| Printing is
part of the mass communication process. Printing is often
called the ‘mother art of civilization’. Printing
industry, right from its inception, has been an industry in
which technical skills are of paramount importance. Each person
here has a specific and specialized role to perform and contribute
to the final result. |
| |
| Stages of Printing: |
| Digital printing or print-on-demand
is a new production technology that has brought about a revolution
of sorts in the printing industry. A sufficient way of production
and distributing documents, this concept has enabled production
of high quality documents directly form the electronic data,
avoiding the need of film and plates. Documents can be prepared
from electronic files and scanned hard copy originals, providing
greater flexibility and significant advantages in printing
and reprinting. |
| |
| Job Prospects: |
| A Print technologist may get different
jobs in different organizations. In the production department,
the person has to bring out the desired output and the process
starts from the time he gets the manuscripts. In the administration,
he has to supervise and coordinate between the different departments.
He has to took after designing, typography, composing of illustrations,
colours, layout of pages, typesetting, camera processing,
surface preparation and printing on the machine by one of
the applied processes-letter-press, offset or grauare and
finally binding. |
| In the marketing and sales department,
he is associated with the marketing of the product and in
the servicing and maintenance department he looks after the
maintenance and the operation of sophisticated machines. |
| A print Technologist can
work in newspapers, magazines and advertising agencies, government
departments, banks and private publication houses. He can
be in the marketing and sales department of companies, which
supply raw materials for printing and photographic films.
|
| Another option is teaching where jobs
exist in schools, college and polytechnics offering vocational
courses. A person can easily turn an entrepreneur and can
provide printing services to advertising firms, individuals
and companies. A print Technologist in the production department
of a newspaper or a magazine starts as Technical Officer and
can go up in the hierarchy to the level of General Manager.
|
| |
| Remuneration: |
$
| The job offers good remuneration in
the production department of newspapers and magazines. A student
with a diploma course in Printing Technology is recruited
as a trainee for a period of six months to one year and gets
a monthly stipend of Rs. 5000-7000. After the training he
is employed as production supervisor and can expect a package
between Rs. 8,000 and 12,000. As the candidate’s experience
increases, the salary figure zooms up. |
| |
| Course structure: |
| Degree and diplomas in Print Technology
are offered at university and polytechnic level. The average
intake of students for degree course is 30 and for diploma
it is 50. |
| |
| Institution: |
| Apple Publishing Technology Centre,
10, Haily Road, New Delhi offers some courses according to
the needs of the present-day printing industry. The courses
offered by them include digital pre-press where you are taught
page making, QuarkXress, vector graphics, image editing, digital
pre-press and computer graphic design. For people interested
in the new interactive media, there are programmes in multi-media
technology. |
| The future prospects are very bright
for a Print Technologist and if you have the knack for printing,
do join it. |
