A letter from the Editor

Gorazd Golob

Editor-in-chief
gorazd.golob@jpmtr.org

The latest issue of 2019 is slightly different from previous issues, but it is also groundbreaking in terms of open access publishing mode. Despite several articles in review and revision, only three articles were accepted for publication in the last days of December.

The first one is an original scientific paper on color changes resulting from the lamination of prints, distinguished by a comparison of the heuristic and artificial neural network approach for predicting them. The authors have verified the suitability of both methods and proved the advantages of the latter one.

The second article is classified as professional communication and is based on a study of the adequacy of standards for quality assurance of inkjet printing when printing on coated cartons. The discussion and conclusions raise a number of questions, both regarding the continuation and deepening of the research, as well as the need for extension of accepted standards that do not fully cover the wide range of substrates and inks used in practice.

The third article is the position paper, the cathegory that appears in the Journal for the first time. Based on years of extensive experience, the author highlights his views on the problems of knowledge of technology fundamentals as general expertise in industrial environments,  research in graphic technology, and teaching, liiustrated by examples of image reproduction quality with a focus on prepress. We hope his views will be a trigger of argumentative discussion, as we are still witnessing the rapid development of technology in this field, as well as changes in industrial practice and in the response of print-buyers and end-users to new challenges.

The editor Markéta Držková (marketa.drzkova@jpmtr.org) in the Topicalities prepared an overwiev of recent publications from CIE and some revised and new standards published by CIE/ISO are introduced, together with an update of Fogra research projects.

From the bookshelf, you can choose from a number of books covering inkjet print heads design, vision, color, typography, graphic design, and communication, including book production history.

Three doctoral theses are also presented, pointing to current research areas that cover a much broader range of content than just conventional printed paper, cardboard or packaging materials.

At Helmut-Schmidt-University in Hamburg, Felix Heinrich defended his thesis in the field of printed electronics, focusing on the mechanical strength analysis of multifunctional composites enhanced with printed electronics, which can be used as sensors for health monitoring and study of methods for improving their properties.

Clara Pérez Fuster defended her thesis in the field of design and characterization of organic thin-film transistors for chemical sensing and analytes at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The functionality and applicability of these sensors, using screen printing technique among other methods, have been successfully verified. Her work also included the development and verification of low-cost measuring equipment for specific needs in this field.

Uttam Kumar successfully finished his thesis at the School of Materials Science and Engineering in Sydney. The topic of his research was environmental sustainability, especially electronic waste in the form of end-of-life printers and toner residuals. He implemented efficient methods for the production of synthetic oil and activated carbon, which can be used as electrodes in supercapacitors and batteries.

As usual, Topicalities conclude with the review of events in the first months of the year 2020.

With the decision of the iarigai Board, the publisher of the Journal, this publication is now available as full open access, meaning that the online edition will no longer be password protected for six months and thus freely available at https://iarigai.com/publications/journals/. For anyone who wants to receive a print Journal, this option remains available, of course at an appropriate price. It is also important that there is no fee charged for authors who intend to publish the results of their research work. In the coming months, we anticipate some more positive changes to the Journals publishing and indexing, and you will be informed in a timely and appropriate manner.

We again invite you to participate with your contributions, as only the publication of your research achievements and thus the open possibility of using them as a reference in any other publication, in further research or in the industry leads to success. May 2020 be a successful year for all of us.

Ljubljana, December 2019

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