The Printing Technologist Forum Founding Day celebration

The Printing Technologists Forum celebrated its 38th Founding Day Celebration and Commencement of its 38th year on December 10, 2018 at Hall of Guines’ 68 Anna University, Chennai. Prof. Ekambaranathan Memorial Lecture on G7 (one calibration methodology for any process & any substrate) was given by K Panthal Selvan Proprietor, Pressman Solutions, Pressman Academy for Print Education & Resource Managing Director, Idealliance South Asia – South Asia & Middle East Region.This was followed by the presentation of PTF Achievement Awards to the first rank holders (2018) of the Institute of Printing Technology, Taramani, Chennai; Anna University, Chennai; Avinashilingam University, Coimbatore and SIGA, Chennai. Award & Event Sponsor was Multivista Global Private Limited.

The speaker gave an exhaustive presentation on G7 explaining the following points: He said in G7, G is Grey and 7 is CMYK and RGB. It is one calibration methodology for any process and any substrate. It is idealliance’s global industry leading set of specifications for achieving visual similarity across all print processes.

He further said that G7 can be applied to any printing process including commercial printing, newsprint, flexo digital printing (inkjet, electro photographic, LEP), dye sublimation, screen, wide format, industrial inkjet, gravure and offset (web and sheet fed).

The methodology utilizes existing ISO 12647 Standards as the basis for good printing. G7 requires printing with inks defined by ISO 2846 -1,so that the dry solids measure as close as possible to the ISO CIELab values for seven colors – the four primary colors and three 2-colour overprints specified in ISO 12647. The purpose of G7 is to specify a simple calibration process that will help the printers reliably achieve a close “Visual match” from proof to press.

G7 breaks from tradition by focusing on colorimetric data for grey balance in the mid-tones rather than on densilometric aims, i.e. dot gain, for each colour.The G7 method outlines an easy-to-follow recipe for implementing ISO printing standards and additional metrics. The result is a simple but powerful way to match from proof to press.

–D Ramalingam