Several Indian printers and a leading publisher signed for Fogra standardization and certification at drupa24. This is a sign that process standardization and color management have gained traction over the past 25 years. In 2008, the well-attended Monsoon Summits on color management organized by IppStar took place in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai – and among the global experts who spoke, the head of Ugra in Switzerland took part. In 2015, IppStar in association with IdealAlliance organized the G7 course, practical demonstrations, and the G7 Expert certification exam in Mumbai, with active ISO TC130 member Steve Smiley conducting the five-day program.
Over the years, several leading packaging and commercial printers have gone in for Fogra and G7 standardization and certifications. At drupa24, the Indian printers and converters were keen to publicize their quality improvements globally – and to leverage the German Fogra connection at the fair.
At drupa24, DC Books of Kottayam in Kerala signed up for Fogra PSO standardization and certification at the Fogra stand. Perhaps the first Indian book publisher to sign up for the quality certification, DC Books is a Malayalam publisher. Although some of its best-sellers are not captured by the English-centric lists, it may be considered the leading and most active publisher in the country – one of its books recently held the top spot among best sellers for 17 weeks.
Founded by the literary figure and freedom fighter Dominic Chacko Kizhakemuri 51 years ago, the publishing house has always put authors first even when in the beginning, it had to subsidize the high royalties that it paid. It has a complete editorial process and production ecosystem well-known for its outspoken authors and its often unique and avant-garde production. In recent years, to meet the growing demand for its long list of titles, it has reprinted many books using Print On Demand (POD) using leading printers in South India.
Ravi Dee Cee, the current managing director of the company, attended drupa24, and recently spoke to our correspondent Priyanka Tanwar, saying, “The organization has decided to invest in its own POD operations including a digital press, and it is also looking to buy 4-color sheetfed offset press – thus as a global and professionally managed institution, we thought that we need to get a Fogra certification, probably being the first book publisher to do so in India. We are looking at the prepress and postpress that may also come in handy for these short run and book-on-demand operations.”
Three printers, Pragati Offset (associated with Pragati Pragati Pack) of Hyderabad, Imprint Technopack, Bengaluru, and Orange Printers, of Thiruvananthapuram, signed up for Fogra certification at drupa as well. Apart from Ravi Dee Cee, managing director of DC Books, agreements were signed by Shekar Balakrishna, managing director of Imprint Technopack, and Roy Thomas and Sajith BS, the managing director and director, respectively, of Orange Printers with Kulakkada Pradeep of Future Schoolz, a Fogra PSO partner from India, and Jürgen Gemeinhardt, head of Printing Techniques at Fogra, Germany.
Narendra Paruchuri, managing director of Pragati Offset, with Sajith Pallipuram.Photo- IPP
Narendra Paruchuri, the venerable managing director of Pragati Offset and Pragati Pack, which have been the outstanding winners of the Sappi Elephant of the Best Printer in the World award, comments, “We have had numerous quality certifications over the years and although only a few export customers ask about these, we thought of adding the widely recognized Fogra certification. In addition, I am happy that several printers and a publisher have signed up for this certification as we need to raise the best process and quality profile of the industry both domestically and among international print buyers.”
Several dignitaries and media attended the signings. Fogra PSO standardization and certification are based on guidelines, best practices, and ideally, an independent practical confirmation of print production processes that matches recommended deviations and tolerances. These standards are similar to G7 standardization and certification, which is also offered in India by several certified consultants.
Proponents of G7 and Fogra take part in the ISO TC-130 standardization committee which has several groups for various technical aspects of the standardization process and with which the MSD 6 committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards is associated as the local group for graphic arts standards.
Fogra is a not-for-profit scientific research institute for the printing and media industries located in Germany. There are similar organizations in many countries across the world, that take part in color standardization recommendations and discussions with the TC-130 committee of the International Standards Organization. The Bureau of Indian Standards has for several years discussed and adopted the color management standards from ISO 12647-1 to 12647-7 and many of the accompanying ISO standards for lighting, inks and measurement. These and other graphic arts standards are available from the BIS at a nominal price.
Corrected on 11 July for a couple of errors. – editor.
