But this dependence on the old technology has slowly begun to take its toll on this once flourishing industry. Business volumes are dropping as people begin to shift from screen printing to digital prints, which offer better quality at almost the same price while input costs in the industry have risen by nearly 20 per cent since January.
"The screen printing process is very slow and there is no way to get perfect multi-coloured prints," said Akaar Jain, a marketing executive, while waiting for his business cards to be delivered at a digital printing setup in the Sanjay Place area of the town.
Shimbhu Mehra, owner of Mehra Printers, a small-scale screen printing unit said that the screen printing industry of Agra, which generated an annual business of nearly 30-40 crores in services and input chemicals like ink, gelatin etc., had always operated in an unorganised manner.
He claimed that there had been attempts to automate the screen printing process for a faster printing speed and some mechanical contraptions were developed in this direction, but none of them succeeded and since the profits in this business were dropping steadily, the huge investments required to buy modern printing machines could not be afforded.
Still, he said, it was not entirely correct to say that the industry had not modernised itself with the changing times. In the earlier days, the designing was done by calligraphers and required photographic conversion to a negative before it could be used to prepare a silkmesh screen for printing, the entire process taking more than a day.
Now, with the advent of computer and laser printers, the designing has become a lot faster and the design could be laid out on the mesh screen in less than an hour. But still, the usual time taken in a 2-3 color print was about 2 days, which was a bit more than digital prints.
According to Rajul Shrotriya, a screen printer working out of a small print shop situated in the old city area, the volume of business cards printed by him had come down by nearly 60 per cent as people were increasingly opting for digital prints.
Other applications like letter-heads, shoe boxes, and paper labels had been usurped by offset printers. There were other printing applications like wedding invitations where people still went for screen printing, though the business from such jobs was seasonal, he said.
But the most important clients that provided a year-round business were the footwear units of the town which generated a large demand for stickers and insole printing and there was a stiff competition in the market to capture these orders. Some people have now begun printing electronic components and printed circuit boards for suppliers in Delhi, but the work volume is not adequate at present.
Lately, the post-VAT rise in prices of inks, silk mesh cloth, waxed paper, gum etc. has increased the input costs in the industry by 15-20 per cent. But the overall printing charges have not increased, which has caused a further drop in margins, forcing the screen printers to migrate to Delhi for better opportunities, Shrotriya added.
