Print technology is a career area most suited for mechanical minded as well
as creative people. In our information era, printing and publishing are one of
the largest industries with a steep growth in demand for personnel, skilled in
advanced methods of printing technology.
There are thousands of printing houses/presses or processing houses in India.
Printing technology specialists are required by every major printing press be it
for newspapers, journals or magazines. All the more with the development of more
and more high tech technologies and equipments, printing presses require quality
technicians with knowledge in the various printing machinery and tools.
The type of printing process/ technique used depend on the sort of final
product your employer's business produces. The main specialisations/applications
in printing technology are general printing (mail order coupons to catalogues);
books; high-quality colour printing (cards, brochures, fine art reproduction);
newspapers; security printing (bank notes or bond issues); transactional
printing (bills, documents); cartons (food and other packaging); magazines;
stationery; metal (cans, badges). Some produce specialised items such as chip
packets, frozen food wrapping and CD labels. Offset printing (combined with
lithography technique is commonly used for books and newspapers), Rotogravure
(for magazines, packaging), Flexography (for labels, packaging, newspapers),
screen printing (for printing on T-shirts, floor tiles etc.), digital printing
such as inkjet (for books, packaging etc), laser (for bills, documents),
dot-matrix etc are some of the common techniques used.
Printing industry provides excellent career opportunities and advancement,
to deserving and hard working people. A career in printing gives opportunities
in technical, marketing and managerial positions. One can work in various
positions like General Manager, Registrar, Director, Professor, Reader,
Lecturer, Consultant, Production Officer, Assistant Director (Production),
Technical Officer, Printing Officer or Manager, Supervisor, Publication
Officer etc. Their work areas and skills required may range from
purchasing and quality testing of print material, press management, operation
and knowledge of various printing techniques; computer operations, installation
procedure and software use; market survey, Electronic type setting and
composition; plate making; colour mixing techniques; graphic design and
layout etc.
Jobs for printing technologist are available in advertising agencies,
newspapers/magazines, government presses, publishing houses, machine/ printer
manufacturers, packaging industries, book printers and even more in private
commercial press as technology consultant. Another option is teaching where jobs
exist in schools, colleges and polytechnics offering vocational, diploma, degree
and master degree courses. They could even start and manage their own printing
and DTP units or binding and packaging units or work as middlemen to collect
print associated works for other units. A print technologist in the production
department of a newspaper or a magazine starts his career as Production
supervisor which may go up to the level of General Manager.
