Looking back: Book winners at PrintWeek Awards

In book printing, the Awards are conferred in three different categories  — Book Printer of the Year (Education); Book Printer of the Year (Specialty and Trade); and Book Printer of the Year (Print on Demand - POD).

Book Printer of the Year (Education)
The category focuses on educational books. The books submitted are science, technical, medical, and textbooks (books with mono-colour or two-colour printed inner pages and multi-colour printed covers). Judges look for the highest quality of printing married to precision in binding. They consider challenges in production, how post-press added value to the book and insights about bookbinding which made the publication special. Entrants submit four different books — either case bound or paperback or both.

Nutech Print Services (India) and Silverpoint Press were joint winners in the category at the 2023 edition of the PrintWeek Awards.

Nutech Print Services (India) submitted several long-run book jobs for consideration, which used techniques like high-precision, hot-foil stamping, special die-cuts, flap fabrication, rounded edges, premium finish qualities, slipcases, speciality substrates, rounded spine, hot foil stamping, embossing, gilded edges, spot UV, and spot gutter UV on PLC. Silverpoint Press was recognised for its attention to detail in producing children's books. Its samples featured standard density, high-quality colour depth, slipcases, section sewing, perfect binding, and gloss lamination.

In 2022, CDC Printers bagged the Book Printer of the Year (Education) Award. The samples they submitted had special post-press enhancements, ranging from spot glitter UV to spot UV to back-to-back pasting. Their books were intended for children, so the submissions displayed rounded corners for child safety. The company printed on paper stock ranging from 120-gsm to 400-gsm. The entries also displayed gloss lamination, spot glitter UV, gloss varnish, glitter UV, soft foam binding, and hard-case binding.

In 2019, the winner was Nutech Print Services (India) yet again.  It won owing to a variety of samples that employed technologies like gilded edges, and cloth-printed covers.

Book Printer of the Year (Specialty and Trade)
This award focuses on general interest and trade books that boast special attention given to the making of the book, from printing and binding to additional finishing touches. This category literally judges a book by its cover. 

At the 2023 edition of the Awards, Manipal Technologies and Nutech Print Services (India) (Faridabad) were joint winners. The former won based on jobs done for Hachette, HarperCollins, and Aatman. Its samples featured matt lamination, foiling, varnishes,soft-touch lamination, spot UV, and embossing. 

Nutech Print Services India (Faridabad) was awarded owing to various jobs that deployed technologies like printing with online aqueous varnish, foam padding, hot foil stamping, embossing, and spot UV. Its work was especially good because of the precision achieved by the company with ultra-short-run jobs.

In the 2022 edition, the award was bagged by Hyderabad-based Pragati Offset. The company’s samples used various technologies like screen printing, hot foil stamping, spot gloss UV varnishing, clamshell cases, cloth wrappers, and spray-coated edges.

In 2019, before the pandemic, Lustra Print Process was awarded for their work which used slip-cases, foil stamping, detailed gatefolds, and challenging binding.

Printer of the Year (Print on Demand - POD) 
This category was introduced in 2022 to address the growth in the segment, where a limited number of copies of a title is printed, while still adhering to all the demands of making the book beautiful.

In 2023, Silverpoint Press won this award. The company was recognised for high-quality colour depth and accuracy, wave embosses, rose-gold foiling, satin aqueous coating, spot-raised UV, and gold and silver foil stamping and embossing.

In 2022, the award was bagged by Faridabad-based Thomson Press. The company produced books of all kinds, ranging from legal books and children’s books to a Bible. It deployed technologies like gold-foiling, gilding, lamination, and varnishes. It also made use of different types of paper, and various post-press operations like sewing, drilling, and hard case binding.

The registration process for the 14th edition of the PrintWeek Awards is online. The early bird deadline for entering the PrintWeek Awards has been extended to 15 July. If you’ve not registered yet, enter now.

The fee for the same will be Rs 3,000 + taxes. After that, the fee will be Rs 4,000 + taxes. The deadline for submissions is 31 July. The Awards Night for the 14th edition will be hosted on 23 September at The Westin Powai Lake, Mumbai. Participants can register for the Awards by clicking here.