Revision of ISO 12647-3 (2.37)

6/2005

Werfel, Manfred

In 1998, for the first time a worldwide ISO standard for colour offset newspaper printing with process colours was approved. This standard came just in time, as fourcolour printing spread like wildfire through the newspaper industry in the 1990s. Already before the standard came into force, there was a major demand for the specifications of the ISO TC 130 Committee that were then applied in a number of standardisation projects at newspapers worldwide. Also the “International Newspaper Color Quality Club” competition, organised jointly by Ifra, NAA and PANPA, made use early on of the specifications of the newspaper printing standard (ISO 12647-3) as the yardstick by which to judge printing quality. Therefore it was possible to gain a wealth of practical experience with the application of the standard in the newspaper sector since the mid-1990s. This experience was taken into account in 2003 when the question arose as to whether, and if so how, the newspaper printing standard should be revised. ISO standards are reviewed every five years, when it is decided whether a revision is necessary. In this way, a revision of ISO 12647-3 came about. Based on the practical applications and feedback from the markets, it very soon became evident that the unambiguousness and clarity of the newspaper printing standard from the year 1998 could be improved. Advertising customers and other data suppliers want to prepare a single digital file for standardised newspaper printing that they can then make available to all newspapers. Customers have little interest in dot gain differences, for example. They expect the individual newspaper houses to compensate for such technical differences. The revision of ISO 12647-3 took due account of such demands. In addition, greater attention was paid to modern technical workflow conditions, such as digital ad supply and CTP. The reproduction process and printing process were described more comprehensively than was the case seven years before. Here also, findings from practical application and applied research were taken into account. For example, the results of the Ifra “Newsshade 2003” research project were incorporated into the specifications of the new ISO 12647-3:2004. Newsshade 2003 investigated the average colour or shade of standard newsprint from all over the world. At the beginning of 2005, the revised newspaper printing standard has reached the status of a “Draft International Standard” (DIS). This means that already all comments and objections from the representatives of the countries participating in the Technical Committee (TC 130) have been incorporated and that now the standard as a whole is ready to be submitted for approval. It also means that there can be no more changes the standardisation associations with voting rights can only vote “yes” or “no”. Accordingly, failure of the standard is highly unlikely, as any queries and objections were settled already during the process. The new standard has been published and can be obtained from the various national standardisation associations. In Germany, this can be from the internet site of the Beuth Verlag (a daughter company of the DIN organisation). Go to www.beuth.de and search for “ISO/DIS12647-3”. For these reasons, a number of associations, including the German ones, decided already last year to make the guidelines of ISO 12647-3:2004 the basis for practical standardisation. With a view to supporting this changeover, Ifra, among other things, has published a series of articles in its monthly “newspaper techniques” magazine under the heading “ What does the new newspaper printing standard bring?”. We summarise this series of articles in this Special Report. We supplement this with an overview in tabular overview under the title “ A quick reference guide to standardised newspaper printing”. This was in response to several approaches to us requesting such a quick reference guide. It was compiled last year with the assistance of a small working group drawn from Ifra members. This quick reference guide does not replace practical training, but can complement it and help realise the conditions of standardised newspaper printing in operating practice. Finally, we wish to point out that standard ICC colour profiles based on the new newspaper printing standard have been available since mid-2004 to all interested parties for downloading free of charge from the Ifra web site (www.ifra.com). These profiles were tested under regular operating conditions at newspapers before they were released. Many thousands of downloads confirm the high level of interest in the industry and advertising sector.