Champions in Print

The Ipex Advisory Committee has selected John Crosfield as the seventh ‘Champion in Print’, in recognition of his role in pioneering the Autotron automatic register control and colour scanning technologies, which he developed with his team at Crosfield Electronics.

John Crosfield founded Crosfield Electronics in 1947 to design and manufacture press control equipment. The company’s first invention, the Autotron automatic register control for rotogravure presses, was the brainchild of John’s vision to improve colour quality and achieve substantial material cost saving.

During his tenure as Chief Executive of Crosfield Electronics, John spearheaded the company’s launch of the first colour scanner, the Scanatron, in 1959. The company went on to introduce the world’s first enlarging and reducing drum scanner in 1969. Called the Magnascan 450, it had the ability to make fully corrected screened or continuous tone separations, to a required size, in a single step. In the mid-seventies, Crosfield Electronics brought out the world’s first digital scanner – the Magnascan 550, followed closely by the first electronic page composition system. 

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This exciting initiative from Ipex aims to celebrate individuals across the world who have made an outstanding contribution to the industry and are true Champions in Print.

The initiative started in the summer of 2008 and, over the last year or so, we have encouraged nominations from all sectors of the graphic arts community, with the Ipex Advisory Committee deciding each quarter who deserves this unique accolade.

The initiative will culminate at an awards dinner during Ipex 2010, when all the winners will be honoured in front of an audience of some of the best known names in the industry.

Anyone in the industry is invited to nominate any LIVING person who has made an outstanding contribution to print anywhere in the world - including printers, authors, inventors, entrepreneurs..in fact anyone who has had a special impact on the printing industry.

 

Lord Bob Gavron, founder of one of the largest printing companies in the world, is an avid Champion in Print and one of the industry’s most successful businessmen.

Having founded St. Ives in 1964, Lord Gavron took the company public in 1985 and consistently outperformed the market over the next ten years. He retired as the Chairman in 1993 but remained on the board as non-executive director until 1998. He was also the Chairman of the Guardian Media Group between 1997 and 2000.

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Dr. John Warnock (below) and Dr. Charles Geschke (left), co-founders of Adobe Systems Incorporated, have been honoured with an Ipex 2010 ‘Champions in Print’ award, acknowledging their huge contribution and influence on the development of the printing industry.

The Ipex Advisory Committee, which represents a broad range of major exhibitors, visitor groups and trade associations, has awarded the accolade in recognition of the roles they played in inventing Adobe® PostScript® technology which revolutionised desktop publishing by providing a radical new approach to printing text and images on paper.

John Warnock says, "We are delighted to accept the Ipex ‘Champions in Print’ award. When Chuck and I founded Adobe in 1982, we hoped our technology would have the potential to make an important contribution to the communication of ideas. But if anyone had told us it would be part of revolutionizing the printing and publishing industry, we would have been sceptical. We were fortunate in that we have always hired bright and creative people at Adobe. I'm proud to say that Adobe has been built on the legacy that has continued to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information, whether in print, on the Web and across all manner of devices."

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Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology has been announced as the third Ipex Champion In Print.

Frank Romano's career has spanned 50 years in the printing and publishing industries. Many know him as the editor of the International Paper Pocket Pal, or have read one of the thousands of articles he has written.  He is the author of 46 books, including the 10,000-term "Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications" (with Richard Romano), the standard reference in the field. His books on QuarkXPress, InDesign and PDF workflow were among the first in their fields. He has authored most of the books on digital printing.

He has founded eight publications and his columns appear in WhatTheyThink.com. He is also the editor of the EDSF Report. He lectures extensively, having addressed virtually every club, association, group, and professional organisation at one time or another.

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Harry Potter author J K Rowling was named the second ‘Champion in Print’ for her outstanding contribution to book printing.  This prestigious honour acknowledged the enormous positive influence that Rowling has had on the printing industry, as a result of her hugely successful Harry Potter series.
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