One of the important events in the USA printing calendar is the announcement of the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) Intertech Technology Awards. These awards for 2005 have just been announced, so no doubt we will have many press releases from the companies that have achieved awards telling us how good they are. In this article I would like to look at a few of these winners of the awards, and try to assess what they may mean for the industry. I apologize to those companies whose products I am not covering.

Inaugurated in 1978 to foster awareness and understanding of advanced graphic arts technology, PIA/GATF's InterTech Award honors excellence in innovative technology for the graphic communications industry. The nomination criteria stipulate that the technology be recently developed but out of beta and be proven in industrial application, but not yet in widespread use. The technology must also be expected to have a major impact on the graphic communications industry over the next five years. InterTech Technology Award recipients are chosen by an independent, anonymous panel of judges.

PIA/GATF received 52 nominations for awards, and 17 of these were successful in winning an award. Speaking about this year’s submitters, PIA/GATF Executive Vice President and COO George Ryan observes, “Vendors have responded to the industry’s emphasis on increasing throughput while improving productivity and providing tools for consistent color reproduction.” “Binding and finishing productivity has improved, color management tools are now very reliable, and press innovations are delivering on productivity we once thought was impossible,” adds Ryan.