The competition has been held every two years since 1994 to prove and improve the quality of print reproduction while seeding the competitiveness and creating the quality conscious workforce in the organisation. Furthermore, as the contest is aligned to ISO and WAN-IFRA standards and rules, it helps to familiarise, adopt and implement the international standards applicable for newspapers.
Publishers and printers can register one or more publication titles as per the print production processes applicable, under five different categories as below,
- Category 1: Cold set offset on newsprint
- Category 2: Heat-set offset or UV-curing offset on newsprint (Semi-commercial)
- Category 3: Heat-set offset or UV-curing offset on SC or LWC paper (Semi-commercial)
- Category 4: Printing under own standard or non-standard conditions, like printed on tinted paper through offset, flexography or digital printing.
- Category 5: Magazines, printed in sheet-fed offset, heat-set offset, gravure or digital inkjet
The print quality is judged in two aspects. Firstly, a given print control element (Cuboid) is measured by colorimetric devices and evaluates the technical scoring according to ISO 12347-3 standard targets. Secondly, the overall visual print quality of the newspaper is evaluated by juries according to established criteria. The publications that succeed the Color Quality Club membership are awarded in the WAN-IFRA’s World Printers Forum. Also, five-time winners will be listed in “STAR & MILLENNIUM CLUB PUBLISHERS”, the “Hall of Fame” of the best publication printers in the world.
Early registering participants will get an opportunity to participate in a free test run (Pre-Check) in April 2022.
DATES
- Registration for the contest opens on 15th Feb 2022 and closes by 15th May 2022.
- The contest result will be announced in Aug 2022.
CONTACT AND INQUIRIES
visit the ICQC website to find out more about the registration process and more about the competition.
For any queries related to the contest:
- Ingi Olafsson, Director–World Printers Forum, WAN-IFRA, ingi.olafsson@wan-ifra.org
- Prabhu Natrajan, Research Engineer, WAN-IFRA, prabhu.n@wan-ifra.org