Local and global print awards deadline looms

The first will decide the best Australian printers across many categories, while the Sappi competition can lead printers to competing with the best in the world.

The 23rd NPA ceremony will be held at Darling Harbour on 12th May 2006. Traditionally regarded as the high point of the local printing calendar, the awards night is a social event that should not be missed.

Committed to raising the standard of printing in Australia, the NPA has 30 categories and also hosts three sponsors’ awards – The Paperlinx award for printing by an apprentice;
the Agfa award for the most innovative use of imaging and the Heidelberg Australia award for excellence in craft. The awards are open for any printed material produced in Australia during 2005. An entry form may be downloaded at :
Print Awards


The Sappi Awards were established by the coated fine paper producer in 1979 to recognise and reward excellence in all areas of print. Printers from all over Australia are eligible to enter the competition, and will be competing with work submitted from Asia, Central and South America.

“As it has been in the past, the Sappi Awards is a truly global competition,” says Tim Shafer, managing director of Sappi Trading in Australia. “It has all the credentials of a prestigious competition, offering regional printers the opportunity to display their work on the world stage, with the only criteria of entry being that the work be printed on paper produced by Sappi.”

Entries are judged by independent print experts nominated by national print federations, with the process culminating in the presentation of the International Printer of the Year award – this year to be held in Budapest in November, where regional winners compete against the best from Europe, South Afica and USA.

While bronze, silver and gold awards are presented to printers in each region, it is only the gold award winners that join other recipients from around the world at to compete against each other for the overall title. The regional awards for Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to take place in Sydney on May 18.

In previous years the International Printer of the Year award was presented in cities like Hong Kong, New York, Berlin and Monte Carlo, and in 2006 will be presented in Budapest on a date to be confirmed later in the year.

Printers interested in entering the regional Printers of the Year awards can download an entry form at the following address:

Sappi Printer of the Year