Introduction

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.