ISO meeting to take place in person again

For the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020), ISO TC130 Graphic Technology is meeting in person at the British Standards Institution (BSI) headquarters in Chiswick this April.

Not only is this the first time in three years the body has met, but it is also the first time BSI has hosted these meetings.

There is a discussion taking place from two sides on whether the new remote way of working adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic works. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) recently made the point that companies believe the lack of people congregating in the workplace is potentially harming both communication and long-term relationships.

The counterargument is that the flexibility of remote working is improving the work/life balance and benefitting employees. It’s clearly a delicate balancing act to consider.

However, there is a group of people who are very keen to get back to face-to-face meetings, those being ISO TC130 Graphic Technology – the people responsible for making standards the graphics industry is reliant on.  

This work often goes unseen in the area of print production, a hierarchy of standards starts with standards for measuring paper, ink, and colour characteristics. Building on these, printers can produce work using one technology or method that can be matched to another.

This is useful for printing proofs or a small number of reprints on a digital press. ISO standards ensure that the colour of two packages produced in different regions precisely match on the supermarket shelf.

In recent years we have seen the adoption of higher-level, more complex standards to measure the effectiveness of our business processes, production efficiency, and environmental impact.

In many cases standards are adopted "because we have to" and "our customers expect it". These in themselves are motivation enough, but ISO standards bring other benefits as well. Clear communication with customers and accurate print production may both have an initial cost but have long-term benefits because they avoid miscommunication and rejected prints.

The last twenty years have seen the development and widespread adoption of standards for communication of images and documents: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, HEIF, PDF, XML, HTML, and others. We have also seen standardisation of colour communication using CIELAB and ICC Profiles and huge improvements in the precision with which we can press ink onto paper and other substrates.

The use of standard printing conditions is almost universal (be it by choice or by default) for four-colour printing. Control of packaging printing using special inks benefits from a range of standards for specifying aim values and controlling the printed result. We are taking steps towards measuring and controlling the environmental impact of print.

The ISO process is designed as a two-way, consensual process. At each step in document development, drafts are shared with an international community of experts for review and comment. The comments are reviewed and resolved with these experts who correct any problems identified and select the best ideas suggested.

This ISO process however is reliant on not only people participating, but that they develop long and understanding relationships, building confidence and mutual respect for each other. This can be very difficult over Zoom or Teams as the nature of the virtual environment makes it very difficult to ‘read the room’.

Quite often with face-to-face meetings, conversations take place either in the meeting in hushed tones, or over a coffee during a break. Many disagreements can be resolved privately without loss of face in these opportunities and they are just not there when you meet online.

So, the need to get back together is stronger now than it has ever been and to this effect, the ISO TC130 Graphic Technology meeting at BSI headquarters this April will be a great opportunity to rekindle those relationships and networking connections that are vital for the effective production of the vitally important work.

Anyone who cares about the future of the graphic arts is encouraged to get involved.

If you are interested in finding out more about the work of PAI/43, or getting involved in the standard development process, contact the committee manager here: Dawn Hunter - dawn.hunter@bsigroup.com