Web offset printing paves common
path for newspapers and books
Beginning of the 20th century is considered to be an era of the onset of web offset printing
process. Since then this technology keeps upgrading through new innovations and designs,
offering advanced ways to print and produce newspapers. Umasadhan Mudly, managermaintenance,
Ananda Offset Private Limited (Kolkata) finds this progression of web offset
technology not only benefiting producers of newspapers but also books and magazines.
Umasadhan Mudly
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Now that the leading web offset
manufacturers are engaging in more
and more R&D to engineer most
innovative machines/technologies to set
advanced trend in newspaper production,
a line of semi-commercial heat set presses
has been designed and introduced to print
cover or front pages/advertisements while cold
set web machines do churn normal pages.
Another trend yet progressing in newspaper
production is in-line stitching folder, using
glue for half-page news digest, for pullouts
and supplements produced these days in
colourful and catchy textures.
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In fact, web offset manufacturers have
constantly been introducing special features/
additional features to meet the demand
for different kinds from newspaper houses
and their advertisers. No doubt, advertisers
show their interest in this technological
trend. Introduction of Magnum Compact
from GOSS International reduces height
of towers and it helps a lot in retrofitting
process carried out in low roof production
setups, of course, investment in land/space
will also be surely reduced. Wifag has also
developed double circumference quadra
width press for high capacity output a few
years ago.
On the other side, overall development in web
offset technology lends advantage to book
printing too. Nowadays educational books,
which were printed in mono/bi-colour earlier,
are now converted into four-colour layouts.
And those books printed using sheetfed
presses earlier
turned to bulk
publishing in web
fed technology to
meet the increasing
market demands.
As a number of
printing houses
start adopting web
fed technology, this
trend is picking up
among small and
medium publishers. Persuaded by such
sunshine growth in the segment, even some
newspaper publishers have started showing
interest in investing in book printing activity.
In addition, these days, all types of newsletters
and progressive reports in different NGOs,
public organisations, libraries, etc are also
printed and produced in vivid colours ever
since the beginning of the trend of appearing
all things around us in colour. Even one can
find all our epical books and story books now
colourfully printed. This revolutionary change
takes place in post-press arena as well. The
advent of gapless and pinless technology for
folder and folded printed forms in magazine
helps book publishers in minimising finishing
time and production cost.
In a German newsletter I recently read that
the volume of educational book printing in
the country is increasing day by day since
books featuring 3D pictures, laminated pages,
vivid colours, etc lend extra attraction to
children. Around 37 percent increase in book
printing jobs over the last two years in the
country has been reported. In the similar
rhythm, Britain has received approximately
22 percent increase in volume of jobs in
educational books in the last one and a
half year. Similar trends have been set in
Asia too as Japan and South Korea witness
rising growth curve in book printing segment
since last five years.
Ever since the introduction of sophisticated
web feed presses, suitably designed for book
printing by Komori, Mitsubishi, Akiyama,
etc, book production or publishing has
become easier and inventive. This trend is
predicted to stay for more than a decade
down the line. Vision of expansion is bright
particularly in the developing countries
like India and China where the printing
market (including books) is opening up
with bigger prospects for printers and
publishers alike. Ultimately the bottom line
is that web printing industry, apart from
its traditional newspaper domain, will be
catering alternative routes like book and
magazine segments.
