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Use of Technology in
Newspaper Printing with special reference to TOI
By Puja Dhar
Abstract
Paper reports on the printing process viz., one of the leading
news papers “Times of India”. The findings indicate that there are
many stages through which the News Paper passes and each stage is
a separate section/department in the Printing press. It is found
that there are four main stages in the printing process, beginning
from FAX to Packaging & Dispatch. Further analysis shows that the
entire job done is fully automated.
Keywords/Descriptors: TOI, FAX, Plate, RIP, Microwave link,
Caravan, Folders, Former, CTP.
1. Introduction
Printing press has traditionally put information on to the paper
products; some are to inform the people and some for pleasure.
Today printing press faces the challenge of universal
communication system. Printing press consists of many sections
like printing, packaging and dispatch. Newspaper is considered as
an important agent of the media. Now printing press is totally
changed from old system to new technology based systems. Press is
now fully digital, getting outputs on digital printers and
plotters. Inventions in machines and printing procedures have an
impact on the quality of printing and working. Now time has
totally changed for printing press 85% job is controlled by
computers. Printing Press will be now using CTP technology in
which images are directly taken from computers to plates. Printing
workshops are using new digital colour printing machines intended
for four-color short run up to DIN A3 size. Every day when we
receive newspaper, nobody thinks of the complexity of printing
process involved behind the printing procedure of newspapers. This
paper will explain the printing procedure with reference to “Times
of India”, one of the leading newspapers in India.
There are two types of Editions of “Times of India” i.e. Day
Edition and Night Edition
Day-Editions (Printed at 12 noon to 7pm)
Night-Editions
-
Times of India (Late City) Printed at 9-11pm
-
Times of India (Capital) Printed at 12:30-4:40 am
-
Times of India (Student) Printed at 4:30-5:30 am
2. Times Of India: An Overview
The Times of India was establisted in November 3, 1838, that time
it was named as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce. It got
its present name in 1861 and was published on Saturday and
Wednesday. The daily editions of the paper were started from 1850.
That time this newspaper company were having more than 800
employees.The Times of India is published by India's largest media
group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company, along with its
other group companies, are more popularly known as The Times
Group, which also publishes. The Times Group has very recently
added TIMES NOW a 24 hour English news channel to its chain of
news organisations.
3. Stage Of Printing
There are total four stages in printing the news paper and make it
readable for lacks of customers. Each stage is a separate section
in the TOI printing press. TOI is having many sections. It was
difficult to conduct the survey of all the departments. So in the
study only four main sections have been considered.
-
FAX
-
PLATE MAKING
-
PRINTING MACHINE
-
PACKAGING & DISPATCH
FAX:
This is the first stage in the printing process at the TOI
printing press. As in the olden days TOI was receiving data (news)
through fax only so it got the name FAX. Now Times of India
printing press is having this as a separate department, which is
receiving the data through Microwave link (6mbps), Internet and
telephone. But among all the three, microwave link is used to
receive the data.
This section/stage looks like the
figure as shown below:
Figure: FAX Department.
There are also many electronic devices used like micro frame
Amplifiers (2 Mbps) , Decoders for decoding , Routers, Plotter (45
gram sq./mts), Image setters and Raster Image processor usually
known as RIP which is used for the microwave links. This section
is having their automatic message switching system called as
amss.html (http://11110.112.1.11.amss_frames.html). FAX department
uses dual processor of 4Gb RAM as Raster Image Processor with
Navigator 7.0 software. An Australian software ‘CARAVAN’ is used
as a database. Every thing we talk of in this section is fully
automated. Times of India’s National editorial office is located
in Mumbai, which is linked through hot signals with FAX section.
Plate Making:
Plate is an aluminum coated sheet of size 347mm x 589mm which is
having ultraviolet rays sensitive material.
Plate making is the second stage in
the printing process of the TOI and one of the departments in the
TOI printing press. This section is also fully automated; there
are only two persons who look after this section and its working.
This is the second stage of printing
newspaper, input of which is taken from the FAX department. From
FAX section we receive the film (-ive/+ive) which is then
forwarded to the Plate making section where this film is put into
the exposing unit, after which the film is developed in the
developer. Laser sensor identifies the bar code on the plate which
consists of Edition name, Date, Color (K,Y,M,C), Page Number. The
Bar code looks like TOID230207/CR/01/M/1 ,the output of the laser
sensor is given to the scanner to measure the color density and
the information is sent to the server. Later this plate passes
through benders where these plate’s edges are bended at some angle
which is already fixed in the bender and at last this bended plate
is forwarded to the printing machine which is the next stage or
section of the printing process. Nowadays they have setup latest
Plate making unit where there is no use of Image setter & films.
Computers are used to read data directly from plates using laser
beams.
Printing-Machine is the third stage of printing newspaper.
Printing machine consists of total eight couple of plate cylinder
and blanket cylinder. There is a water and ink treatment done on
the plate, where ink is attracted towards the image area. It does
not react with water which is having PH value nearly 5.3.As we
know Red, Green and Blue are considered as the universal colours,
but for the news paper there are four colours considered as
Universal colours i.e Yellow, Cyan, Magenta and Black represented
by the alphabets Y, C, M and K respectively.
This is Printing Machine Section’s structure, which consists of
the Reel stand where paper is loaded over the large reels then
this paper is passed through the Printing unit and then FORMER,
where news paper is having its first fold. After passing through
turner bar and folder super structure, this paper is now passed
through FOLDER where second and final fold of newspaper is done.
All the machines depend upon the capacity, technology and speed of
printing the papers. There are total of three machine units in the
TOI setup.
Packaging & Dispatch Unit:
This is the last stage of printing process. At this stage paper is
now ready for packaging and dispatch. At this stage all the
printed newspapers are loaded in the load carriers where from it
is dispatched to different areas.
Conclusion
Press is an important mediator between media and the people.
Printing Press is continuously using new technologies in their
workshops, concentrating on the print quality. In future specific
information will also be conveyed via electronic media like
diskettes or CD-ROM, or via data transmission networks (ISDN), as
it is the case for online data banks and E-mail (electronic mail).
There have been particularly fast changes in the pre-press sector.
One of the most significant trends is the fast growing
introduction of CTP technology (computer to plate), which makes
the use of films redundant. Even small printing and reproduction
firms now use totally electronic pre-press systems.
References
Dass Krishna. Function Head TOI, Press Sahibabad.
Kotwal Praveen. Manager System “TOI” Printing Press, Sahibabad
Koul Vishok. Sr.Engineer, Production & Maintenance TOI Press
Sahibabad
http://en.wikipdia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India
Author:
Puja Dhar
Lecturer,
Institute of Technology & Science
Mohan-Nagar, Ghaziabad-U.P.
puja.dhar@rediffmail.com |
