Idealliance Celebrates 55th Anniversary

This year, Idealliance celebrates its 55th Anniversary. Since its launch in 1966 as the Computer Section of Printing Industries of America (PIA) and later renaming as the Graphic Communications Association, Idealliance has been – and will continue to be—a catalyst for technological change across the broad spectrum of the print production process.

Idealliance has been in the forefront of many—if not most—essential workflow transformations to remove friction in the graphic communications supply chain. It has engaged partners from upstream brands, publishers, creative and advertising agencies, and print buyers, to print service providers, industry suppliers, and technology partners, to speed information, reduce cost, and create efficiencies. Idealliance has excelled at partnering with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), other industry groups, and Idealliance global affiliates, to become a world leader in standards development—with over thirty-five pending ISO standards and over twenty published and proven technical guidelines and specifications. Idealliance has applied the standards and guidelines to developing the next generation of professionals and creating the industry standard for certification of professionals, systems, and processes.

Dick Ryan, Idealliance CEO said, “Each generation, the Association has redefined itself and the industry, creating standards-based, automatable processes, enabling every part of the print supply chain to change, grow, and prosper. Idealliance’s 55-year history of success validates its ability to stay relevant in a changing print and packaging industry, serving its members by guiding the next revolution.”

Over its nearly 60 years Idealliance has:

1. Revolutionized graphic communications workflows in a wide array of business and production processes through collaborative working groups that developed specifications and guidelines:

• standardized method for publishers to communicate job order including EDI (2002) and XML (2016) (Production Order Specification - PROSE XML)
• since 1995 created and published the mailing industry definitive standard on data exchange and communication for processing and entry of mail across list processing, print production, mailing services, and the U.S. Postal Service (Mail.dat and Mail.XML – now published by Delivery Technology Advocacy Council)
• global communication XML standard for the paper and forest products industries automating business processes (papiNet) partnering with the American Forest & Paper Association and a European paper producers consortium (papiNet GIE)
• calibration and color management (GRACoL - General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography, SWOP - Specifications for Web Offset Publications, G7, and PrintWide)
• content management for publishing (PRISM - Publishers Requirement for Industry Standard Metadata) and streamlining content to digital devices (eMedia21)
• brand and print service production and quality data (PQX - Print Quality eXchange).

2. Transformed structured mark-up languages for documentation transitioning to new web technologies in the late 1990s including development of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) in the 1980s and launching of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) in 1998

3. Unified a fragmented industry by assimilating the following groups:

• National Magazine, Book & Film Carriers Association (NMBFC) – 2003
• Digital Ad Lab – 2004
• Specification for Web Offset Publications (SWOP) and Digital Directions in Applications (DDAP) – 2005
• Luminaire Awards – 2005
• International Prepress Association (IPA) – 2010
• Epicomm – 2016

4. Adopted to the growing global marketplace by fast-tracking international standards as a Liaison A organization with ISO and establishing a global platform in 2010 with International Affiliates growing to eleven (11) locations around the globe

5. Originated a community of creation-production-distribution workflow partners including major publishers, print service providers, and advertising agencies to enhance color and production in print and digital advertising (SPECTRUM)

6. Created industry-leading global training and certification programs to certify professionals, systems, and processes through its online learning portal

As Idealliance nears its 6th decade, its goal is to help everyone worldwide in the print and packaging supply chain cope with the continuous change in the graphic communications field and embrace and profit from it. They have upgraded their extensive online training and certification learning portal for students and professionals and launched an enhanced mobile-responsive website to provide a more user-friendly experience for their global audience of brands, consultants, print buyers, print service providers, OEMs, suppliers, and technology partners.

In celebration of this industry milestone, Idealliance would also like to appreciate the people who have been instrumental to its success over these past five and a half decades, and who continue to stay involved to help set the course for future innovation and growth.

Learn More and Join

Become a member of Idealliance at https://idealliance.org/membership/

For more information, please contact Jordan Gorski at +1 (703) 837-1096 or jgorski@idealliance.org.

PRINTING United Alliance and Idealliance have announced an intent to merge.