The print calendar is here. Wall calendars, table calendars, calmanacs (read the profile of Kalnirnay on page 31), digital calendars. The calendar gamut seems to be ever-expanding. And it can be overwhelming. For example, there's Parksons Graphics' creation which looks like they're highly orchestrated precision-cut sculptures. "It's all intuitive. It's just one layer playing off another," says Animesh Kejriwal of Parksons Graphics.
Alok Munot, the director at Prabhat Printing Works in Pune, says, "We print office calendars - and each of our 23 designs are very popular with print buyers."
He adds, "We print calendars using 60-80 gsm Maplitho and 90-130 gsm art paper, on which we run Micro Inks or Geos G. We print on Ryobi 924, Heidelberg Sordz, and Sormz presses. These are commercial calendars without images, but they involve a lot of pre-press work".
Abidali Shaikh, managing director at Nectar prints, says, "We have printed 5,00,00 calendars for the corporate sector. The entire process was completed in two months."
CMYK Press, Jalgaon
As described by Anand Malhara, managing director of Jalgaon-based CMYK Press, calendars are small, pretty and cost effective. To-date, the company has printed car and pocket calendars.
The calendar serves the purpose cost effectively. The cost is two rupees for the car calendar whilst the compact pocket calendar is priced at one and half rupee.
The CMYK calendar was printed on the coated art paper using Coates inks on a Mitsubishi six-colour press. According to Malhara, the calendar business is increasing and will continue to grow. To-date CMYK has printed more than three lakh calendars for 2010.
Parksons Graphics, Mumbai
Animesh Kejriwal director at Parksons Graphics says, "The 2010 planner for Roff (for Pidilite) was an interesting job. The customer was willing to give us a free hand to enhance the design through various print techniques."
The theme for the planner is Tessellations, which is an intricate pattern built by the repeated use of a single shape. The planner was printed using Transasia fine papers, Kodak CTP plates and Siegwerk ink on a Heidelberg SM CD 74 five-colour press.
The cover required a number of different operations such as hot foil stamping, thermography, spot gloss UV and spot abrasive UV. The inside pages had laser die-cutting, flock processing, textured UV, embossing, foil overprint, die-cutting and glitter UV.
According to Kejriwal, Parksons printed over 20-25 calendars. He says: "Many companies didn't print calendars for 2009 but decided to do so for 2010. As a result, the volumes of calendars printed for 2010 were much higher. Desk calendars have been the preferred choice."
Anaswara Offset, Kochi
Anaswara Offset printed a unique desk calendar for a real estate company. The shape of the calendar made it attractive and made it one of our favourites.
The calendar was printed using Bilt art paper, process inks, thermal CTP plates on a Heidelberg press. The post-printing involved UV spot on the logo, die-cutting of the leaves and material for stand. The stand was machine pasted and finished with wire-o-binding. The intricate round shape for the leaves supported by the arch shape stand complements each other.
According to Anup Anaswara, director at Anaswara Offset, the volumes have been decreasing, but this year the numbers has been boosted as compared to the last year. There is demand for good quality calendars which is less in number than the desk calendar segment.
Pragati Offset, Hyderabad
Pragati Offset's calendar Futurewise 2010 was printed on Sappi art paper using DIC ink, on Mitsubishi and Komori presses which were mounted with Fuji plates. The files were received in RGB format and the separation was done in-house. Part of the calendar production involved use of spot UV coating.
Hemant Paruchuri of Pragati Offset, says, "Apart from our company calendar, we have printed 40 different types of calendars this season. The demand for high-end calendars in the corporate sector has grown; whilst the demand for the lower-end calendars is decreasing. The calendar printing business, per se, will exist. We are however, looking at a trend where printing of calendars is moving towards digital and personalised production."
Rave India, Delhi
The Rave Niladri Art Calendar 2010 Arangam on the paintings of Niladri Paul. It is a navarasa collection, radiating the nine dance forms.
The calendar was printed on speciality paper using Imperial inks and TechNova plates on the Heidelberg XL 105 press.
The files were received in high resolution RGB form and colour correction was rendered using Oris software. It was simply varnished and wire-o bound to give it the final shape.
Rakesh Bhatnagar, the managing director at Rave, says, "We have printed over a million calendars. As long as the corporate sector flourishes, the print calendar will thrive.
Sudhindhra Offset, Bengaluru
The coloured sheets of the calendar was printed on Sappi art card of 220gsm while the date pad was printed on transparent sheets. Seperation was done in-house. The calendar was printed on Mitsubishi Diamond 1000 four-colour press with inline coater using TechNova violet plates and Toyo ink. The company logo was embossed.
Suresh Pai of Sudhindhra Offset says, "We got a silver award for this at the recent NAEP award in Delhi. The calendar business is declining. We have executed only about 15 calendar orders. We prefer to print colour calendars in order to highlight its aesthetic value rather than its functionality."
ST Reddiar & Sons (STRS), Ernakulam
The Dileep Calendar 2009 was printed using Stora Enso, Sappi and JK Paper, Toyo Ink, Micro Ink, Eckart gold ink, TechNova Thermostar CTP plates and Bottcher India press chemical standardisation.
The calendar was printed on a Komori Lithrone S40 with online coating of aqueous as matt and gloss and aqueous with natural varnish and finishing with wire-o-binding.
Mahesh S, director at STRS says, "We plan to create such calendars every year. The calendar has won multiple, printing awards for STRS excellence at the NAEP Award 2010 and the Dubai International Print Awards 2010."
International Print -O-Pac, Noida
The Flight Safety calendar 2010 for Indian Air Force was printed on both sides with four-colour, gold and inline aqueous varnish overlay coating on a Manroland 506 press.
The paper used for the calendar was Bilt Royal 170gsm, Siegwerk's ink and TechNova's Thermostar plates. The post-press involved gathering and wire-o-binding with hanger back re-enforcement.
IPP printed more than 19 calendars. B S Reddy, vice-president, says, "there is a demand for quality calendars for both domestic and export markets."
Lustra Print Process (LPP), Delhi
Bird Group's the Photography 2010 calendar has been inspired by art produced by the Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt's paintings.
The calendar was printed on Rendezvous, a Korean paper with Inctec ink and Fuji plate from Japan. The printing was done on a Ryobi five-colour with coater. The post-printing involved foiling, embossing, UV printing and special metalic treatments by screen printing.
U K Raj, the managing director at LPP, says, "We have produced 30 calendars, most of them had a green theme." Last two years have been dull for calendar printing."
Thomson Press, Faridabad
Delhi Tourism's wall calendar of 2010 features the work of twelve artists. The calendar was printed on the Groupo NE ivory art card 280 gsm with Siegwerk ink, Thermostar and the Fujifilm digital thermal plate LH PJ2. The calendar was printed on a Mitsubishi Diamond 3000 press. The post-press involved embossing on the frames.
Thomson printed 68 calendars in 2008, 88 in 2009 and 110 in 2010. According to Debashish Bhadra, the trend of wall calendar print business is shifting towards table-top personalised calendars which are created on a digital press.
_____________________________
DIGITAL PRINTING
Avantika Printers
The Religare Enterprises calendar highlights the theme "exploration" with the aid of vintage paintings.The table calendar has been printed with Rendevous Natural 210 gsm paper on a Canon C7000VP Imagepress.The files were received in high resolution, in four-colour and the imposition was done according to the digital press.
Himanshu Pandey of Avantika Printers, says, "The calendar images were printed with 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, producing sharp text, smooth gradations, and crystal clear, detailed images."
Pandey says, "The new toner, and advanced calibration technologies provided colour that remains consistent throughout each job. In addition, when printing on a variety of medias, gloss optimisation ensures that the gloss of the media will match the imaged area."
According to Pandey, the outcome on the digital press was extremely good, as the press showcased the print-ability and the quality of image reproduction on the type of the paper used.
Pandey says, "We have printed calendars for at least 10 clients. We have also printed personalised calendars for five of our customers."
Pandey says, "Standard desk calendars with static patterns are losing their popularity in the market. Today, personalised calendars are in and we are targeting that segment."
