Best of the best emerge in over 70 categories

Fairfax, Va. – The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Product of the Year competition. The winning products — all produced by PRINTING United exhibitors and available for sale in 2019 — rose to the top of a field of more than 200 entries in 72 categories.

“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.”

The measurement reports, which were produced by the Sonoco Institute at Clemson University and follow the same format as SGIA’s digital equipment evaluations, will be on display with the entries in the Awards Gallery at PRINTING United (October 23 - 25, Dallas), allowing attendees to compare printers based on data.

More than two-thirds of the competition categories are for non-output devices — everything from textiles to substrates to software. “The products submitted always illustrate trends in the industry, so we saw an uptick in textiles made from recycled materials and workflow software,” Weiss said.

The 2019 judges included Scott Baxter, GAM Graphics and Marketing; Conrad Coe, GAM Graphics and Marketing; Dan Gillespie, Alder Technology; Keith Prichard, TIMSCO; Scott Schoppert, Printing Impressions; Cas Shiver, Sundog Productions; Tony Tribby, Dead Bat Designs and Kent Walker, Walker Supply Company.

2019 Product of the Year winners are listed on SGIA.org. To see all of the Product of the Year entries, visit the Awards Gallery at PRINTING United (Hall F lobby). Registration for PRINTING United is free through September 10.