A new ICC colour profile for newspapers addresses contemporary standards, especially regarding total ink coverage.

Developed and tested by the Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation in cooperation with WAN-Ifra, it adapts the modifications of ISO 12647-3:2013. At the same time, a report, 'ISO 12647-3:2013, Quality Standard for Newspaper Production' has been published by the group's World Printers Forum.

WAN-Ifra deputy chief executive Manfred Werfel says print standardisation based on international standards such as ISO 12647-3 has been a great success worldwide. The first ISO newspaper print standard was released in 1998 and has been improved over time.

"Newspaper production standards deliver clear and manageable guidelines for printers worldwide," he says. "Standardisation became a great tool to create consistency across different print plants. It is a unique communication platform between print buyers, ad agencies, prepress designers and printers."

Standardised colour reproduction is promoted by WAN-Ifra's International Newspaper Color Quality Club and is a tool in itself to implement and maintain control over reproduction processes within the value chain of newspaper colour production.

The generic ISOnewspaper26v4.icc ICC print profile has been included in hundreds of newspaper print specifications and is included in many software packages that manage digital production workflows and preflight colour data delivered by different sources.

In January this year, the board of the new World Printers Forum decided to intensify working on print standardisation and the new version of the newspaper ICC colour profile was developed and tested by the Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation in cooperation with WAN-Ifra. This version adapts the modifications of ISO 12647-3:2013 especially with regard to reduced total ink coverage. The name of the new profile is the newspaper26v5.icc.

Werfel says the profile name had to be modified as the abbreviation 'ISO' can only be used for original documents and products released by the International Organisation for Standardization.

The new newspaper print profile can be downloaded here: 
wan-ifra.org/sites/default/files/field_article_file/WAN-IFRAnewspaper26v5.zip

The new 'ISO 12647-3:2013, Quality Standard for Newspaper Production' report was authored by WAN-Ifra research manager Anand Srinivasan and can be downloaded here:
wan-ifra.org/sites/default/files/field_article_file/WAN-IFRA_Report_ISO12647-3_0.pdf

"We present this report together with the new generic newspaper ICC print profile to the newspaper print community and encourage the community to comment and discuss questions of newspaper print standardisation on the World Printers Forum website," says Werfel.

The Online Forum has been established for the exchange of information for those interested in questions of newspaper production: 
http://forum.wan-ifra.org/forums/world-printers-online-forum.

The Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation is an employer and trade organisation for Swedish companies within the graphic and packaging industry as well as other sectors associated with the graphic industry. Inquiries to project manager Martin Elofsson, Grafiska Företagen/The Swedish Graphic Companies' Federation, email martin.elofsson@grafiska.se

Contact Manfred Werfel at WAN-Ifra, email: manfred.werfel@wan-ifra.org