PICA entrants must toe the line

There is a fine line between winning and losing and entrants in this year’s PICA awards are being urged by judges to make sure that the pages in their multi-page entries line up.

According to chairman of judges for the WorkCover NSW Print Excellence Awards, Warwick Roden, (pictured) one of the most common faults that print award judges notice is poor page line-ups.

“When printed pages line up in a book or magazine, it is often a test of skill for the prepress operator, the printer and binder,” he said.

“Accurate line up starts with the imposition of the image on the plates; often the two halves of an illustration are at opposite ends of a press sheet – or on a different sheet entirely.”

Roden said it was very important that the plates were correct. “The colour matching of the printing of the opposing pages must faithfully match, and finally, the folding and binding must accurately align the images,” he said.

“A binding difference of one millimeter can make the difference between a winner and a loser!”

NSW and Queensland printers have until 25 September to line up their entries and get them across to their local Printing Industries office for judging. ACT printers have until 6 November.

The WorkCover NSW Print Excellence Awards will be held on Friday 13 November, followed by the ACT PAGE Awards on Friday 20 November and the Queensland PICA on Saturday 28 November.

Entry and event booking information and results are available by calling 1800 227 425 or via the Print Recognition Awards section of Printing Industries PrintNet website or by clicking here.