In April 2013, IDEAlliance – a not-for-profit trade association of more than 1300 member companies – announced a significant expansion of its global operations, with the addition of International Affiliates in Europe and India. IDEAlliance-Europe and IDEAlliance-India joined International Affiliates in China, South Korea, Mexico, and Columbia, expanding IDEAlliance’s growing influence in the worldwide development and adoption of media production standards and best practices.
Print and electronic media service providers from every corner of the world are increasingly integrating IDEAlliance specifications into their production workflow, including G7, GRACoL, SWOP, PRISM, PSV, among others. IDEAlliance resources, including Color Management Professional Certification, G7 Process Control and eMediaPro Certification and Qualification programs are setting the bar worldwide for quality and capabilities in an integrated media production and distribution workflow.
The role of IDEAlliance India is to help and enable Indian print service providers and brand owners to be a part of the worldwide development and adoption of media production standards and best practices. We see this essentially as an important opportunity to improve the knowledge and skill sets of professionals and technicians in the industry. Thus far, most of the Indian printing industry (with the notable exception of a few major newspapers) has progressed through the efforts of owners becoming the technical experts. However, beyond their academic training in printing and engineering, their knowledge of colour management and standardization has been self taught with the occasional help of seminars and conferences. IppStar did conduct a 5-day colour management certificate course in Delhi and Chennai in 2005 for which the main faculty was Paul Lindstrom of Malmo University and Digital Dots, assisted by Pongtorn (Tom) Jungtarawat of X-Rite (at the time known as Gretag-Macbeth).
Most training, qualifications and certifications have been something one had to travel abroad to accomplish and this has been an expensive proposition for Indian printers and brand owners, especially to bring it to employed professionals and technicians who actually perform the prepress, pressroom and quality control tasks on a day-to-day basis. It has also been difficult to create an ongoing discussion of standards and specifications and to improve the quality and quantity of human resource that can practice these in their work. Training had to be made more accessible and cost effective. We need an abundance of cost-effective local professionals for consulting and certification. Although the entire process will take time, this is what IDEAlliance India is attempting to do with the help of IDEAlliance in the US.
IDEAlliance has a growing set of colour management professional courses that are available online. Several companies and individuals in India have completed these and achieved certifications. All IDEAlliance memberships and certifications from around the world are listed on the IDEAlliance website both for the benefit of brand owners and printers. Qualified professionals and experts also get due recognition.
In February 2014, with the help of NPES and IDEAlliance, the Colour Management for Professionals Print course will be held in Delhi and Mumbai. The trainer for these courses will be Steve Ballinger, the director of training of IDEAlliance. Both courses will entitle participants to take an online exam which will entitle them to the certification as CMP-Print professionals. Registrations from as far away as Sivakasi and Colombo have already been received.
The course in Delhi is organized as a two-day event on 15 and 16 February while in Mumbai the course will be held as two one-day courses on 20 and 21 February. Please contact Gaurav Mishra at research5@ippgroup.in and +91 9540 975239.
