Where to Find Print's Tech Geeks

Where does print technology come from? Printers are focused (as they must be) on receiving and producing work. Their operations are the owners of technology—the ones responsible for purchasing, operating and servicing it. But what are the avenues to discovering new systems ahead of the game?

The secret source for industry technofiles is the Technical Assn. of the Graphic Arts (TAGA), which last month hosted its 59th annual technical conference in Toronto, Canada.

Dean Hornsby, director of integrated solutions at Matthews Marking Products, keynoted at the conference, addressing the future of print in a digital age.

“The Internet has not dramatically reduced the need to print,” he said, “but has changed the location where printing takes place,” adding that “people want something to hold.” This shift includes the rise of inkjet which, conceded Hornsby, eliminates jobs related to conventional printing processes. But, he pointed out, new print-related jobs are opening up: in ink, where chemists are needed, and in biomedicine, with the development of printed synthetic tissue.

Also at the conference, printing research pioneer Dr. Charles Krouse received the 2006 Robert F. Reed Technology Medal. Krouse is credited for the design of the M-300 web press, which greatly accelerated streak-free printing, and for his role in the development of the Goss Sunday press with gapless blanket technology, a breakthrough that received a PIA/GATF InterTech Award and is still a cornerstone of many of the top printing systems worldwide.

TAGA is a forum for the presentation of serious research about print production. The body of scientific knowledge gathered in its archives represents nearly six decades of collected scientific and technical knowledge about the way the printed word is imaged.

TAGA-type people—print scientists, academics, researchers and interested parties—exemplify the best of print industry cooperative culture. TAGA is administered by PIA/GATF, but its conference gatherings also draw participants in NAPL/R&E conferences.

These days, as more technology emerges from the labs of companies without firm footing in traditional print technologies, the value of TAGA's accumulated knowledge is increasing. With the “digitization of everything” as a foundation for general imaging applications, the body of knowledge of imaging on substrates—TAGA's expertise—holds premium value.

A case in point: the massive growth in digital camera usage and the corresponding leap in electronic printing of photographs. The digital camera is an electronic system that begs for a hard-copy imaged substrate. Thus an electronic printing growth market has been born, based on imaging substrates.

TAGA's world of scientists and engineers, sometimes mislabeled as geeks or “propeller heads,” are intrepid thinkers. Far from being technological nerds, this group discovered printed electronics, digital workflow and CTP decades before the digital consumer camera arrived.

Generally, there is little risk that what is discussed in the hallways at TAGA conferences will have immediate impact. What the TAGA gatherings do afford—and this year's line-up is no exception—is an excellent opportunity for a print operation to understand why we are where we are, see where we are headed and bring to bear, in a practical way, present-day scientific knowledge to make production cleaner, leaner and meaner.

Deskbound? No problem. You can take a free online tour of the TAGA archive library at http://tagaabstracts.net.

There, you'll find more than 1,500 abstracts of research papers presented and published by TAGA over the years—current through 2001, growing in number, searchable on keywords, dates, authors, etc. One example: No. 10685, “Measurement of Dot Area” by Sebastian Arnaud, published six years ago:

“In this project, three different methods of image analysis have been compared to determine the physical area of dots on five different substrates, on uncoated, matte coated and gloss coated papers, film and plate…. The first method used a Jandel planimeter, the second used Adobe Photoshop, and the last one used a new software program at GATF : ImageXpert.”

TAGA abstracts form a “time machine” of the last 50 years of printing technology. It is clear that development in these years exceeded all previous years of technology development, giving rise to many of today's print production achievements.

On a sentimental note, one can obtain knowledge from industry leaders no longer with us, such luminaries as Michael H. Bruno and David Henry Goodstein. TAGA abstract 950725, “Printing in a Digital World,” by Bruno, forecasts 1) digital color imaging, 2) digital printing, 3) thermal press stabilization and 4) the rise of environmental concerns.

For his part, Goodstein, 25 years ago, prophesied that printing and publishing operations were positioned to benefit from the distribution of information in non-print formats:

“At the intersection of microprocessors, graphic display technology, communications networks, laser non-impact imaging and the traditional print-oriented publishing industry, a new phenomenon known as electronic publishing is emerging…. Groups like Dow Jones and the New York Times have moved firmly into position to benefit from the distribution of information in non-print formats.”

Printing is a knowledge industry; those that grow and prosper are those who stay educated. There's no better place to see where we are than to understand how we got here. And there was no better place to see where we are going than TAGA's 59th annual conference last month. Look for new abstracts in its vast database in the future. www.taga.org