Proposal: 1st ISO Printing & Proofing Competitions?

To all:

I'm thinking of a good way to promote ISO to our dear colleagues in the printing industry. I hope PIAP will be interested to market this one.

I was thinking of having the 1st ISO 12647-2 and ISO 12647-7 printing competitions in the P.I. I'll admit that it is indeed an ambitious project.

A] The proposed event:

Can operate under the auspices of the FPF committees or PIAP;
Can be launched during a local printing exhibit of PIAP;
May be a combo of both Technical and Subjective Test targets;

SUMMARY: All participants will use the same test targets. They will send several samples of their prints to FPF or PIAP for analysis. The first part of the test will be compared with the technical part of ISO 12647. The sheets will be assessed in terms of Color (i.e. Delta E and Delta H), Size of Color Gamut, Gray Balance (i.e. Delta C), TVI Deviation to ISO, TVI variation between CMY, and finally print register. All measurements will be according to ISO 12647-1. The 2nd part of the test is subjective. The same test form will also contain 1 Untagged RGB Photo where the participants can normalize the photo by entering it into their local color management system...color correct it...and Convert to their press ICC profile and then print it. Analysis of this photo will be judged by a group of people under a controlled lighting environment according to ISO 12646 and ISO 3664. All participants will receive a confidential detailed report of their performance.

B] The proposed awards (Overall and Regional):

OVERALL
ISO 12647-2 Offset Printer of the Year;
ISO 12647-2 Digital Printer of the Year;
ISO 12647-7 Proof Printer of the Year;

GMA, LUZON, VISAYAS, MINDANAO
Gold, Silver, Bronze for Best in Printing: 2-color printers and below;
Gold, Silver, Bronze for Best in Printing: 4-color printers;
Gold, Silver, Bronze for Best in Digital Printing;
Gold, Silver, Bronze for Best in Proofing

What do you think guys? Is it possible to have something like this in the near future....say...in 2 years?

We have existing IFRA printing competitions based on ISO 12647-3....but nothing on ISO 12647-2 and ISO 12647-7.

Frits? Anyone?


Larry

Hi Larry,

I just read your proposal. I think it indeed is an ambitious plan. Although I can see the reason why you launch this proposal and agree with the idea behind it, it might cause some problems. Besides the organzation of such a contest there might be some legal problems because I cannot judge at the moment if it is allowed to use the name ISO (and all related things) for such a contest without the approval of the organizations involved.
The other possible problem is maybe even bigger. Suppose there are several companies who enter the contest. Some of them are ISO 12647 certified and other are not. Suppose the winner of the contest would be a company which is NOT certified. This would probably give people who are not favoring ISO (and there are some in the Philippines!!) a perfect reason to break down our effords to promote ISO 12647.

I would rather like to suggest to setup this contest only for ISO certified printing companies. I also would suggest to judge the whole process (printing and proofing) as one. This setup would have two advantages.
1. the problem that companies which are not certified can win and therefore our effords in promoting ISO could be damaged is not evident anymore.
2. companies which are not certified but are compliant (or think they are compliant) might feel the need to become certified too because they would feel the competition of the certified companies.

In this setup we might also talk to Fogra to help us in this by "sponsoring" the contest or at least put their name behind it.

But we have to keep in mind that this is also dangerous for companies because they might not be able to meet the requirements at that moment, so we should also think about how to protect the companies when they should fail (which always can happen since the contest is based on only ONE test)

Let's discuss this further.

Regards

Frits

Gentemen,
Have you ever thought of entering the Asian Print Awards. It is an annual award for printing for Asian Printing Companies. If I am not mistaken a couple of years back a Philippine company got a sliver medal award for its work.
The Thai Printing Association has its own awards and any finalist there gets sent to the Asian Print Awards. Maybe this is something we should be considering.
Asian Print Awards has a web page.

Hi Blanketman,

I think many of us are aware of the Asian Print Award. Also here in the Philippines you have the Print Excellence Award (PIAP). The problem of these types of awards is that winning a award is not based on the ability of a company to control their process and therefore produce on a constant quality level but merely on a subjective assessment of one single product.
Although winning an award in one of these "competitions" is a nice thing for a company, it is not a objective measurement for quality. I agree that companies which are capable to print on a higher quality level have more chances to win but it still does not say anything on the total process. An "ISO award" as suggested by Larry is a much more objective award based on maesurements and not on subjective assessment only.
I was one of the judges for the Print Excellence Award of PIAP this year Since all competitors just have to send in one item of a product only, it is only possible to judge on subjective matters. Hopefully we can change that for next year.....

By the way, I forgot to mention.
Primex is the Philippine company who won the Bronze Award in 2007.

APC wrote:

Hi Larry,

Besides the organzation of such a contest there might be some legal problems because I cannot judge at the moment if it is allowed to use the name ISO (and all related things) for such a contest without the approval of the organizations involved.

There's a workaround. We just have to rename everything...say...Technical Printing Awards, or Technical Printer of the Year. And make ISO a subtitle only (i.e. print specification according to ISO 12647). That's what Ifra does.

APC wrote:

The other possible problem is maybe even bigger. Suppose there are several companies who enter the contest. Some of them are ISO 12647 certified and other are not. Suppose the winner of the contest would be a company which is NOT certified. This would probably give people who are not favoring ISO (and there are some in the Philippines!!) a perfect reason to break down our effords to promote ISO 12647.

I agree.