Print in Najibabad: BN Printers

He was an Urdu calligrapher and so skilled in his job that he got offers from farway Iran. Islam showed PrintWeek India samples of his calligraphy, especially the ones published in the Eid edition of the newspaper Inquilab. It was a full page tugra (Arabic) and it was selected every year.

Abdul Moid Khan, who lived in Mumbai for 22 years, learned screen printing as a hobby. In 1988, the family shifted to Najibabad, where he started Urdu printing business using screen printing. Those days, Urdu printing was tough and lengthy. There was only one printing press – Public Printing Press – that used to print Urdu jobs, but delivery was not possible before a week.

At the time, there was no awareness about screen printing. “As the wedding cards had two languages, either Urdu and English, or Urdu and Hindi, my father used to write on butter paper by hand and print through screen printing.” Later in 1992-93, the company brought offset printing to the town with the installation of a Swift printing press from Nasik. “We still use that machine,” Islam says.

Later, the company bought another setup equipped with Field Star Machine 20x15-inches. “Our main business comes from wedding cards printing. We have printed minimum 50 to maximum 2,000 cards for a single client. The average range of wedding cards is 100 to 200 cards per wedding,” he adds. The cost of the cards vary.

The company has printed 700 cards for Rs 9 each; 200 cards for Rs 120 each; and 100 cards for Rs 60 each. Islam says one client spent around Rs 40,000 on just wedding cards, but adds such clients are few and far between. But he does boast of special clients.

He printed the visiting cards for the Najibabad Superintendent of Police. The 18-carat gold plated printing cost Rs 20 per card. He later printed similar cards for the local MLA as well.