Commercial certification
Certification to ISO 12647 is not news. Fogra, the research arm of the German printing trade association BVDM, offers its FograCert service for certifying a proofing system’s compliance with 12647-7. It’s a snip at £6000. It also has certification for compliance to its Process Standard Offset (PSO) which is based on ISO 12647-2.
According to Fogra: ‘externally, this certificate provides proof of the quality a printing or media company is capable of an internally it ensures smooth production that helps to avoid complaints.’ In other words, you can wave your certificate at print buyers to prove you can hit the appropriate colour standard.
The Swiss organisation UGRA also certifies to Fogra’s PSO and both organisations train consultants to audit companies for certification. The problem with this is that these organisations provide consulting services and both also sell testing and measuring devices for colour print. It’s hardy an arm’s length accreditation service.
Instead of taking this route the BPIF’s technical committee has been working with a UK government recognised expert committee, led by Mr Sherfield. The committee has come up with a certification procedure intended to provide the guarantee print buyers need, without involving conflicts of interest. This model follows ISO 12647 and borrows heavily from ISO 9001, the standard that defines quality management for a business. Although this standard is not specific to the printing industry, many printers are ISO 90001 accredited already.
This one is defiantly relevant for digital printers, as Mr Sherfield explains: ‘Regarding validation and even formed certification for digital, this has to be based on the technology used. An HP Indigo can be process controlled in a similar way to an offset press in order to match ISO 12647-2. Other devices need to be treated as proofing systems, so ISO 12647-7 methods will work in this case. Using the maximum gamut is in effect a ‘house’ standard, but still needs validation. Most of the validation software for printing and proofs can use imported custom CMYK profiles as the validation standard’.
Much of the work that’s been done so far for the UK echoes work already completed in Sweden by the Swedish Printers’ Federation. This organisation began its accreditation efforts some 18 months before the BPIF and has been extremely active in funding and resourcing the development and promotion of its certification procedure. Their investment is already paying off, with an increasing number of printers requesting certification at the behest of customers keen to simplify print buying processes.
Paul Lindstrom, special consultant to the Swedish Printers’ Federation says that: ‘Besides offering customers a product specific quality guarantee, the printers often find that they reduce waste and errors, as well as shorten make ready times’.
In the UK, the expert committee has completed its work and is awaiting approval for its documentation from UKSA, the internationally recognised UK Accreditation Service. ISO has a standard (ISO 17021) for checking the certifiers themselves, which is what UKAS does.
In the UK there is only one company authorised to accredit printing companies for compliance to 12647 in addition to other international standards. Print and Media Certification (PMC). This works exclusively in the world wide paper, printing and publishing industries, providing assessment and certification services in the UK and elsewhere.
To be continued…
