SWOP Leverages Merger with IDEAlliance to Meet Today's Industry Needs
SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications), a leading organization in the graphic communications and publication printing industries, today announced their merger with IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance), an association of advertising agencies, printers, publishers, and technology partners. Working within the IDEAlliance infrastructure, SWOP plans to aggressively set a new course to better serve the publication printing industry through its training initiatives, technical specifications and SWOP certification programs.
According to Nubar Nakashian, Chairman of SWOP, "Merging with IDEAlliance will provide synergy for both SWOP and IDEAlliance Programs. Working together we can extend the reach of specifications and guidelines across the printing industry."
David Steinhardt, President and CEO of IDEAlliance added, "We welcome adding SWOP to the family of IDEAlliance Programs. This move is a direct response to the requirements of the publishing industry to align color management specifications and certification programs across industry segments. No one can afford to support different controls and specifications for the publishing and printing process. Alignment is a must and we are proactively responding to that need."
SWOP and IDEAlliance began working together in early 2004 to develop common marketing, publishing, ordering, and fulfillment mechanisms. Printtools (https://www.printtools.org) is now the online one-stop-shop for products from SWOP through a partnership between IDEAlliance and IPA. Moving forward, both SWOP and GRACoL will be developed and published as a coordinated effort. IDEAlliance plans to streamline redundant information that is currently found in the SWOP and GRACoL Specifications and develop a consolidated industry "How to Guide" as a joint technical resource for both publication and commercial printers.
Further, the IDEAlliance GRACoL and SWOP Programs will benefit from new industry research projects being conducted by the IDEAlliance Print Properties Committee chaired by Steve Smiley (Vertis), co-chaired by John Sweeney, ICS Color and coordinated by Program Director, Dianne Kennedy, IDEAlliance Vice President of Publishing Technologies. Projects currently on the radar will address substrates, inks, measurement technologies, digital printing, alternate screening technologies and the applicability of metadata in production workflows. The Print Properties Committee is planning research runs on web presses later this year to test the applicability of the new GRACoL process controls and standardizing on gray balance in the SWOP publication printing environment.
With the merger of SWOP with IDEAlliance, the SWOP organization has been aligned to be compatible with other IDEAlliance Programs. The new IDEAlliance SWOP Program is composed of the IDEAlliance SWOP Advisory Board (formerly the SWOP Board of Directors) and the IDEAlliance SWOP Review Network (formerly the SWOP Review Committee). The IDEAlliance SWOP Review Network is a group of individuals interested in contributing to the SWOP Specification by providing industry input and direction. This group will meet on August 24 in New York City (sign up at www.idealliance.org). The SWOP Advisory Board oversees the activities of the IDEAlliance SWOP Program according to input from the SWOP Review Network.
The SWOP Advisory Board selected its new membership in July. The Advisory Board is maintaining industry outreach by including representatives of six Affiliate Organizations.
About GRACoL®
In 1966, a graphics arts task force was formed by the Graphic Communications Association (now IDEAlliance) to develop a document containing general guidelines and recommendations that could be used as a reference source across the industry for quality color printing. Since that time, the GRACoL Committee has developed, maintained and published printing guidelines that have since become de facto standards on many pressrooms. The mission of GRACoL is to improve communications and education in the graphic arts by developing best practices that reflect the influence and impact of new technologies in the workflow of commercial offset lithography. GRACoL is a registered trademark of IDEAlliance. Learn more at https://www.gracol.org.
About SWOP®
Specifications for Web Offset Publishing (SWOP) was initiated in 1975 as a response to the printing industry’s need for uniform specifications and tolerances to ensure consistency and quality of material in publications. In 2004, SWOP and IDEAlliance formed a coalition to support print media through the coordinated development of standardized specifications and guidelines, certification programs, software tools, educational seminars, and peer support networks. In 2005, SWOP, Inc. merged with IDEAlliance and now operates as a Program within IDEAlliance. SWOP is a registered trademark of IDEAlliance. Learn more at https://www.swop.org.
About IDEAlliance
IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices. IDEAlliance has been a leader in information technology since 1966 (founded as Graphic Communications Association) having fostered the development and adoption of standards such as ADIS, AdsML, DISC, GRACoL, ICE, JIFFI, Mail.dat, papiNet, PRISM, PROSE XML, SGML, SWOP and XML. Learn more about IDEAlliance at www.idealliance.org.
