Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Pragati Offset Printers in connection with one of our projects — a book. Before I visited Pragati, I just knew two things about them — that they were the best in India and that they were in my city, Hyderabad. After I visited Pragati, I discovered the many reasons how they became the best in India and also why they will probably remain there. So, what really sets them apart? It’s one word, as you may have guessed, and it is Quality.

My co-worker on the project, a talented and thoughtful designer, travelled all the way from Jaipur to oversee the production of the book. He has been a Pragati enthusiast for years and it was difficult not to be bitten by the bug. In fact, thanks to him, I got a free tour of Pragati.

We moved quickly away from the well-lit, air conditioned front office and pre-production departments to check the progress of our own project at the printing department. It was a huge space — like a massive shed. It was dark and noisy. Machines hammered away their jobs rhythmically and alarms of various pitches went off from one machine or the other. Machine operators in teams of 5-7 went about their work with a sense of purpose. No air conditioning here and lighting just where it was needed. I reminded myself that this was the center of all the hard labor; this was where the actual job of offset printing was done.

My idea of a machine till then was a desktop computer. But these machines were giant machines — some running the length of a few hundred yards. Pragati has invested in cutting-edge printing machinery from Japan and this entire space is dedicated to Komori and Mitsibushi machines. Seeing these machines in action and seeing the results they produced, made me feel like a star. Get my autograph! I have seen the wonders they produce — works of art, nothing less. And then there are the men behind the machines. Cut to a snippet of conversation around the production of our book. There are a lot of pictures in our book – most of them black and white.

Designer colleague: The images are not there yet. I want some more warmth in these pictures. You understand?

Pragati staff 1: Yes, we can certainly rework these. I think we may get better results if we increase the amount of yellow a bit and also mellow the cyan a notch.

Self: (Thinking): Warmth in a black and white picture? Sure. I know exactly what you mean. Yellow and cyan in that picture over there? It may seem odd to you, but I see only black, white, and few shades of grey!

After more than an hour of trying to get warmth into the black and white images, we have a few prints to compare. By this time, there are at least 6 of the best brains in printing at our workspace, helping us make up our mind. They are trying to make sense of which greys are warm. There’s some sort of deadlock. Designer colleague is sticking to his guns that the output can be bettered. I keep nodding my head, not very convincingly, I am afraid. I found all the prints to be more or less the same. Thank God I did not attempt to become a designer, ever. Then something interesting happens. One of the Pragati staff says it is best to compare in daylight. We are in a dark space, remember? All of us troop out into the daylight with these huge sheets of paper. Then they start the discussion all over again. It was interesting to see all these men haggle over the many shades of grey. If you think men don’t have a sense of color, think again. I’m told there were a few hundred other issues that had to be sorted out — from the binding to the front cover of the book and from the embossing on the front cover to the details on the back cover of the book. Eventually, all things were sorted out and the book went to print.

Whether in the pre-production department, the production or printing department, or the post production departments such as packaging and binding, each and every employee wears the Quality badge like a badge of honor. Each one whom I listened to, and each one whom I saw at work, worked with a commitment and a zeal that was almost infectious. It almost seemed that each department was waiting to spot a snag that the previous department in the chain of production overlooked. But most of all what was truly amazing is the willingness of the staff to satisfy the customer. No compromise.

Recently, a group of us who had worked on a publication project, had the good fortune to visit one of India’s largest presses, Thomson Press. It is located at Faridabad, with an office in Okhla, Delhi.

This press is more of a plant than a printing press, with 2000 employees. Projects of immense scale are executed here, with the average quantity of any print job being at least a few lakh copies. Dictionaries, bestsellers, and textbooks are churned out. When you enter the press, you sit in a pleasant reception area for a bit, and you have no clue to the vastness within. Someone appears, and takes you through a small, average-looking door. Then you suddenly pass into a warehouse-like space so large, that you can’t see the end of it. The deafening roar of offset machines chugging away fills your ears. It’s as if you’ve vanished down the rabbit hole with Alice, and you’re now in printing Wonderland.

The printing area houses offset machines, as large as railway engines. You can climb onto them and watch the plates hitting the paper at incredible speed. A few machines are in between print jobs and rest peacefully, or are being cleaned by technicians. A large LCD screen shows the complex timetable of worker shifts. Piles of paper waist-high are being transported here and there. One can hardly speak over the din. The binding section is as large as the printing one, and houses machines that bind books. Books without their covers move along a long conveyer belt. From another area, their covers are traveling in a line. The machine applies a lick of glue on the covers and sticks the books into the spine in hypnotic repetition.

The Gauss web offset machine is a marvel of modern technology. It’s as large as a house and sits in a glass room of its own. A large digital console controls it from the outside. A roll of paper, around four feet in diameter is fed into the machine at one end. At the other end, a complete, bound and laminated magazine pops out. This machine has traveled to India from Germany, and with it came approximately thirty German technicians, who lived at the press for six months, training the Indian technicians to use it.

Germany is the birthplace of printing. Johannes Gutenberg was born there, and some of the finest offset machines still come from Heidelberg. These beasts of metal are strong workhorses. They strike wonder and joy into your heart as they spill out a million copies of books or magazines.

The most heart-stopping part of any project is when it goes to press. It’s a strange mix of excitement, exhilaration, sleeplessness, and stress. Printing is the make-or-break step. One annoying little mistake can stare at you from thousands of copies for the rest of your life. India has 33 million gods, or so they say. I like to think there is one tiny god, (worshipped by designers/editors) who sits up there, watching over the well-being of the world of print.

Many thanks to Vinu Chaitanya for the photographs.