The general rise in web offset standards in New Zealand printing is typified by the winner of the Pride In Print Web Category, which was rated “nearly perfect” by the head of the web printing judges’ panel, John Brogden.
The winner was the World Magazine, submitted by PMP Print Christchurch. Printed for Hope Publishing Ltd, the entry came from the category of 64 pages and over, and comprised 280 pages, printed in eight 32-page sections and one 24-page section at speeds in excess of 40,000 an hour.
World Magazine came with a sheet-fed cover and several sheet-fed inserts throughout the magazine, for a total print run of 31,000.
"We estimate that there would have been between 30 and 40 pallets of magazines sitting on the floor after it was printed and it would have been turned around in two and a half days," said Mr Brogden.
He said the judging panel was hard pressed to find a single fault on any of the 280 pages.
"We just really couldn't find anything wrong with it. The binding is pretty much spot on too. Among the web entries we found some magazines that were submitted with binding marks that were post-press and we rejected them on that basis. But this was as clean as you could wish for.
"The colours in it were sharp thanks to good pre-press work. It is a high-quality magazine that sells for $15 a copy so it has to be good.
"This stood out by far as the best entry we looked at. Most other gold medal entries had some slight mistake but this was outstanding. Overall we rated it 99.9% perfect."
Mr Brogden said the judges congratulated the winning printer.
"In a category that saw the bar raised generally across the board, a very high standard of workmanship has been achieved by the winners.
World Magazine was printed on Spicers Lumigloss 90gsm on a Mitsubishi Press with inks supplied by Toyo.
