Only the best imaging companies won

The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) recently released the list of winners for the SGIA Product of the Year 2019. Out of 72 categories and over 200 entries in one field, PRINTING United exhibitors produced the best products which won the competition and will be on sale in 2019.

“Our competition is juried, and judges are scoring entries so they can compare products objectively,” said Ray Weiss, Director of Digital Print Programs, SGIA. “For example, in the digital output device categories, winners were based on measurements of test prints. This is the only competition I know of that tells companies the percentage of Adobe RGB gamut a printer can hit.”

At the forthcoming PRINTING United 2019, a trade show set for October 23 – 25 in Dallas, Texas, the measurement reports will be on display. They are similar to the digital equipment evaluations of the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association and were produced by the Sonoco Institute at Clemson University. Attendees of the event in the Awards Gallery, Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be able to compare printers using the available data. The event will present a broad display of supplies, services, and technologies in the printing industry.

“The products submitted always illustrate trends in the industry, so we saw an uptick in textiles made from recycled materials and workflow software,” Weiss added. Non-output devices including software, textiles, and substrates made up over two-thirds of the categories in the SGIA Product of the Year 2019 competition.

Judges for the 2019 SGIA competition included Scott Baxter and Conrad Coe of GAM Graphics and Marketing. Also present were Dan Gillespie of Alder Technology, Keith Prichard of TIMSCO, Scott Schoppert of Printing Impressions, and Cas Shiver of Sundog Productions. Tony Tribby of Dead Bat Designs and Kent Walker of Walker Supply Company were equally on the panel of judges.

The list of winners for the SGIA Expo 2019 is available here and the winning products will be on exhibition at Hall F Lobby. To get more information about PRINTING United, visit the SGIA website.