"Forever" stamp booklet wins PLGA print-quality Best of Show

Mark Spaulding, Editor in Chief -- Converting Magazine, 3/3/2008

The USPS "Forever" two-sided stamp booklet, converted by Avery Dennison Security Printing Div., won Best of Show honors Feb. 27 in the 2008 Print Quality Awards competition sponsored by the Packaging and Label Gravure Association. The winners were announced at the group's 11th Operational Conference in Miami.

The stamps were gravure-printed in 10 colors on Fasson two-sided stamp stock with Siegwerk C Type solvent-based ink and using WRE Color Tech gravure engravings on a Dai-Nippon Kiko press. Printed using 300- to 400-line-screen engravings to make counterfeiting more difficult, the stamps include micro-printing as the word "Forever" is micro-printed on each stamp.

"This was an extremely difficult job to print, not only was it necessary to keep each side in register but also front-to-back," says judge Tony White of Flexo/Gravure magazine. "There is not much more that can be said of perfection."

This year's Print Quality Awards drew 103 entries, a 27-percent increase over 2007. There were also 17 entries in the International awards field.