Kant Dabholkar: Offset and digital must survive together
In the series, PrintWeek India poses eleven questions about print and beyond
26 Jun 2011 | By PrintWeek India
What is your idea of a perfect print firm in India?
It is a unit that has a combination of both offset and digital printing facility with some post-press and pre-press equipment plus professional management.
Which method do you prefer?
Offset and digital and naturally some of the letterpress for which I trained for three years from 1962-65.
What is the trickiest colour that you have had to print?
Light green on an ivory board.
What is the quality you seek when you hire?
Good knowledge of the processes and capacity to understand the job.
What is your most ‘wow’ moment?
Producing a special job (traveller’s cheques) from conception — designing, proofing and final printing all by letterpress in five colours within a short time of one week.
What is the trait you most deplore in our industry?
Poaching of labour and cut-throat competition.
One print blunder you made?
Buying a small offset machine (Ryobi) and a Compugraphic Phototypesetter.
The greatest strength of your printing firm?
Security printing cheques, demand drafts, security code books, specimen signature books and leather binding. We even printed ballot papers for national elections three times.
Which print technology, according to you, is the future?
Hybrid. Offset and digital must survive together, and take the best of each process.
A technology or a thought process you think is a passé for 21st-century press?
Advertising and marketing through print.
Your favourite Make in India print brand?
The Times of India, but without the typos that are creeping into the paper.
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