Printing industry in Malaysia

Malaysia far ahead in printing technology

by Rohan PRIYARATNE
 

The Government Printer of Malaysia, Percetakan National Malaysia Berhard, is the official printer of the Malaysian Government. Semi-government organisations and also lot of private sector printing are also done by the PNMB. There are 1,200 on the staff and eight branches across the country.

The head office is in Kuala Lumpur and with over 350 on the staff. The branches are at Alor Star, Ipoh, Kuala Tersngganu, Kuching, Miri, Putrajaya, Kota Bharu, Melaka, Pulau Pinnang, Kuantan and Kota Kinabalu.

There are two separate areas of the Government Press. One is the smoking area. This is front office of the Government Press. At the entrance to the Government Press, there is an old letter press machine on display, gold plated.

That is the symbol of the printing ancestors. There are lot of Malaysian Flags around the machine. Other section of the Government Press is the Production area. No one is allowed to smoke in that area. This is the discipline.

All the printing machines are Heidelburg. Computer Graphics Department is equipped with Apple Mac G5 with original Adobe Graphic Softwares.

In addition to the government, semi-government and private sector printing requirements, automatic ticketing, boarding pass and smart card printing. are done as biggest export earners of PNMB.

Digital Web Printing is one of the latest printing systems and urgent jobs are printed by using latest methods. Digital book printing is another largest segment of the PNMB.

Printing of "Lawnet" magazine, the Malaysian Government Law Reports and other books can be downloaded through their web site.

There are Government Press printing sales outlets throughout the country, where you can buy any printed items without coming to the main branch.

Waste paper recycle system is another important segment of the National Government Printer.

A lecture at the Heidelburg print media academy

Malaysian Govt. Press employees are given several incentives and there are plenty of motivation systems for their benefit and their higher education as well.

There is a Malaysian Official Government Printer Information System (MOGPIS), together with Intra-net and Internet Solution to the customer. Through the inter-departments that are linked to the intra-net job estimating system and the customers can also be linked to this site through their offices or homes through the Internet system.

TOYO Photo Products company in Selangor is the ink manufacturing company for the printing Industry and also the Indigo Digital Printing Agent in Malaysia. Indigo is the special digital printing system. You can illuminate your print than the offset system. This indigo digital printing system is used for outputting postal stamps. Example of this year is the Olympic stamp of China which was printed using special digital indigo printing system.

Toyo Ink Sdn Bhd started business as a manufacturer of Gravure and Flexographic printing inks for the packaging industry in Malaysia, commercial operations commenced in June, 1979.

Toyo Dai-nichi is the manufacturer of web offset and newspaper inks with technological assistance from Japanese joint partners.

If you want information about Toyo company's web site is www.toyophoto.com Arumugam Pillai Print Media Academy: In Penang City one of the largest print media Academy in Asia Arumugam Pillai Print Media Academy is located. Malaysian Government has invested lots of money to build the Institute and has set up sophisticated printing machinery and equipment.

There are various type of printing and graphic courses in this institute. Some are designed for school leavers. Special aspect is that the training is provided using new technological equipment.

Web site of the Institute is www.ilpapnt.gov.my.

One of the largest specialized printing companies in Southeast Asia is called as "Karangkraf". The biggest Malaysian commercial printer is planning its next challenge newspaper production in its own plant. Ultimate print's clientele consists mainly of magazine agencies and hypermarket kings. At its peak capacity, the printer is capable of delivering up to 35 million impressions per month from its web and sheetfed presses. Under ultimate prints portfolio, there are about 40 magazine titles, each comprising over 120 pages.

Ultimate Print attributes its success to its strong and focused magazine at team, highly skilled workers, organised workflow and optimum pre-press materials enabling them to deliver quality products.

Despite having a good team and equipment, ultimate print is no stranger to clients. Feedback about quality issues especially colour differences on proofs and printouts.

In 2006, Ultimate print started its own newspaper publication and printing facility in Kelantan, east coast of peninsular in Malaysia. The east coast edition of Sinar Harian, a regional tabloid sized newspaper covering the States of Kelantan and Terengganu, covers current events in the east coast. The 48-page tabloid's tag line is "Cakna dan Dinamik" which means "Caring and Dynamic". The Sri Lanka telephone directory was printed in this "Karangkraf" ultimate printing plant few years ago.

The web site of this printing organisation is www.ultimate.com.my or www.karangkraf.com.

The Largest Newspaper organisation in Malaysia is "Utusan Melayu" (Malaysia) Berhad, with the latest technology in this newspaper organisation.

There are eight branches in the country. The main one is in Kuala-Lumpur. The special newspaper file (PDF File) is sending through the internet system for other branches to print the same newspaper that is distributed throughout the country at the same time. If you go to buy things to supermarkets, some newspapers are given free-of charge to the customers. The Malaysian Government is supplying the printing machinery and other equipment at very low price to the national newspaper and printers. Because the Malaysian government feels that reading and getting information is a asset to their people.