Comparative Analysis of Print Defects in Newspaper Printing

Volume-6, Issue-3, May-June 2016 International Journal of Engineering and Management Research Page Number: 248-253 Comparative Analysis of Print Defects in Newspaper Printing Satish Chauhan1, Vikas Jangra2, Ashwani Kumar 3 1,2 Faculty, Department of Printing Technology, GJUS&T, Hisar, Haryana, INDIA 3 M.Tech. (Printing Technology) Scholar, Department of Printing Technology, GJUS&T, Hisar, Haryana, INDIA ABSTRACT Newspaper industry is continuously improving print quality day by day in order to meet higher and higher customer expectations. Also it is one of the broadest sector in which printing industry dominates. The impact of the any newspaper is decided by the number of circulation i.e. readers of any newspaper. Now a day in order to attract readers and increasing the sales of production it is mandatory to maintain quality of printing up to a significant mark. But printing defects would have always been major hurdle in the progressive path of quality. Identifying such defects occurred in national level Hindi and English newspaper was the main objective of this research. Thus the present study aims to address different defects occurred during Hindi and English newspaper printing. Keywords---- Circulation, defects, newspaper, printing, print quality I. INTRODUCTION Newspaper is one amongst the broader sector of printing industry all over the entire world. Although newspaper is still one of the most popular mass media today whatever be the frequency of technology propagation across the globe. The history of newspaper publishing is as ancient as that of printing. In 1702, The Daily Courant was first daily newspaper in London whereas Journal de Paris was the first daily newspapers appeared in France around 1777. Now days mostly newspapers are published daily and have a high circulation all over the world. Newspaper is printed by using web offset printing process. Offset printing or web offset printing is a commonly used technique whose principle is derived from the planography printing process. Planographic printing process is generally a process in which image and non image area are chemically separated with the use of certain chemicals in such a way that image area is ink receptive and non-image area is water receptive. In this inked image is transferred from plate to rubber blanket and then subsequently on to printing substrate with the help of suitable impression pressure. In newspaper printing a large continuous reel of paper is fed which typically passes through different printing units. After printing the main objective is to cut this reel into the required size and fold the same which is mainly done in folding section at delivery unit. The most crucial task in offset printing is maintaining ink-water balance. So to maintain the print quality of newspaper proper attention should be made from prepress section, printing section and dispatch of printed newspaper keeping in view of all the variables with in the short span of time. So here in this study main emphasize was made on commonly occurring defects like misregistration, setoff, slur, show through and ghosting. 248 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved. II. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY The key objective of this research was to elucidate on the following aspects of print defects in Web offset newspaper printing: - 1. Identification of various defects occurred in Hindi 2. Identification of various defects occurred in English 3. Comparative analysis between Hindi and English 4. Remedies to overcome different types of printing defects III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research work was carried in order to analyze the commonly occurring printing defects during newspaper printing. The whole research was carried out at Department of Printing Technology, GJUS&T Hisar. The whole research was made on the basis on observation and identification of printing defects. First of the commonly

occurring defects were enlisted. After that most dominating national Hindi and English newspaper were taken into consideration to accomplish the research. The study made on the commonly occurring defects and the different national newspapers are enlisted in table 1. Commonly occurring National Newspaper Printing Defects Hindi Newspaper English Newspaper Mis-Registration Amar Ujala The Hindu Set off Dainik Bhaskar Hindustan Times Slur Dainik Jagran Times of India Show through Hari Bhoomi The Tribune Ghosting Punjab Kesari Indian Express Table 1: - Various variables considered during research Keeping in view the above mentioned variables the data was collected. The data so obtained was analyzed using suitable statistical tools and techniques in order to conclude. IV. DATA ANALYSIS The data was collected during research on day to day basis from the main pages of all ten national newspapers for forty days. The data so collected was compiled and analyzed in order to accomplish the research effectively. This collected data was analyzed for the following research objectives:- 1. Identification of various defects occurred in Hindi 2. Identification of various defects occurred in English 3. Comparative analysis between Hindi and English 4. Remedies to overcome different types of printing defects The findings of research are presented and illustrated as below:- 1. Identification of various defects occurred in Hindi During the study emphasized was made on most commonly occurring defects. The frequency of occurrence found for various defects in Hindi newspaper is presented as below: - a. Mis-registration in Hindi All the layers of inks are printed at perfect register to get the best quality. If a single color of ink layer is out of register, it decreases the print quality and gives dull appearance. Mis-registration defect is most commonly visible in multi-color printing. The results are presented in figure 1. During observation it was found that Misregistration was a common defect. The maximum frequency was recorded for the Punjab Kesari 40. In addition to this there 36 was frequency for Dainik Bhaskar. The minimum frequency was 4 recorded for Dainik Jagran. b. Set-off in Hindi Set-off is the term in which one printed sheet is transfers the unwanted ink on another sheet due to contact with that printed sheet. The results of finding are presented in figure 2. It was observed that set off occurred only in case of two newspapers i.e. Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran with frequency of 6 and 5 respectively. 249 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.

c. Slur in Hindi Slur is also known as doubling of image during printing. A double impression is formed just close to each other. The results are presented in figure 3. The defect slur was observed in Dainik Bhaskar newspaper with the frequency of 13. On the other hand in case of three newspapers among five, there was nothing like slurring during printing. Frequency for Punjab Kesari was observed 5. d. Show through in Hindi Show-through is a printing defect in which a patch can be seen on the reverse side of the printed paper. The results obtained during research are shown in figure 4. It was found that maximum frequency was 14 recorded for Dainik Bhaskar newspaper. Minimum frequency observed was one for Punjab Kesari newspaper. 2. Identification of various defects occurred in English On the bases of observation made for the identification of various defects in English newspaper, the frequency of occurrence recorded is presented as below: - a. Mis-registration in English The results of the finding are expressed in figure 6. The results depicted that in case of English newspaper the maximum frequency observed was 24 for The Tribune. But minimum frequency was zero for The Hindu. b. Set-off in English The results of occurrence of set-off in English newspaper are shown in figure 7. Observations depicted that maximum frequency recorded was 2 for two newspapers i.e. for Times of India and The Tribune. In contrast to it in case of The Hindu and Indian Express newspaper this defect was no more in existence. e. Ghosting in Hindi Ghosting defects occurs when large amount of ink is transferred on some area of the image which required lower amount of ink. The results of the finding depicted that maximum frequency of occurrence was recorded for 36 in case of Punjab Kesari newspaper. Minimum frequency was 6 recorded for Amar Ujala newspaper as shown in figure 5. 250 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.

c. Slur in English During the observation it was found that there was complete absence of this defect in case of all English newspapers. The frequency recorded was zero as shown in figure 8. e. Ghosting in English The results depicted that maximum occurrence frequency of ghosting was 10 recorded for Indian Express newspaper while minimum frequency indicated that there was complete absence of ghosting in case of The Hindu newspaper as expressed in figure 10. d. Show through in English The maximum frequency of show through was recorded for The Tribune newspaper. In contrast to it minimum frequency observed was 5 for Times of India newspaper as expressed in figure 9. 3. Comparative analysis between Hindi and English In order to achieve the research objectives the study was made on Hindi as well as English newspaper. These newspapers are national dominating. So comparison becomes inevitable between two language papers. This thing is of prime importance that the research was made only keeping in view of the printing defects occurred during printing. Data collected was observation based i.e. visual valuation. On the bases of the data collected and analyses made the comparison is summarized in table 2. Type of Defect Minimum Frequency Maximum Frequency Hindi Newspaper English Newspaper Hindi Newspaper English Newspaper MIS-REGISTRATION DJ : 4 The Hindu : 0 PK : 40 The Tribune: 24 SET-OFF AU, HB & PK : 0 IE & The Hindu : 0 DJ : 5 TOI & The Tribune: 2 SLUR AU, DJ & HB : 0 NONE DB : 13 NONE SHOW THROUGH PK : 1 TOI : 5 DB : 24 The Tribune: 24 GHOSTING AU : 6 The Hindu : 0 PK : 36 IE : 10 Abbreviations Used: - AU: Amar Ujala, DB: Dainik Bhaskar, DJ: Dainik Jagran, HB: Hari Bhoomi, PK: Punjab Kesari, HT Hindustan Times, IE: Indian Express and TOI: Times of India. Table 2: - Comparison between Hindi and English language newspapers 4. Remedies to overcome different types of printing defects It is very much inevitable to overcome these various defects from quality aspect of printing. So following remedies are suggested in context to observation during the study. Printer can avoid occurrence of defects up to a certain extent by implementing these strategies listed in table 3. 251 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.

NEWSPAPER PRINTING Printing Defects Remedies i.e. How to Overcome Sr. Various Defects Causes (If it is:.) Then ( Action ) 1. MIS-REGISTRATION Improper registration Correct the Registration 2. SET-OFF Ink is not dried Increase temperature ( if low) Printed sheet comes in contact Use anti-set off spray powder Printed sheet comes in contact Use of sleep sheets 3. SLUR Cylinder packing is over Sufficient packing of cylinder Loose blankets Fixing blanket properly More plate-to-blanket pressure Maintain Sufficient pressure 4. SHOW THROUGH Less viscosity of ink Maintain viscosity of ink Paper Ink unsuitability Match paper and ink compatibility 5. GHOSTING Inconsistent ink feed Regular supply of ink Poor ink and water balance Maintain ink and water balance Insufficient ink density Increase Ink Density Improper roller settings Setting of rollers evenly Table 3: - Various remedies to overcome printing defects V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION After collecting the data, it was analyzed. It was observed that the results obtained during the research were in accordance with the standard range. During the analysis of the data it was observed that misregistration, set-off, slur, show through and ghosting were the most frequently occurring printing defect in offset printing. Various types of print mottling were found during the research. The frequency of occurring of various types of printing defects in Hindi newspapers and English newspapers is summarized in table 4 and table 5 respectively. PRINT DEFECT AMAR DAINIK DAINIK HARI PUNJAB AND NEWSPAPER UJALA BHASKAR JAGRAN BHOOMI KESARI MIS-REGISTRATION 7 36 4 18 40 SET-OFF 0 6 5 0 0 SLUR 0 13 0 0 5 SHOW THROUGH 7 14 11 6 1 GHOSTING 6 11 13 19 36 Table 4: - Summery of frequency of defects occurred in Hindi newspapers PRINT DEFECT THE HINDUSTAN TIMES OF THE INDIAN AND NEWSPAPER HINDU TIMES INDIA TRIBUNE EXPRESS MIS-REGISTRATION 0 3 3 24 10 SET-OFF 0 1 2 2 0 SLUR 0 0 0 0 0 SHOW THROUGH 21 7 5 24 10 GHOSTING 0 2 1 6 10 Table 5: - Summery of frequency of defects occurred in English newspapers VI. CONCLUSION This research paper has presented an overview about the analysis of various printing defects occurred during printing of Hindi and English newspaper. In order 252 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.

to maintain the quality of newspaper printing it is mandatory to print it defect free as much as possible. From the above research it was concluded that it is not much difficult to control the defects during newspaper printing. On the bases of observation it was concluded that in case of all newspaper only Dainik Bhaskar and Punjab Kesari have slur problem. Also in case of Punjab Kesari newspaper highest mis-registration was observed. In contrast to this highest registration i.e. no mis-registration was found in The Hindu newspaper. Setoff problem was not a big deal to tackle with. It was almost under control during printing in all newspapers. In case of show through problem the maximum frequency was observed for The Tribune and The Hindu. Although it was observed that The Hindu had no defect except show through. In case of Hindi language newspaper Dainik Bhaskar got the maximum frequency for show through. In case of ghosting Punjab Kesari and Indian Express had maximum frequency in case of Hindi and English newspaper respectively. REFERENCES [1] Sheetfed Offset Press (2nd Edition) Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, By: Lloyd P. Dejidas & Thomas M. Destree. (1995). [2] Heidelberg USA, Inc., Tips for Four-Color Printing on the Print master QM 46. [3] Transformation of in the Technology Era, Undergraduate Research in Communications, By: Everett, C. E. [4] System for assessing, exploring and monitoring offset print quality. In The 2nd European Conference of Systems (ECS'11), Puerto De La Cruz Tenerife, Spain, December 10-12, 2011 (pp. 28-33). World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. By: Lund strom, J., & Verikas, A. (2011). [5] Peter Nussbaun Quantitative and observer based print quality evaluation in offset newspaper print. [6] Svante Roding, Abdu Yohance Bunch, Don Voas, & Ronald Earl Hostetler, (2006). Method to reduce back trap offset print mottle. United States Patent Application Publication. [7] Guan, L., Lin, J., Chen, G., & Chen, M. (2006, August). Study for the offset printing quality control expert system based on case reasoning. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE/ASME International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE. [8] John C Briggs, Alice H Klein, Application of ISO 13660, A New International Standard for objective Print Quality Evaluation. [9] Seymour, J. What's on the horizon for web offset color measurement and control? GCA Digital Spectrum, 96, 15-18. [10] Casanova, C. C. A. (2008). A study of production workflows, technology and hybrid printing models in small newspaper companies. [11] Quantitative evaluation of mis-registration-induced color shifts in color halftones. In Electronic Imaging 2005 (pp. 501-512). International Society for Optics and Photonics. By: Oztan, B., Sharma, G. Loce, R. P. (2005, January). [12] Voltaire, J. (2006). Ink Film Splitting Acoustics in Offset Printing. [13] H. Kipphan. Offset Printing. In Handbook of Print Media (p. 225). Springer Science & Business Media, 2001. [14] Fuchs, B., The influence of the quality of raw water in damping solutions on newspaper printing, (1996) [15] General Requirements for Applications in Commercial offset Lithography - GRACOL 6.0. (2002). Alexandria, VA: IDE Alliance. [16] Rossitza Sardjeva, Printability and Run ability of Paper in Web Offset Printing Technologies. 253 Copyright 2016. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved.