The Russian Printing Standard 2014, and the contest promoting it, was introduced at a time of great change for the Russian printing industry. Print clients in Russia now are in a stronger position when it comes to printing, both in the region and globally. With clients now demanding that printing houses deliver a consistent level of quality, printers are finding gaps in their current workflow processes.

The challenge, however, is that there is no agreed to means to measure quality. There is no international unification on software and instrumentation, so companies are limited in what they can offer for quality control on their home standards or operational procedures. This lack of understanding of the existing standards has led to disagreements between clients and printing houses, providing no agreed baseline for judging quality.

To help move print shops towards Standardization, in dustry leader X-Rite Pantone joined with the UGRA (Center of Competence in Media and Printing Technology), Sappi Fine Paper Europe, and Bereg Ltd, the leading paper supplier in Russia, to produce this competition. Working together, the contest will help to promote a National Standard GOST R 54766-2011 (ISO 12647-2) and verify the quality of printing offered by the printer according to that standard.

Maxim Siniak, International Application Expert at X-Rite, is a judge in the competition. He notes that, “Part of our company’s mission is to enable printers to achieve the right colour each and every time. X-Rite Pantone’s participation in this competition is an extension of that goal. We are proud to contribute our colour science and technology expertise to this competition and to the effort of standardizing printing quality in Russia. More importantly, we are enthusiastic about the impact quality standards will have for printers all over Russia.”

The Russian Printing Standard Competition is open to all printers in Russia. Once the printer registers, they will electronically receive a technical assignment and test pages from the competition organizer. These test pages must be printed according the technical assignment. Once completed, the sheets are evaluated locally for a preliminary judgment. Entries that show a high level of competency are then sent to X-Rite and Ugra for final evaluation by the Technical Expert Committee. Those that are judged to be of quality will be verified as meeting the standard. The overall winner of The Russian Printing Standard 2014 competition

will get an Individual Certificate. This Certificate will enable the winner to better promote their services and will be a proof point of the quality of their services. This contest is open to all printers in Russia from 1st of September 2014 until 30 of October, 2014. Print Companies have until 15th of September, 2014 to enter the contest.