Print Business Outlook Conference focuses on latest trends

Organised by NPES, ICC, and BMPA, a day-long conference in Mumbai — Print Business Outlook Conference — saw serious deliberation on the latest trends in the printing industry.

Colour management

Colour experts shared their first-hand knowledge and solutions to the ongoing challenges in the global print market. William Li, ICC co-chair and colour technology manager, Kodak, discussed the need for standardisation in colour management to get consistent results; while Phil Green, who has many years of experience in the field of colour imaging, provided a preview of iccMax and its status in India. Besides, Green, professor of colour imaging at the Colour and Visual Computing Laboratory, explained about the working and technicalities of the latest iccMax technology which is an upgraded version of ICC software. Whereas Steve Smiley of Smiley Color & Associates Global Brand Solutions, a G7 Expert on standards for specifying print, highlighted the various standards pertaining to PDF/X like ISO 15930 and the ISO CD 20654 for spot colours and halftones.

Elie Khoury, president, Alwan Color Expertise, stressed on the need for standardisation in colour and discussed the ways to build an ISO and ICC compliant workflow. Discussing colour management for digital photography, Ray Cheydleur, printing and imaging portfolio manager at X-Rite, discussed the need for profiling the camera and the targets, which are used for colorimetric reproduction.

Packaging design & branding

At the conference, a panel discussed packaging design and branding. Topics discussed during the panel discussion ranged from wastage to sustainability, the environmental impact of packaging, counterfeits in packaging and the recent trends and development in the industry. “The Smithers PIRA estimates the growth of packaging in India, through 2018, to be on the order of 10 percent per year. Also, with per capita packaging consumption in India low, the potential for growth in packaging is high,” said BMPA’s president Faheem Agboatwala, who moderated the panel discussion.

Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder of Elephant Design, discussed the leading trends observed in India. The trends being eat fresh and local, the role of the internet and increasing user focus in design. She said, “The solution for a package design is endless, but the solution should be a responsible one.” While, Abhimanyu Nohwar, founder and director of Kiba Design, discussed the humancentered approach in package design and stressed on the need for a design which will be ‘good and responsible’.

Digital printing trends

Marco Boer, vice president at IT Strategies, provided a snapshot of the industry trends, with specific reference to the digital printing industry. His presentation revolved around the importance of innovations by smaller companies in order to map out successful business solutions. He discussed the future opportunities and challenges of inkjet technologies.

While, Faheem Agboatwala, BMPA’s president and the man behind BMPA’s annual Print Summit conference and Share to Benefit monthly programmes, said, “The turnout of printers and brand owners is heartening. BMPA’s partnership with NPES and ICC was to promote awareness about colour processes and digital print systems prior to drupa 2016, I think the conference achieved it.”