Monday, January 16, 2006
NYC Trip
I spent the last few days of last week in New York City with a group of students and faculty from the School of Print Media. In NYC the group toured the operations of Pantone and Time Inc. (People/People en Español Magazines) and enjoyed the unusual warm weather.
Pantone
Pantone dubs themselves as a color communication company and are best known as the company that produces the Pantone Matching System. - A color naming system used by graphic designers and creatives to confidently communicate solid, metallic, pastel and process colors and accurately implement color effects such as tints and duotones (Pantone.com).
Being inside Pantone is like being inside any traditional offset commercial printer. In Pantone's pressroom there are two modern KBA sheetfed offset presses that have been custom engineered to meet Pantone's unique requirements. The press used to print the PMS guide has a split ink fountain that allows for the printing of 28 different inks at a time. A dry offset process is used, which removes the possibility of ink contamination via a fountain solution. This innovative setup allows them to reduce the number of press changes required to produce a color guide with 1,114 different swatches.
As you can imagine, the process control at Pantone is top-notch. Pantone relies on spectral and density measurements as well as visual inspection to manufacture their books.
Another interesting aspect of Pantone is their Textile Color System, a color naming system similar to the print guides but designed for the textile industry. The Textile Color System guides are produced using a dye process on cotton cloth. Each swatch is visually inspected for errors.
It was interesting to see how the production of this national magazine is accomplished.
Time Inc.
At Time Inc. the group met with the production manager for People en Español and toured the People Magazine Imaging Department. The Imaging Department is where the editorial and ad content are merged together to form the file digital files used to print the magazine.
The Imaging Department is also where the ugly Hollywood stars get their digital botox and blemishes removed by expert digital image retouchers.
Time Inc. Corporate Production
In the afternoon I tagged along with Bob Chung and met Kin Wah Lam, Director of Digital Development for Time Inc. Kin's group is responsible for developing and implementing print technology and workflow standards for all of Time's 154 titles. These include the requirement for printers to use CTP systems and advertisers to submit PDF/X-1a files. - Both of which were ground breaking requirements in the graphic communications industry.
A new requirement coming out of Kin's group is the use of Softproofing in the pressroom. Currently they are successfully using softproofs for their Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly titles and will migrate all their titles in the near future. - This means no more hardcopy proofs.
The three hours I spent with Kin was the highlight of the trip for me. Time Inc. is doing some pretty exciting things that have a tremendous impact on the graphic communications industry and it was great to meet the people pioneering the adoption of modern workflow technology.
Posted in: Printing Industry | RIT
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