The book, printed by Brebner Print Auckland, had to be of the highest quality because it was displaying the artistic output of the Advertising and Illustrative Photographers' Association (AIPA) and would be scrutinised by the photographic and advertising industry at large.
Senior Sheetfed Offset judge Damian Fleming said it involved four process colours plus a spot silver and an aqueous gloss luminous ink on the cover and a lot of people were involved in achieving such a high standard.
"It shows the benefits of collaboration with the paper supplier, the ink company, prepress, the printer and the binder all getting together and providing input into what is a very impressive job.
"It uses some new technology in sheetfed offset, such as new standards in ink that have not been used before in New Zealand, nor since to my knowledge. This required the prepress to work with very strong colours and the result is that the book has very vibrant images that are exciting to look at.
"The front cover has been done with a high-build UV gloss, with the luminous-glow spot colour providing added interesting effect."
Mr Fleming said that the sheetfed judges could find no printing fault at all with the job, and its finishing was also excellent.
"The case binding was done in New Zealand too. PUR (polyurethane resin) and glue binding has been used to allow the book to be pushed flat without splitting the spine.
"All told, I would say this represents the best of the best in sheetfed offset printing."
A total of 2000 copies were printed for AIPA. The book was printed on Novatech Silk 200g and 170g stock supplied by BJ Ball Papers and was printed on a Heidelberg SM 102 CD six-colour plus AQ. Inks were supplied by Nova Inks & Chemicals and Hostmann 'Hicos'. The book was sewn and bound by Bookbinding Press.
