Key activities and their knowledge bases

Traditional graphical production skills such as typography, printing, setting, imposing, contrast measurement, colour separation and matching represent the nucleus of the printing and publishing industry’s knowledge base. That is, the knowledge base is dominated by hand-crafts and experience-based work. The skills are highly tacit, and therefore difficult to describe and measure; they need to be shown rather than described, depending as they do on vague, subjective notions such as ‘eye’, ‘feeling’, and ‘sense of quality’. Learning these skills means learning-by- doing, and the building-up of experience. The basic knowledge and competencies of

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required in the production process, although the technology is now more accessible to people without a graphical education. Today, with the introduction of these new techniques, typographers and repro-technicians both work with both pictures and text. This leads to the development of new areas of specialisation, for example in the area of high dissolution of colour pictures, while other skills and tasks become generalised and integrated into other production activities.

New competences are required as activities integrate and new software is developed. Internet publication and parallel publishing require competence and knowledge related to computer systems and network communications. Competence-building in these areas involves expanding employees’ basic knowledge of computer

technology. This area of knowledge is known as informatics: informatics includes programming skills, database administration, network handling, digital film and sound editing, and desktop publishing, as well as basic computer skills and the structuring and codification of information (GI, 1995, p. 41). Electronic publication and commerce in particular require knowledge of database development, and competence in the building and integration of digital workflows. A digital workflow is created the moment data is created by one device and transferred, by whatever means, to another. The magazine Printing Industries defines digital workflow in the following way: “the manner in and by which you work arrives within your premises; the process that you employ to interpret, redirect and output the work; and the manner in and by which you offer your work to others” (Printing Industries, 1999). This type of knowledge is highly specialised and codified. The competences required do not have roots in the printing and publishing industry traditionally, but rather are found in informatics and in IT-related industries. However, according to interviewees working for companies that are involved in electronic publishing, this knowledge is essential to remaining competitive in the electronic publishing market. If, for example, Siemens wants to publish a new catalogue, a large volume of data must be sorted and processed. The job will consist of structuring documents, pictures and databases in such a way as to make them easily accessible whether Siemens decides to print a catalogue or produce an electronic publication (Grafisk Inside, 1999). The focus for companies moving into digital production, then, is not on producing a fixed catalogue (or other product) but on producing and formatting information for use and re-use in different publications and different media. The strategy of producing and delivering one-off fixed products, such as catalogues, will no longer be appropriate in the future. Production of information will, for many publishing activities, be dependant on the media, so there is a need to expand and invest in new areas of knowledge.

Despite the democratisation of the technology used in printing and publishing, “graphic conveyance techniques” and the forming of a visual expression or message are still the core competences in the area of pre-printing (Ruud, 1998). The term “graphic conveyance” implies knowledge of graphic design and its unofficial aesthetic rules concerning layout, combination of fonts, the shapes and sizes of the different parts of the text, as well as general communication skills which are based partly on pedagogical and psychological knowledge, and partly on language skills derived from linguistics and semantics. It also encompasses knowledge about paper and ink quality; awareness of the combined effect of layout, print quality and paper quality is of great importance not only in the actual printing process, but also as background knowledge for activities such as designing and setting.

On the processing side of printing and publishing – where activities relate mainly to printing, finishing and binding – knowledge is more encoded, and the required technical competences more specific. The development of printing and finishing tasks is connected to standardisation and quality control in the production systems. Some knowledge is formal and stored in material media such as manuals,

specifications and codes of practice, while other knowledge is more specific and often tacit, connected for instance to the operation of a single printing machine. As the technology becomes more advanced, work is increasingly focused on the mechanical and electronic systems of the printers. Knut Holmquist from IGM states that the use of trained printers in the graphical industry is decreasing, and that engineers with specific skills in printing are taking over. Printing has essentially become an engineering task. Alongside this development, trained printers are having more direct contact with customers, as a result of product diversification and more individualised product requirements. This means that the qualifications and competences required in the processing area are changing considerably. As Ruud (1998) says, it will be interesting to see whether it is the knowledge and competences of the pre-print specialists or the printers that will be most in demand with the spread of digital printing. The outcome could be crucial for the future of the printing trade. According to the magazine ‘Printing Industries’, location, time pressure and costs can influence the digital workflow of printing as much as technological competence. Even within the same company, the digital workflow is likely to be different for every job that is undertaken: there will be different methods of transfer, differing file formats, different deadlines, and different people working on the data. Production models therefore change with every new job that the company takes on (Printing Industries, 1999). We would argue that printing is in the process of becoming a creative activity rather than a processing activity.

Disciplines such as chemistry provide important background knowledge for film development, plates production and printing; other knowledge areas like optics and branches of engineering - which concern the still highly specialised machinery and equipment used – are important to printing and finishing. Parallel to technological changes, the content and levels of the knowledge used in printing and publishing are also undergoing significant change.

Logistics is becoming more important to activities such as printing and particularly finishing, as well as distribution.8 Increasing focus is being placed on products and markets, and therefore sales and marketing are also becoming important knowledge areas. Among all of the companies interviewed it was clear that timely production and delivery was increasingly important, and for this reason more attention is being paid to the logistics of information and physical products. Competence in the integration and logistics of systems are crucial to the process of optimising and rationalising data flows, and to the re-use of data. Legal knowledge concerning copyright law and intellectual property is another area which is growing in

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surveys conducted by GBL there has been an increase in so-called total-solution- packages, products and services which encompass and perform a variety of activities related to the communication needs of the customer. This type of project-oriented activity requires pedagogical knowledge as well as selling skills (GI, 1995), as the product delivered becomes more than just the output of production; the product also contains the project, the actual process of developing the product in partnership and collaboration with the customer.

Computers, and computer-related technology, are the most generic form of

technology in printing and publishing, as they are used in almost all activities. This is not to say, however, that IT is the most important technology/knowledge area for the industry, although it may be that IT is the area with the greatest need for upgrading, and it is certainly the area that attracts most attention. It is important to recognise that the traditional knowledge base remains essential to the industry. In printing and finishing, this traditional knowledge might concern paper quality, ink mixing, and the handling of chemicals, while in pre-printing it concerns page set-up, readability, style, and so forth; these are clearly very important knowledge areas for the industry. The general impression at IGM is that knowledge in the printing and publishing industry is becoming less specific and more broad and general (GI, 1995, p. 39), encompassing engineering, economics and marketing, pedagogy and psychology, informatics, media, library skills (information structuring and gathering), and design and visual communication, alongside the traditional vocational training (GI, 1995, pp. 55-56).