Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) has inducted Mark R. Mazur, digital prepress consultant for DuPont Imaging Technologies, into its Hall of Fame. He is the 47th person to enter the prestigious society. The announcement was made Sunday, May 3 at Foundation of FTA’s 2009 Forum in Lake Buena Vista, FL.
 
"Consistency is the single most important thing in printing!" Anyone who knows Mark Mazur has heard him make that pronouncement many, many times. He stands as a long-time advocate of using FIRST, hand-in-hand with color management to certify that what is printing on press matches what was approved by the print buyer on the proof.

Given that statement, it is no surprise to learn from long-time friend and fellow Hall of Famer Jean Jackson that, "Mark was instrumental in the compilation and update of FIRST (FTA's Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances) 4.0. He is committed to moving our art toward science and in the process moving this whole industry forward and making things better for us all."

Sounding a familiar theme in commenting on G7, a.k.a near neutral calibration, a.k.a. neutral print density, a.k.a. gray balance, Mazur recently proclaimed, "Ask yourself, ‘Why can I give a single set of blueprints to any builder and they will achieve the same result? But give an electronic file to five different printers and I’m assured of five different results?’ ... The answer is simple. While architects, engineers and builders all agree on basic standards, like the exact length of one foot, our profession has no single agreement as to what is meant by 50-percent cyan (or any of the other colors found in a process image.) It’s a rudimentary analogy, but the point is evident. What is really needed is a standard for the CMYK values in an electronic file where the prepress process begins. Surprisingly, such a standard does not exist. If anything, there are a myriad of defacto standards that only add to the confusion."

Mazur was born Sept. 22, 1956, the only child of Leo and Marcia Mazur. He holds a BS in chemistry from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, an MPhil. and Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Yale University and an MBA from Rutgers University. He started at DuPont's Parlin, NJ, Photoproducts R&D Laboratory in Nov. 1982 in a research capacity and in June 1989 was named senior business analyst/Cyrel. In 1992, he was promoted and joined the Technical Marketing Group.

At Forum, he has been a regular presenter since 1993, when he shared the stage with fellow FTA Hall of Fame member Tony Bart. He has been on the agenda of 10 of the 16 Forums that followed, which does not include his role as Prepress Session co-chair in 2007, and last year’s stint as Forum vice-chair. Mazur's topics ranged from dot gain to stochastic screening, CIE Lab, highlights and tones, color certification , density and data sets. He has delivered addresses on "How FIRST Works," "Breaking the Rules of Prepress," and "Facing the Competition." Personally, he maintains that his favorite presentation was 2001's Project FOG—Flexo, Offset, Gravure, where he, with Mark Samworth dressed as the Hans & Franz wrestling team.

Mark Mazur has long been a fixture on the FFTA's Forum Committee. In the past, he has served as the FIRST Color Management Subcommittee as well as FIRST’s Prepress Subcommittee. He is also a former multi-time FTA's Excellence in Flexography Awards judge and has written for FLEXO Magazine.

He was presented with the 2002 FTA President’s Award in recognition of dedicated service and significant contributions to the industry. Mark's flexo career now spans two full decades. His face and voice are well known—almost instantly recognizable—and he is considered by many in flexo to be both a mentor and a friend.

Greg Collins, FTA chairman, stated, “Mark does what few others can do. He is constantly looking to improve, run and tag things. He is very personable and has such a strong desire to help people to learn. Simply put, he is driven to make them (flexographers) better. What a great asset to FTA!”