Printing Technologists Forum, Chennai organises seminar on XML and e-PUB

The panelists (from R) Premamala Ramalingam, CR Sowmya, R Veeraraghavan and Atul Nigam Under a firm objective to upgrade the knowledge of its members and printing fraternity, Printing Technologists Forum, Chennai recently organised a seminar on the current technology of XML and e-PUB. M Venkatesan, forum member and associate director, Scientific Publishing Services (SPS), Chennai delved into the new printing technologies during the seminar held on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day. Unveiling of the meet was marked with a welcome address from R Jayaraman, president of the forum, who stressed on their supports and efforts to popularise XML and e-PUB among its members and across the printing industry.

Dr B Kumar, honorary joint secretary, Printing Technologists Forum traced the history of how the forum eventually finds its present position. The seminar was conducted with overwhelming supports of participants from Chennai and beyond. The readiness with which the ‘who’s who’ in the field of XML and e-PUB came forward to share their knowledge and experience as speakers and panellist at the occasion. Balasubramanian was among the speakers who talked in length about the development of e-books. JP Nirmala, assistant professor, Anna University highlighted an introduction of XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) “It’s a metalanguage, meaning a universally compatible software language, adopted by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1998,” she mentioned.

A section of audience Spotlighting on XML-based workflow (JDF), K Ashokan, product manager, Heidelberg talked about the use of JDF developed on the existing technologies of CIP4 (The International Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Pre-press, Press and Post-press). Further, CR Sowmya, vice president, Cadgraf Computers, Chennai delivered an introduction to e-books and e-PUB, which is internationally standardised software used by e-publishers. Demonstrations of the usefulness of the tools for creation and validation of e-PUB was conducted by R Veeraraghavan, deputy manager, SPS. Other speakers in the panel who further explained about workflow and tools included Atul Nigam, AVP & business head, Macmillan Publishers and Dr SK Venkatraman, executive director, TNQ.

Exclusive topics of discussions at the seminar included XSLTransformations delivered by Koushik of TexTech International. N Thiruvenkatasubbu, head, New Media, Datalogics India Pvt Ltd delivered his constructive dialogue on ‘Cross Platform Publishing Challenges’ to create appropriate applications from the available content. Concluding part of the meet was observed with a panel discussion with Atul Nigam, R Veeraraghavan, CR Sowmya and Premamala Ramalingam of TexTech International.