The year 1997 saw Bill Clinton begin his second term as president of the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke both 7,000 and 8,000 for the first time, Tiger Woods won his first Masters Tournament and Steve Jobs returned to run Apple Computer.
It also saw the release of what would become an iconic book, filled with tales of magic and wizardry, that would go on to spawn several sequels and amass a wide following of devout readers.
That book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
There was another book released in 1997—one much more relevant to an audience reading something like FLEXO Magazine—which shared many of the same traits as that first entry in the Harry Potter series. Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) Premier Edition has too become essential reading, been superseded by numerous revisions and updates, and won a strong group of supporters throughout the industry.
The one crucial difference from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone lay in its subject matter: While the concepts covered in the Premier Edition may have, at the time, also sounded like the stuff of fantasy, the two decades since its release have shown them to be positively non-fiction.
As FIRST turns 20 and the newest edition—FIRST 6.0—makes its debut at FTA’s Fall Conference 2017, FLEXO spoke to a handful of flexographers who have been involved with the book, to see how it has evolved with the industry and how it has affected their careers.
FLEXO Magazine: What’s changed for a printer who followed FIRST Premier Edition 20 years ago and who follows FIRST 5.1 today?
Mark Mazur, FTA Flexo Hall of Fame: When I look back over the past 20 years, nothing is more pervasive than the impact of technology. I grew up when jobs were basically divided into “blue collar” and “white collar.” Blue collar meant you worked with your hands and white collar meant you worked with your head. Clearly, that is an offensive over-simplification; I use it only to make the point that today, every job requires you to use your head far more than it did 20 years ago. Every employer I know complains about how hard it is to find “good” people and every employee (including myself) complains about how much we are expected to know. The effect technology has had and will continue to have on the printing industry will keep most of you up tonight.
Through the last five editions of FIRST, the FIRST Committee has worked to incorporate all the changes brought by technology—color management, expanded gamut (EG) printing, digital plate technology, the list goes on. With all this change, however, one thing has remained constant: the FIRST Methodology:
- Optimization
- Fingerprinting
- Process Control
- Characterization
- Process Improvement
These steps are universal to any manufacturing process. I can almost guarantee that as a flexographic printer today, you are printing with higher linescreens and densities than you did 20 years ago. You are matching proofs better than you ever did and you are twice as productive as you were. You did not achieve these milestones because of FIRST, but FIRST is a tool that has helped you focus your process and achieve your goals.
Additionally, the Premiere Edition of FIRST specifically stated that image files should be CMYK. Today, it is recommended that images be maintained as RGB throughout the process and converted to the printing color space (which could be CMYK, CMYKOGV or something else) only in the last step (usually the RIP).
FLEXO: What is the biggest change in FIRST 6.0, and the most significant addition to each section?
Mazur: The biggest change in FIRST 6.0 is the expansion of the standards appendix. Standards have become a far more central part of FIRST. More importantly, flexography has become a far more significant part of the printing industry. As a result, it has become increasingly essential for flexographers to understand and adhere to industry standards.
It was not that long ago that the color specifications found in FIRST did not align with other printing processes. Today, ISO 12647-6 (flexo color specifications) and ISO 12647-2 (offset color specification) are virtually identical. This makes it easier for print buyers to maintain brand integrity across printing processes. With the expansion of the standards appendix, it also makes it easier to make sure FIRST always references the most current version of the standard. The standards appendix is now maintained by the Standards Working Group (SWG), which is a sub-committee of the Flexo Quality Consortium (FQC) Committee.