As Print21 wraps up for Christmas, let’s look back at some of the key industry moments that shaped 2012. Printers and suppliers came face to face with their destiny in this drupa year – win, lose or draw. Amazing how many times the same names cropped up.

In a year chock-a-block with massive industry movements – consolidations, acquisitions, administrations, insolvencies, new products, breakthrough technology and plenty of equipment sales – Ascent Partners director, Richard Rasmussen, has kept his finger firmly on the industry’s pulse.

This is the busy season for photobook purchases as everybody searches for that special, one-off gift. It comes at the end of an amazing year for this burgeoning print market, one in which it has garnered some impressive accolades. Simon Enticknap reports on a unique print product.

Natural forest fibre sourced through appropriate harvesting delivers better outcomes for the environment and the printing industry – Industry Edge report. Sourcing paper by relying on paper companies’ chain-of-custody and FSC certification of industrial plantations is not promoting true sustainable outcomes.

High-profile industry identity is a casualty of the new national structure of the leading print industry association. Patterson, formerly the Victorian state manager under the old organisation, was GM for Sales and Marketing under the revamped national structure.

One of Australia’s largest retailers, Woolworths, will share its packaging trends at the next Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) technical dinner, which will take place on 27 February in Oatlands, Sydney.

Ascent Partners director, Richard Rasmussen, reflects on November’s major business sales, acquisitions, closures, consolidations and relocations. A large volume of machinery sales and installations are also reported.

Low-cost wide format poster printing from Anitech will feature as another solution in David Proctor’s growing arsenal of digital imaging solutions. The innovative toner-based press will deliver cheaper prints than inkjet for high-volume jobs up to A1-size.

A proposed new awards system to recognise the winning qualities in the young professionals across our industry will not even mention the term – apprenticeship. Imagine a gala event held at one of our capital city’s lavish hotels with TV cameras and the press …

The top echelon of Fuji Xerox digital printers in Asia Pacific will join the thousands of other industry professionals in Melbourne next May for PacPrint 2013. The company’s Premier Partners programme will host visitors from 12 regional countries.

In the era of the ‘paperless’ office, kindles and well-meaning environmentalists demonizing the blank page’s use in day-to-day business, Andy McCourt revisits some of the reasons why it will continue to remain vital to the world at large.

Printing Industries’ Australian Apprenticeship Advisor and Mentoring program is set to launch a new job service that matches employers with potential apprentices.

Recent government statistics outlining the performance of the printing industry compared with other manufacturing sectors show that printers’ labour costs are too high. Printing Industries' Hagop Tchamkertenian has the details.

Sterling Publishing's The Adviser has trumped this year’s Publishers Australia Excellence Awards, taking the event’s overall prize, followed closely by Donna Hay, winning three awards.

There is an air of down to earth pragmatism about Simon Wheeler that sits oddly with his successful career. As the first Director of Canon’s new Professional Print Service division, he is one of the most influential individuals in the industry, responsible for the company’s graphic arts involvement.

Industry gadfly, James Cryer, bites back at the suggestion that high wages are a problem for the printing industry. In the current issue of Print21 magazine, Hagop Tchamkertenian, the industry's sole full-time economist, claims the industry's wages bill is too high.