Towards automated checks and balances
Editor – S K Khurana The umpire’s decision is final…well, not every time. Very recently, while watching an ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Pakistan, I noticed that multiple times, they opted for ‘third umpire’ and most of the time, the decision went against the on-field umpire decision. The third umpire (or TV Umpire) is an offfield umpire who makes the final decision in questions referred to him by the two on-field umpires. Television replays are available to the third umpire to assist him in coming to a decision. Thus, the third umpire decision is based on technological analysis.
Time has come when there is no place for ‘human’ errors as technologically high-end hardware or software solutions are there to assist us in taking a right decision. The same is the case with the trade of print, packaging or any other application. Gone are the days when technicians’ decisions were taken for granted! Earlier, they reviewed the first few sheets of print on the machine and decided about colour gamut. Going back to the 1960s, we find that the pre-press areas were predominantly dependent on craftsmanship of technicians and they were actually able to produce right quality. But not now, as the dedicated class of such people doesn’t exist anymore. In fact, there is hardly any need for such people as with the advancement in technology, dependency level has shifted from human beings to measuring instruments with sophisticated software.
For printers, quality has become an essentially competitive tool and hence the role of quality control equipment and systems in the pre-press and pressroom has become very important. While colour management helps to manage devices so that the printer outputs colour accurately and consistently, quality control or color process control ensures that the colour is consistent across processes and substrates. And this is achieved by instruments like densitometers, colorimeters, spectrophotometers, and plate analyzers etc, which have really taken up the role of checks and balances and are helping tremendously in all proportions.
More recently, Global Vision’s best-in-class text, artwork, print & barcode technologies were selected by Pfizer to provide complete inspection end-to-end: text verification and comparison for Regulatory Affairs; artwork & proof revision comparator; print inspection system and barcode decoder & verification – thus making the whole proof checking system automated and error-free.
The solutions are there but the onus rests with our industry as to how much we are ready to adopt. The journey is on…so why not make it hassle-free and top-of-the-class with the use of smart gadgets and software, which will help us project ourselves as a class apart. Let our quality speak for itself! Wishing you a happy technological adaptation!
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