i t d i s p l a y s , w i n d o w clings, speciality packaging and prototyping are just a few examples. And these applications command higher margins, especially when printing on glass or metal.

DCS2.0 EPS, Tiff, Photoshop PDF and Photoshop PSD are valid file formats for creating white-ink spot channels.

Here are a few tips for working with white ink in Photoshop.

See below for how to download these and other tips for working in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Using Magic Wand– Open any image (CMYK/RGB) with Photoshop.

– Go to Menu, Layers/Duplicate Layer.

– Go to Menu, Image/Adjustments/Brightness- Contrast

D e c r e a s i n g B r i g h t n e s s a n d Increasing Contrast allows for easier, more accurate selection with the Magic Wand tool.

– Make your selection, using the Magic Wand tool.

– Set the Tolerance for the Magic Wand tool to a level that allows easy, accurate selection.

– With the selection loaded, when needed: Invert the selection.

– Go to Menu, Select/Modify/contract.

Contract the edges of the selection by 1 or 2 pixels. In that way you avoid the Printer White Ink to bleed from under the image.

Note: As from Fiery® XF 5.0 you can contract the edges inside Fiery XF. This option can be found under: Output / Special Printer Settings / White ink printing,Spread and Choke.

– Channels: New Spot Channel

– Spot Channel name: White Ink.

– Ink Characteristics: Colour and Solidity have only preview purposes.

– Layers: delete the layer, copy of background.

– File: save as.

– Select DCS2.0 EPS Format

• R G B i m a g e s w i l l b e automatically converted to CMYK in the colourspace as defined in Photoshop colour settings menu.

• DCS: Single File DCS, No Composite.

• Encoding: JPEG (Maximum Quality).

Using Color Range– Open any image (CMYK/RGB) with Photoshop.

– Out of the toolbox, select the eyedropper tool to select a colour range inside the image. This will be automatically set as your Foreground Colour.

– Go to Menu, Select/Colour range.

– Select: Sampled Colours

– Fuzziness: Defines the range of the selection.

– Invert: activate as needed, often making an inverted selection allows for better control.

– Set the viewing to selection with Selection Preview in Quick mask mode.

– With the selection loaded, go to Channels/New Spot Channel.


Spot Channel Options:

– Name: White Ink.

– Ink Characteristics are only for preview purpose and therefore both Colour and Solidity can be set to your own needs.

– Go to Menu, save as.

– Select DCS2.0 EPS Format

• R G B i m a g e s w i l l b e automatically converted to CMYK in the colourspace as defined in Photoshop colour settings menu.

• DCS: Single File DCS, No Composite.

• Encoding: JPEG (Maximum Quality).

Creating Transparency

– Select the White Ink spot channel in the channels pane.

– Menu: Image/Adjustments/Curves: Change the 100% to the desired value to have a more translucent spot channel of white Ink.

Use the following link to download the instructions for these and other white ink tips…

http://w3.efi.com/dm/promo/Select-online-centre n

White ink a booming niche for Brisbane printer

Brisbane printer PS Creative is growing rapidly since it insourced its print production and found a niche in white ink digital printing.

Phil Sargeson, owner of the one-man operation in the city’s south east, says sales have grown 50 per cent since he installed an Oki C941 last February and became an early adopter of the technology.

“The thing that stuck out to me was the ability to print with white and clear toner, I did my research and found most printers couldn’t do that. So I knew we had to jump on it and start printing white,” he says.

PS Creative now prints business cards, greeting cards and swing tags to menus, wedding and event stationery on specialist stock like Buffalo, and offers trade rates to designers, letterpress studio, and agencies - work from which has doubled in a year.

Sargeson had designed his products and outsourced production to trade printers since starting his business in early 2013, but because his runs were so short it made sense to do it himself.

“I was looking to print in-house rather than using trade printers, as the work I was doing was small quantities, so we started researching digital printers,” he says.

He says ganging jobs on the C941’s SRA3 print size has tripled the value of every job. He can also print doubled sided on Buffalo and use specialty stocks to add value to his work.

Because the ability to economically print white ink was so new, few printers were doing it and clients did not even know it was possible, making pricing and marketing challenging.

“From the first day we pumped out samples to show everyone, it was quite a learning curve on how to setup the artwork to print and how to price it – as there were no comparisons or anyone we could find doing the same thing,” he says.“Not long after we started contacting letterpress studios, designers and wedding stationery designers to offer trade pricing to print for them. We started with a small handful back then, which took a few months to get momentum.”Sargeson spent last year refining the technology and learning how to effectively market it, and now this year work is flooding in from referrals to the point where he plans to hire staff in the near future to keep up with demand.“I found a niche market and basically had to start from scratch – printing samples, learning the process to print in white ink and ringing up everyone to sell this new printing technique. Capturing this market and making it our own has been ongoing,” he says.Sargeson says Instagram has been a particularly good marketing medium, showing off work and new specialist paper stocks. He says referrals from it have doubled this year.Paper merchants Spicers and KW Doggett also show his work to their customers as examples of what is possible on their paper.Specialist ink is an increasingly popular option for printers looking to add value, with many digital printers released in the past year including a white or clear slot, and the new Fuji Xerox Color 1000i Press coming with metallic silver or gold. n

Courtesy : www.proprint.au

Booming: Wedding invitation using white ink on Buffalo paper printed by PS Creative.


Muller Martini’s New VDP Enhancements Offers Seamless Integration Into Its SigmaLine

During the recent Hunkeler Innovationdays held in Lucerne, Switzerland, Muller Mart ini demonstrated how variable data production runs can be processed using the SigmaLine digital book manufacturing system. Building on its global success in the publishing book market, SigmaLine now fits well with production in the much more complex commercial book segments, such as healthcare, financial, brochures, customized text books and many other variable book content applications.

Connex, Muller Martini’s proven proprietary data and process management workflow system, now features newly developed Variable Data Printing (VDP) modules which seamlessly integrate into SigmaLine. Companies that currently produce predominantly in batches can now also produce short and ultra-short runs with the same high-quality of page assembly and print finishing. The new Connex modules are:

• Variable-Production. This module enables products with different content or a different page count to be produced in one production run. The signatures are tracked using barcodes, and Connex monitors the production process, including feedback, to a high-level production system.

• Variable-Imposition. This digital page assembly component, which builds on the previous module, enables both normal PDF data and

PDF/VT data for variable printing to be printed and imposed using Connex. Intelligent barcodes are placed on every signature for tracking production through the line and for automatically reproducing missing products following the production run.

• Variable-Bundle. In addition to the Variable-Production and Variable-Imposition modules, this module pre-bundles books selectively in the SigmaCollator. As an example, with this unique worldwide function, all the books of a student can be produced and collated, eliminating time-consuming hand sorting of products.

Today’s brand managers are designing innovative, personalized campaigns that reflect a customer’s highly specific preferences and needs, which is why Variable Data Printing goes far beyond the printing of a customer name on a product. Moreover, response rates and the return on investment for VDP campaigns are typically significantly higher than the rates of conventional efforts. Through these powerful VDP enhancements, Muller Martini is helping to facilitate the unprecedented opportunities offered by VDP to printers and binderies around the globe.

About Muller MartiniMuller Martini is the world’s largest producer of print finishing solutions for commercial and book printers, trade binderies, newspapers and digital book manufacturers. Muller’s innovative workflow solutions optimize processing efficiencies, while helping to build new revenue streams. With U.S. headquarters in Hauppauge, NY, Muller’s sales and support team provides training and responsive service to printers and binderies nationwide. n

Courtesy : www.piworld.com

Siegwerk launches new WebsiteSiegwerk has launched its new internet site on April1. With the new Website, the inks major will be focusing on a broad range of service offerings that add value for the customer. “The website’s relaunch on April 1 offers all visitors an easier overview of our company’s portfolio and many ways of engaging in a dialog with us,” says Bettina Horenburg, head of Corporate Communication at Siegwerk.

The new Website features a newly developed product and application finder that helps customers and other visitors to quickly access the application they need – in a user-friendly way that also extends to all mobile devices. There is also a call-back function for users who need advice from a Siegwerk expert on the phone.

The navigation support helps users find the most important topics on the site swiftly. Along with comprehensive information about the company with its long tradition, the new site offers an overview of practical offerings on issues like inkroom management, on-site consultancy services, training events on the topic of printing inks and joint workshops that help optimize customer processes in a continuous way.

There is a download center with important and informative d o c u m e n t s l i k e b r o c h u r e s , newsletters or information sheets on product safety – all easy to find at a glance. As a further service, interested visitors can also subscribe to Siegwerk’s newsletter, which they will be sent to them before it’s publishing online.

Al l S iegwerk ’s current ISO certificates can also be downloaded directly – meaning that visitors can find out which of Siegwerk’s more than 70 sites worldwide are certified in which ways.

To experience full features, visitors can visit www.siegwerk.com. n


Customer Feedback for Performance Improvement….Can Be Invaluable

INTRODUCTION: S o m e , e v e n p o s s i b l y m o s t organizations “sanitize” their customers’ feedback. By “sanitize” I mean, too often we only want to see and hear --- what we want to see and hear --- and the rest of customers’ feedback….well…..it just disappears --- gets buried.

There are often tell-tale signs --- of problems “under the surface that we want to keep quiet” --- of a broad nature --- occurring in most organizations.

For example:

1. How many credits have to be issued, and to whom, over the course of a few months, or even a year?

2. What’s our personnel turnover? What do the exit interviews say? What do our internal people say? What does it cost us to replace an experienced person?

3. How many customers who tour our plant, begin buying from us? The percentage should be nearly 100%, if we are purposeful in who we develop, are cleaned-up and orderly, attentive, and organizationally prepared --- for who’s visiting. (What we

too often don’t acknowledge is that “serious buyer courtship” is occurring when a plant tour occurs, and first impressions are hard to change.)

4. Do our Delivery Personnel regularly report customers comments, and other “opportunity observations”?

5. Are our Prepress and Customer Service Reps --- trained to recognize and report, in writing --- customer complaints --- and especially subtle complaints”?

6. Do our bookkeepers report notes sent with checks, or comments made during follow-up phone calls?

7. Do we ask, often, of every customer, “What would you like to see us improve next time?” Or, do we avoid asking that because: (a) the customer didn’t complain, and (b) we don’t really want to change anything we’re doing.

8 Is there a supervisor, a senior manager, who asks major accounts: “What would you really like to see us improve in our service to you and your company?” --- who is then required to put what he/she hears --- in writing --- to the president, and to the servicing team. That type of discussion should occur with a major account --- at least twice a year.

9. Are Press-Checks” and “Plant-Tour” customer/prospects --- given a written survey --- every time --- to be returned/mailed --- to the president --- that tests a broad range of issues

for continuous improvement? Are customer suggestions integrated into the customer’s profile --- and acknowledged with a written note as to what the customer should expect improved --- next time?

10. Is there a monthly review of, “What did we improve, for whom --- this month?” Isn’t that a great self-promotion column in your President’s Quarterly Report to Customers?

SUMMARY: Customer Feedback can be priceless, if we want it --- and use it to improve what we do (and our people --- and our customers’ people --- can tell --- if we want feedback, or we don’t)….!

Using Customer Feedback --- requires us to work as an integrated organization, with all departments focusing on serving a common goal and set of objectives --- for exceeding what customers expect….!.

In a world of ongoing supplier consolidation, “If you’re not working to improve almost everything you do, you’re probably backing-up.”

“The director of purchasing said he’s never seen a plant as clean and orderly as ours, and he’s been in the business for over 30 years….. It was no coincidence we started receiving orders before he returned to his plant…” ……Dir. of Business Development . n

Courtesy : http://americanprinter.com

“We didn’t have a clue what our customers were seeing and thinking when they toured our facility, until we started asking for written evaluations of their first impressions....what if we’d never started asking…!” ....Dir. of Business Development

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

Jeff Bezos


Blurred Lines: Gotta Give it Up for Apparent Resolution

If you are ever at a Graph Expo or Print and want to play hooky (à la Ferris Bueller), head over to the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the museum’s most famous works is Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte–1884, the archetypal example of Pointillism, a style of painting that creates an image using tiny dots of color. The canvas is 81.75 by 121.25 inches, what we might call “grand format.” Look at it up close; from a foot or two away, you can easily see all the dots. But as you move further away, the dots become less visible until, by the time you’re across the room, the painting looks for all intents and purposes like a continuous-tone image. I don’t know that anyone has calculated the “resolution” of Seurat’s painting—he was using a paintbrush, not a tiny inkjet nozzle, and as far as I know, art critics don’t evaluate paintings by the number of dots per inch—but as you can tell, the perceived quality of an image is subject to a number of variables.

It would seem straightforward: the smaller the dot that a machine can produce, the more dots you can fit in an inch, the greater the resolution, and ergo the greater the quality of whatever is bring printed. QED—not.

While image quality can generally be assessed by the numbers, it’s more complicated than that. Not all dots are created equal, and the quality of an image depends on factors beyond simply the number of them. It’s also dependent upon how those dots are arrayed, as well as external factors such as the viewing conditions of the final print. The latter is a common issue in wide-format printing: a print designed to be seen from a distance of five feet, 10 feet, or even further in the case of signage, posters, and certainly billboards, will have a higher “apparent” resolution than, say, an image designed to be viewed up close, like a photograph in a magazine, catalog, or direct mail piece.

When you’re reading printing equipment spec sheets, you often come across two (at least) measures of resolution: actual and apparent. (Sometimes they are called different things.) The first one is easy to grok: sometimes referred to as “addressable resolution,” it’s a quantitative measure of what a machine is physically capable of. The second one is more qualitative: it’s what the output seems like, or can simulate. It’s kind of like a straight thermometer reading vs. wind chill:

what is the physically measureable temperature vs. what does it “feel like” outside?

There is a historical basis to the notion of apparent resolution.

“In my past, when I worked with digital continuous-tone photo-printers such as the Cymbolic Sciences Lightjet printers in the 1990s,” said Randy Paar, Marketing Manager at Canon Solutions America, “we needed a way to describe the degree of quality relative to offset printing and the conventional halftone screening and related dots per inch of imagesetters. When variable-drop printing emerged in the large-format inkjet market, comparisons between its improved image quality vs. fixed-drop printing were not appropriately addressed simply by quoting a ‘dots per inch’ resolution specification.”

The fundamental question becomes: when shopping for print ing equipment, is “apparent resolution” meaningful, or just marketing flimflam?

Speaking qualitatively, “resolution” refers to how sharp an image is, or how much detail an image contains. There are many factors that determine how sharp a printed image can be. The output device’s addressable resolution and its nozzle count are really only a starting point, which is why a 1200-dpi printer may not print as well as, qualitatively speaking, another 1200-dpi printer—or even a 720-dpi printer. (By the way, although the “apparent resolution” issue applies to just about any digital printing—or it could be argued, any printing—we will limit this article to digital inkjet printing.)

Some of these variables include:Dot placement—Divide the original artwork into a very fine grid, and then create a corresponding grid on the substrate—like the board game Battleship. Whatever is in square E17 on the original—a dot or no dot—should appear in square E17 on the substrate. So to what extent can a

A c;ose look at how the printheads lays down the rows of dots will provide a good understanding of resolution and inkjet technology.


printhead accurately accomplish that—i.e., sink your Battleship? Think about all the things that can affect the trajectory of a liquid droplet measured in picoliters, and that becomes part of the apparent resolution equation.

Variable dot/drop size—In offset printing, unless you are using stochastic screening, a halftone image is composed of many dots of different sizes. Small dots in highlights, large dots in shadows, and a mix of sizes in the midtones. Many of today’s digital printing devices likewise use different dot sizes, or some variation (as it were) of variable-dot-size technology, with which complex algorithms in the RIP determine what size dot should be placed in which location to provide optimal output quality—again, apparent resolution. So the combinations of different sized dots is another piece of the equation, and is largely the reason we see the term “apparent resolution” today: by definition it cannot be expressed as a single, empirically measured number.

Number of colors/inks—When printing with a four-color (CMYK) device, there can be bit of graininess in the quartertones. However, adding light cyan and light magenta can fill in these areas, reduce the graininess, and boost the perceived resolution of the image. Even more colors—light black, for example—can add even more shades of gray (if you’re into that). So the number of colors you are printing can also impact the apparent resolution or the perceived quality of an image. Making this even more complex is that a four-color system that uses variable-dot imaging may solve the quartertone graininess problem better than a six-color fixed-dot system. (It can all make your head explode, can’t it?)

Number of passes—Aside from single-pass printers, most inkjet output devices go over the same line of dots more than once, filling in additional detail and compensating

for any clogged nozzles or other mechanical issues.

Substrate—What you are printing on is a bi-i-i-ig determinant of perceived image resolution/quality. Dot gain can result in a “softer” look to a print and plug up some details, or, alternatively, in some cases, it can boost perceived quality by reducing graininess. And as we all know, different substrates cause different levels of dot gain. So whether you are printing on an uncoated or a coated paper—and all the different grades thereof—will affect your apparent resolution.

Viewing conditions—Of course, there are the conditions in which the image is meant to be seen. This is not just the viewing distance, but also the ambient lighting and other environmental factors—even the eyesight of the person doing the viewing.

Target application—Last but not least, what is the actual end-use product that’s being printed, and what is the acceptable apparent r e s o l u t i o n ? A r c h i t e c t u r a l drawings, engineering diagrams, and transactional printing have different requirements than retail/POP graphics, luxury packaging, high-end publishing, or direct mail, for example. So depending on what you are printing, a very high resolution—actual or apparent—may not even be necessary or, given how file size and processing time increase with resolution, desirable.

There is no shortage of mathematical equations that will calculate “effective resolution” based on addressable resolution and one or more variables. Ultimately, though, when it comes to the resolution game, don’t get too hung up on the mathematics of it all, because your customers won’t. Image quality is quite literally a qualitative assessment; a printed image either looks good and is acceptable, or it doesn’t and isn’t, and there’s very little on a spec sheet that will allow you to easily determine this. The best practice when evaluating print

engines is to view actual output—your own output—on materials and under conditions that will likely be used in your production. You can use apparent or effective resolution figures as a starting point for further evaluation, but understand that “your mileage may vary.” No, it’s not all marketing flimflammery, but neither is it a definitive quantification of quality.

When it comes to visually perceived materials, numbers may not lie, exactly, but they won’t tell you the whole story. Your own eyes—or those of your customer—will. And it’s your customer’s perception that will be the final arbiter of apparent resolution. n

Courtesy : myprintresource.com

Innovative new website tackles print problemsAn online platform containing hundreds of thousands of contacts, from service experts to equipment suppliers, is now at the print industry’s fingertips thanks to TacaTech

The website is a database for all things print related, helping those in the industry source parts, find skilled professionals, seek expert guidance and buy and sell via the printing marketplace.

“After working in the industry for more than 14 years, I asked myself, how could people find out about my skills and expertise,” explains co-creator Yaron Shifman. “There are a number of social media channels out there, but I thought there was scope for something much more targeted.”n


Agfa Graphics Releases Fortuna 9 High-End Security Printing Design Software

New release features updated tools and new security modules with focus on productivity and complexity of designs.

The new Fortuna 9 design software for high-end security printing from Agfa Graphics, with updated tools and new security modules, will be demonstrated at the Security P r i n t e r s c o n f e r e n c e ( w w w .securityprinters.org) in Copenhagen from April 22nd to 24th. The tools included in the new release focus on productivity and ease-of-use for those who require high-security printing designs for passports, ID documents, high-security cards, tax stamps, security documents, lottery tickets and more.

The new Fortuna 9 is an advanced security design software with integrated security features, which offers a highly secure file format. Fortuna 9 takes a modular approach, meaning that customers can choose various security features out of several that fit the needs of the security designer or printer. Fortuna 9 also employs new methods to create security designs in a more automated way helping security designers and printers achieve time savings and added quality. These new methods focus on outputting high-quality and complex images to help deter and stop counterfeiters.

“All of these elements are important to our customers and potential customers as there is a need to create security designs more quickly than ever before. It is critically important for security design tools to stay ahead of the counterfeiters that are out there," said Andy Grant, Global Head of Software, Agfa Graphics. "Agfa continues to research new security design tools to reduce threats to security and at the same time adapt the software to increase the design productivity. We are currently also developing very particular software and features for the high-security market and for the general security applications," Grant added.

Fortuna 9 is based on more than 20 years’ experience in high-security design. It's "Geometrics module" is a completely new tool that simply and quickly generates space-filling curves. Fortuna 9 also includes a completely new font management tool with support for Open Type fonts and TrueType fonts. Fortuna 9’s “smart selection” option now allows specific objects to be selected more easily and the software adds improved handling for high-resolution images and raw text.

Fortuna 9 will be available at the end of the second quarter of 2015. n

Courtesy : www.agfagraphics.com

A new age of freedom for printersWith the knowledge that today’s smartphones are more powerful than the computers that landed Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969, it is somewhat surprising that using these devices in industry has only just started to take off.Remote monitoring, for example, has been gaining in popularity, but is something that printers are beginning to realise could be a great time and resource saving tool.

It has been on the cards for four months when it was first previewed at the SGIA show, but now HP has announced its HP Latex Mobile application is available for download worldwide.

The mobile app, specially designed for large-format print management, provides that much craved freedom of remote monitoring of job information, print status, and alerts from HP Latex printers.

The HP Latex Mobile app is a significant step forward in aligning printing operations with today’s business lifestyles”

For use with HP Latex 310, 330 and 360 Printers, the app sends helpful consumables alerts, allowing a printer to run and monitor print jobs when they are out on the road or in business meetings, (or even on the golf course), check ink and media levels, and keep track of job completion and history.

HP has gauged some response from some early users of the app, such as PressOn in the UK and Sprintout Digitaldruck in Germany, with positive responses across the board. Haldun Küp, chief technology officer, Sprintout Digitaldruck reacted with enthusiasm, saying: “The app is really great! If a customer calls for a last minute job I can give a fast answer because I know which material is on the printer at any time.”

The potential benefits of the app are obvious, allowing printers to have a much more flexible schedule and instantaneous access to information, truly bringing print into the 21st century.

The HP Latex Mobile app is available for download for free from Google Play and the Apple App store now, with a tablet version of the app to become available later on in 2015.n


Former tree planter turns love of screen-printing into business

t was in a laundromat in northern British Columbia when Sophie Joubarne says she first got the idea to open a screen printing business.

She’d been working as a tree planter and while waiting for her clothes, she started talking with a fellow Quebecer who asked her what she did the rest of the year. She told him that she planned to do screen printing – it was a hobby of hers.

He told her that there was a screen-printing shop for sale in Smithers, B.C. and suggested that she buy it. While she wasn’t ready yet, the seed was planted.

Now, she’s the owner of the Unik Printshop.

Ms. Joubarne says she first learned screen printing while studying graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal, on an exchange in Southern France.

“As a graphic designer, you’re on the computer and you create this

beautiful image but then you have to print it,” she says.

Screen printing opened up new colours, that aren’t normally used on paper, and new materials, like wood and fabric.

She also likes the messiness of the process and working with her hands. “I was in the bush, I like getting dirty,” she says. “It’s kind of an art but it’s not a little fancy art.”

The fall after that conversation in a Smithers B.C. laundromat, Ms. Joubarne, who was then studying photography at Montreal’s Concordia University, started volunteering in the school’s screen printing studio so she’d have more access to the equipment and could work on her projects. They were mostly for herself. The wedding invitation she designed for a cousin was the closest she came to commercial work.

In 2009, at the end of another tree-planting season, Ms. Joubarne found

herself once more in that same northern B.C. town when she came across another opportunity – a government program that helped local entrepreneurs start new business.

Even with the support, the first year had its share of challenges. “Instead of an industrial sink,” she says, “I had a shower.”

Her biggest order – for 300 shirts – came from the tree planting company she’d worked for.

In late 2010, she returned to Quebec, setting up shop in Montreal.

Around 40 per cent of her business currently comes from contract work – she’s done prints for a show of comics at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, T-shirts for Loto Quebec and printed cloth bags and wooden playing pieces for a Montreal-themed memory game.

Another 40 per cent of her revenue comes from printing and selling her own designs. Many of the images are inspired by the forest where she planted trees for 14 summers.

She particularly enjoys printing on wood. “When you print, if you’re consistent, it’s always going to be the same but with the wood every piece is different,” Ms. Joubarne says.

Printing her own work is “way less stressful,” she says. “There’s no deadline.”

“But with beautiful images,” she gestures to a pile of posters she is printing for Montreal-based illustrator Raymond Biesinger, “it’s kind of a pleasure.”

The other 20 per cent of her business comes from offering screen printing classes at the studio.

An intern, sponsored by the French Government, starts working with her soon, her first employee.

Last summer, for the first time, she didn’t go tree planting. “It’s becoming the end of that era,” she says. “I need to move to the next step.” n


UAE’s Sharjah to establish world’s first publishing free zone

sharjah, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will establish the world's first free zone for publishing companies to support the industry, a step that comes as part of the emirate's efforts to promote culture.

T h e a n n o u n c e m e n t o f t h e establishment of the free zone came at a banquet held on Thursday on the sidelines of the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival in the city of Sharjah.

The free zone, which is expected to give a sharp boost to cultural activities and publications in the emirate, will be the first of its kind in the publishing sector.

During the event, also attended by Sheikh Saqr bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, a member of the Supreme Council of the UAE and ruler of Sharjah, the establishment of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) was also officially announced.

The SBA, which was established in December of last year, will be responsible for organizing cultural events such as the Sharjah International Book Fair and the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival. All bookshops and libraries will be affiliated with the SBA.

The SBA is tasked with encouraging investment in the creative industries and offering a platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people from different countries and cultures.

It seeks to emphasize the significant role of writers and their influence amid technological advancement making available a variety of sources of knowledge. The authority also aims to attract relevant cultural bodies and figures from many fields, but particularly those in the areas of publishing, printing, translation and documentation.

Sharjah, which stands out in the UAE for its focus on culture, held the title of Capital of Islamic Culture in 2014.

Noting that the founders of Sharjah also attached great importance to culture and the arts, Ahmed bin Rakkad al-Ameri, chairman of SBA, underlined at the event that the emirate has always been a destination for writers, poets and intellectuals.

The Sharjah Children's Reading Festival, inaugurated on Wednesday by Sultan al-Qasimi, was attended by several thousand primary school students in the first two days.

A variety of entertainment and creative activities are taking place for young people during the festival, such as face painting, theater shows and sand art. There are also storytelling sessions, competitions and puppet shows.

The festival, now in its seventh edition, is organized under the patronage of the ruler of Sharjah. Aimed at promoting the joy of reading among children, the festival will end on May 2.

This year's edition of the festival is held under the theme "Discover My City" and will include 2028 activities in culture, education, art and health.

A total of 109 publishers from 15 countries around the world are attending the festival at the Expo Center Sharjah. n

Courtesy : www.todayszaman.com

Printing press (1556) at Old Romanian School Brasov

Housed on the grounds of St. Nicholas Church, this was for centuries one of the leading learning centres of the Romanian people. The printing press that opened here in 1556 produced some of the first books written in Romanian. The museum hosts a compelling legacy: more than 4,000 rare books (many printed or copied by hand right here), several hundreds rare documents, the oldest Bible (printed on goat’s skin) and much more.

It took 20 workers and eight translators months to finish just one book. n

Courtesy : http://romaniatourism.com

B.C. company develops an environmentally friendly paperSocial Print Paper, an affiliate of Royal Printers, a family-owned commercial printing business, is making news with its environmentally friendly paper made from waste derived from wheat farming.

The Wheat Sheet is made in Northern India, and contains 60% wheat straw fibres and 5% wood fibre from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship. Canopy, a Canadian non-profit is even stating that straw from North American wheat production is enough to save 830 million trees each year. n

Courtesy : www.printcan.com

It is not the employer who pays

the wages. Employers only

handle the money. It is the

customer who pays the wages.

Henry Ford


Thank You - SayingThis isn’t a lesson about common courtesy; rather it’s about leveraging an underutilized edge in the marketplace. While this may not be news to anyone who sells print, it’s worth noting that there’s more than one way to say thank you to customers. You might go so far as to say that not all expressions of gratitude can be considered equal!

Here are a few of the various ways to show your appreciation:

Customer appreciation events.These create a great opportunity for some one-on-one contact, as well as the opportunity to extend the relationship beyond the salesperson. You might want to do these annually, quarterly, etc.

Make sure it’s personal. Consider handwritten thank-yous and letters of appreciation. If your company conducts a customer satisfaction survey, include a personalized note—or better yet, hand deliver it.

Timing is everything. Don’t sacrifice timeliness for the sake of providing something more elaborate. Letting clients know you value their business within 48 hours of a job is the most important factor.

Send value-added appreciation.Always be on the lookout for information that a customer might find useful and send it along at the right moment. Timely and relevant are the keys. Even if the client has already seen it, they’ll appreciate the fact that you’re recognizing them and supporting their interests.

Thank your unhappy customers.

Complaints provide invaluable information about where you need to focus your efforts. “A customer who complains still wants to do business with you, if you can make things right,” notes B. J. Gallagher,

The Many Ways of Saying Thank You!

an HR training consultant. “So thank him or her for giving you that chance and assure him that you want to do everything you can to make him happy again.”Sincere

Keep it simple. If you want to send gifts, something small like a Starbucks gift card can be effective while avoiding the risk of inappropriateness. Small tokens of appreciation can have a very big impact.

Be sincere. The only time a thank you can disappoint is when it sounds non-genuine. “Thank-yous need to be sincere and on-brand,” says brand consultant William Arruda. n

Courtesy : http://americanprinter.com

Mr. Nizam Appas, our Executive Committee Member has been appointed as Head - South India for M/s. M.K. Printpack Pvt Ltd., a leading Packaging & Printing of over 3 decades standing, based in Haridwar, UP. (www.mkprintpack.com)

Chennai branch was officially launched recently.

Congratulations

The President and his team congratulates Nizam Appas on his new role and wishes all the very best in this endeavour. n

South Indian printers meet

The first meeting this year of the South India Printers’ Association was held in Madurai in March. A.M.S.G.Ashokan, the president, secretaries, P. Arul and T.T. Karthi.

Ashokan exhorted SIPA members to take part in the All India Federation of Master Printers’ flagship event, the National Award for Excellence in Printing, showcase their products and compete with national and international printers.

Come September, the event will be hosted by the Sivakasi Master Printers Association in Chennai. n


Letterpress printing finds fans in digital age

The print shop is packed, from the line of hand-cranked printers c h u r n i n g o u t p e r s o n a l i z e d notebooks to the area where helpers lock type into metal frames.Outside, people peek through the windows to watch the action and, down the hall, another group is setting type for their notebooks.About 20 Boy Scouts came to the Graphic Arts Merit Badge workshop in Lancaster from as far away as Buffalo, New York, because there are few places with a print shop like this.Once the dominant way to print, letterpress printing has found a new audience in the maker movement and with graphic designers excited by something tactile in a digital world. The .918 Club of Lancaster has the equipment and the know-how to preserve and promote letterpress printing at a downtown museum and the small print shop. The group plans to expand into a bigger space this year, a move that will bring even more antique equipment out of storage and open the space to letterpress students."What the club is all about is keeping letterpress printing alive, the craft and the skills necessary to complete it by running workshops for a variety of groups," said club president Ken Kulakowsky. "We're hoping now with this expanded opportunity … we can get more community involvement with it."The club started after local printing buffs loaned equipment for an exhibit at the Heritage Center Museum. Wanting to support the

craft, they formed the .918 Club, taking the name from the height of letterpress type. In the past decade, the group has moved several times to donated spaces, each one smaller.Today, the museum fills a corner at Building Character, 342 N. Queen St., and the workshop is held at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology's Branch Building, at Parkside Avenue between Clark and East Orange streets.Club members demonstra te letterpress printing every week at the museum and offer workshops for Scouts, local college's graphic design students and the public several times a year. The print shop measures about 300 square feet, so much of the equipment's stored with club members.The group would like to move into a nearby space 10 times the size, but approvals are needed. The club needs to raise money for repairs as well.With more space, the group could put that donated equipment to work and have open studios for printing students, from professionals to those new to letterpress, Kulakowsky said. More letterpress printers in the community should help the club recruit volunteers to teach and staff the museum.At the last public workshop in March, five students and four volunteers stressed the limits of the small print shop. In an afternoon, the students set and printed 5- by 7-inch cards. Moving to get the right pieces was like a coordinated dance.

Lauren McPherson of Harrisburg s t u d i e s g r a p h i c d e s i g n a t Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and wanted to step away from the computer to make something.

"I loved the hands-on experience," she said.

Melanie Wagner of Lower Swatara Township and Danielle Hartman of

Manheim Township wanted a fun, creative activity. Wagner left with prints she planned to give as gifts, and Hartman printed a fun quote for her new basement bar.

Both work in the art industry and liked the chance to make something and learn the origins of phrases like "upper case" (from the type job cases).At the Boy Scout workshop, about 20 Scouts made notebooks in the letterpress workshop and T-shirts in another area at Thaddeus Stevens.Christopher Neal, a ninth-grader from Batavia, New York, had one of the longest drives to Lancaster: more than five hours."It seemed interesting and fun and there isn't anyone around us who does this," he said. After he printed his notebook, Neal said he had an appreciation for yesterday's printers. "I feel bad for the people who used to have to do it all day."Over the last few years, American Institute of Graphic Arts' Central Pennsylvania chapter organized two in-depth letterpress sessions with the .918 Club for local graphic designers. Joshua Buckwalter, past president of the chapter, compared letterpress to vinyl records, something retro that's found a new audience.

"It's as much of a craft as an art form, and designers are into that," he said.

Working with the equipment and learning from the experienced club members was better than watching how-to videos online.

There aren't a lot of places for people to get that hands-on experience, Buckwalter said, which makes the .918 Club's space even more important.

Buckwalter would like to see more opportunities for people to learn about letterpress and more Lancaster-area printers to offer the option to grow the craft further.

"As it becomes more accessible, designers will see it as a viable option," he said. n

Courtesy : http://lancasteronline.com/


A proposal to simplify the Tamil script

Karky Research Foundation looks at creating an optimal script set for the Tamil language that will be simple to learn, type and display

A team of engineers is attempting to re-imagine the script of one of the oldest-surviving classical languages in the world.

iTamil, a project of city-based Karky Research Foundation, is an attempt to reform Tamil scripts to enhance ‘simplicity, learnability, displayability, scalability and computability’ of the language, according to the research paper the team has submitted to an upcoming international conference.

Popular lyricist Madhan Karky and his team members — Sudarsanan Nesamony from Australia and Tamil Selvi from Chennai — are looking to simplify the 216 consonant-vowel ( uyir-meyyezhuththu ) combinations of Tamil using improvised symbols to denote the consonant markers.

Two irregularitiesThe paper approaches the revision of Tamil script by addressing two key aspects: the basic consonant-vowel shapes are mostly irregular, and the number of additional shapes required for the consonant-vowel combinations are quite complex.

“iTamil will strip away these i rregulari t ies and provide a harmonised and normal ised framework,” the paper notes.

The proposed schema indicates a script that can fit in easily on a smartphone keyboard.

The Tamil script has gone through rev is ions in the pas t , most importantly, every time there was a shift in the manner in which it was written: that is from the time when it was written by hand, to when it was written using a stylus to when the printing press came into fashion.

The paper notes the major script revisions effected by the Italian Jesuit priest Constantine Joseph Beschi (Veeramamunivar) in the 18{+t}{+h}century, when printing technology was brought to South India.

The more recent revision was effected by E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar) who revised part of the Tamil letters in tune with easy typesetting in the printing press.

“Such script reforms are common and often in tune with the times we live in. The Chinese government undertook a major revision to come up with a simplified Chinese script that has led to more people

new vistas:The iTamil project aims to make the Tamil script easy to learn, print and display, among other things

learning it and using it as a business language,” he says.

There are also some larger and not-so-obvious benefits of a more simplified script.

A hypothetical environmental impact of full-scale implementation of a script like iTamil could mean saving up to 30,000 trees a year, in lieu of the average number of Tamil books that are being printed every year. (The calculation was based on a formula available on www.conserveatree.com.) n

Courtesy : www.thehindu.com

Published by B. G. Kukillaya on behalf of The Printing Technologists Forum from No. 2 Venu Reddy Street, Guindy Chennai 600 032 & Designed by R.Venkatasubramanian at Industrial Prints, 23 Second Cross Street, Trustpuram, Chennai 600 024 Edited by P. Chellappan

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