Print standardization based on agreed international norms like ISO 12647-3 has been a great success for newspaper printing worldwide. In conjunction with the development of "full colour printing" based on process colours (CMYK) replacing the old spot colour concept in newspaper production the first ISO newspaper print standard was released in 1998 and improved over time, says WAN-IFRA.
Newspaper printers embraced the uniform international standard quickly as a matter of course since they were used to standardized and straight forward production since ever. The implementation of the standard in real life paid back in the years since then.
Newspaper production standards deliver clear and manageable guidelines for printers worldwide. Standardization became a great tool to create consistency across different print plants. It is a unique communication platform between print buyers, ad agencies, prepress designers and printers.
The WAN-IFRA International Newspaper Color Quality Club promotes standardized colour reproduction and is a tool in itself to implement and maintain control over reproduction processes within the value chain of newspaper colour production.
The WAN-IFRA generic newspaper ICC print profile "ISOnewspaper26v4.icc" meanwhile is part of hundreds of newspaper print specifications all over. It is included in many software packages that manage the digital production workflow and preflight the colour data delivered by different sources. The international norms make printing and print buying easier and lower the costs for printers and their customers by avoiding con-fusion and misunderstandings.
In January 2015 the WAN-IFRA World Printers Forum Board decided to intensify working in the area of print standardization in cooperation with newspaper printers worldwide. A new version of the newspaper ICC colour profile was developed and tested by the Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation in cooperation with WAN-IFRA. This new version adapts the modifications of ISO 12647-3:2013 especially with regard to reduced total ink coverage. The name of the new profile is the newspawspaper26v5.icc". We had to modify the profile name since the abbreviation "ISO" is only permitted to be used for original documents and products released by the International Organization for Standardization. The new newspaper print profile can be downloaded here.
Also, the World Printers Forum Board decided to publish a new WAN-IFRA report on "ISO 12647-3:2013, Quality Standard for Newspaper Production". WAN-IFRA Research Manager Anand Srinivasan authored this new WAN-IFRA Report. This new report can be downloaded here.
We present this report together with the new generic newspaper ICC print profile to the newspaper print community and encourage the community to comment and discuss questions of newspaper print standardization on the World Printers Forum website. The Online Forum has been established for the exchange of information for everyone interested in questions of newspaper production.
