
As Australian Printer turns 70, we take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of the biggest news that made history and the building blocks that have moulded the industry.
1950s…
- First drupa in Düsseldorf had 323,000 sq ft of exhibition space, with 400 exhibitors and more than 300,000 visitors
- Klischograph launches half-tone photo-engraver (by Dr Rudolf Hell)
- New Mander-Kidd Printing Ink factory in Sydney opens
- The first of the Printing Houses in Sydney section in AP featured the house of Penfold
- Aussie-designed printing-down machine gets produced in Britain
- Photopolymer used for flexo is launched
- Prepress term gets coined
- Inkjet printing emerges
- Facilities for spiral binding becomes available in NSW
- The Wonderful World of Insects (1st book phototypeset)
- Times New Roman exhibition opens in Sydney
- Australia’s first braille press starts in Sydney
- Carton printers stage first private packaging exhibition in NSW
- Penguin book production begins publishing in Melbourne
- Graphic Arts Discussion Group formed in Sydney
- Linotype Company introduces new photocomposing machine
- Sydney printer, C.P. Printers’ Base, launches new Australian-made plate base
- Australasian Printing Exhibition opens in Sydney
- Emergence of fax
- Lithographic Technical Foundation in New York makes available new L.T.F. colour chart in Australia
- NSW Government Printing office nears completion
- Official opening of Melbourne School of Printing and Graphic Arts
- New showroom opening for Monotype Corporation of Australia in Melbourne
- J. Ball opens new warehouse in Adelaide
- Seligson & Clare makes history as first Australian firm to have a stand at drupa
- Feature of the first printer in Australia in AP
- The monophoto arrives in Australia
- Merger of BJ Ball and Edwards Dunlop paper, which saw the trading name change to Edwards Dunlop & BJ Ball
1960s…
- New system for printing braille – dots printed through perforated zinc stencil using special PVC paste instead of ink
- WA Master Printers help publicise Commonwealth Games
- Wrap around plates starts being produced in Australia
- Letraset instant transfer lettering launches
- Ryobi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries starts manufacturing sheet-fed offset printing presses
- New plant for Victorian Government printer launched
- Printing ink pigments get made in Australia
- Screen process printing takes off
- Sydney Group develops set-off tester
- Pantone Matching System (PMS) launches
- Colour scanner launches (Dr Rudolf Hell)
- Modern techniques reproduce Australia’s first newspaper
- Modern Canberra printing office opens
- Printers in the making at Sydney high schools
- Australian firsts with new machines in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne
- Australia gets invited to join Asian Printers’ Congress
- Women staff proposed for printing industry
- Computersied typesetter DS 2038 (Dr Rudolf Hell) launches
- Hypertext term gets coined
- New braille press prints plastic dots
- Local ink makers adopt US colour system
- Victoria’s Miss Printing quest raises $18,812
- New microwave dryer unveiled
- First Crosfield Diascan 2000 colour scanner goes into operation in Australia
- Dot matrix printing emerges
- 3D printed postage stamps a success
- Laser printing introduced by Xerox
- Industry transforms from letterpress to offset
- New to Australia – Nyloprint plates
- Special typeface created for Australian needs

1970s…
- Water-based ink launches
- Australia goes metric
- American paper converter Nashua Corporation sets up plant in NSW
- Printing ink prices rise
- New gold offset ink is created
- Dover’s Pte Ltd in Melbourne installs Alphatype Photocomposition System – first in Australia
- The growth of web offset
- VRG Graphic Machinery installs Zaandam II newspaper folding and wrapping machine (first installation in Australia)
- 3M enters carbonless paper market in Australia
- Amalgamated Colour Etchers installs Australia’s first APR liquid photopolymer letterpress printing plate system
- Conpress Printing installs first web offset machine in Australia
- Optical character recognition arrives in Australia
- Thermal printing launches
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) gets developed by Xerox PARC
- World goes through newspaper shortage
- Computers develop faster web-offset folders
- ISO 216 paper standard launches
- Colour television arrives
- Screen printers see new ink release
- Flatbed CCD scanner launches (Kurzweil)
- Cyber was founded
- Currie and Company rebrands to Currie & Co
- Fairfax Newspapers automate processes
- Polychrome PSL new films gets made available in Australia
- Gocco compact colour screen printing system gets developed in Japan
- TeX typesetting for technical publishing launches
- Pemara Press installs and commissions first 170 FB/RY pressure sensitive label press in Australia from Ko-Pack Corporation in Tokyo
- Launch of new pre-press colour device
- Australia’s first colour photocopying service opens in Sydney
- W.Doggett Fine Paper arrives in Melbourne, growing to include offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide
1980s…
- Canon and HP launch thermal drop-on-demand
- New developments in offset blankets
- Internet era begins
- Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS DOS) introduced
- Largest press installation in Australia to date is a Heidelberg at Cambec press
- Widespread use of automatic handling and mailroom facilities
- Adobe Systems founded
- Desktop publishing arrives
- Apple Macintosh personal computer unveiled
- Champion Press’ new $2 million plant
- Epson unveils Piezoelectric drop-on-demand
Microsoft Windows launches - Plate prices rise
- Agfa-Gevaert installs Australia’s first RPS 6000 Automatic Daylight Camera in Sydney
- Cambec Web first company in Southern Hemisphere to install new Heidelberg Web
- The Victor Harbor Times scores an Aussie first for a country newspaper – installation of a Compugraphic ONE phototypesetting system
- Soy-based ink introduced
- New pigment printing system developed by Albright & Wilson and CSIRO division of Protein Chemistry
- Giant new ink factory for Australia
- The Newcastle Herald installs first automated filminess platemaking system in Australasia
- Australia’s first Helio-Klischograph was installed at Deaton & Spencer
- Adobe Photoshop introduced
- Research Laboratories of Australia breaks through with electro-photographic pre-press proofs
- MAN Roland wins $742 million News Corp contract – largest in Australian printing history to date
- Revolutionary CRP System (graphics system) exhibited for the first time in Australia at PakPrint ’88
- Print run by The Book Printer creates new Australian record with a million bibles in a single print run to date
- Introduction of the first sheet-fed press with automatic plate changer and paper and impression preset system
- World’s first metallic dry transfer letting released in Australia by Letraset
- Hanna Match Group installs new Roland 600 press – first in Australia
- Holograms go from concept to application
- Currie Group opens new WA premises
- Greiner Government closes NSW printing office; 700 jobs lost
- Aus Taxation Office’s running that chemical proofs are exempt from sales tax saves printers millions
1990s…
- Xerox DocuTech – scan, edit, first print-on-demand launch
- World Wide Web launches
- Mitsubishi F-Series sheetfed press takes sheetfed presses a step closer to total automation and unmanned sheetfed printing
- New techniques enhance label printing
- Wright Technologies develops homegrown prepress tech for world
- Age honoured at Asia World Publishing Congress
- Yellow pages advertising at a high
- TrueType scalable computer introduced
- Heidelberg/Presstek GTO-DI direct impression press launches
- Indigo digital colour press, liquid toner launched
- Danish graphic arts giant enters Australasia
- Premier opens $10 million self-adhesives manufacturing plant
- $30 million modern Sydney printing and graphic arts facility opens
- CTP computer-to-plate by Agfa launches
- Arrival of Portable Document Format (PDF)
- Ink Express Printing buys Australia’s first two-colour Shinohara Fuji 52IIP
- Pot Still Press celebrates 25 years
- Australian first at Bowater Reding
- Prism joins Australian market
- Digital Ink breakthrough with Indigo digital offset colour printing
- Snap celebrates 25th birthday
- AM Graphics goes digital
- EACgraphics, world’s largest distributor of graphic arts equipment opens shop in Australia
- An independent ink laboratory and development centre opens in NSW (page 56, 1994 issue)
- Paper process rise 15 per cent
- Thermal printing plate launches
- com makes a debut
- Plate prices rise
- Sales tax exemptions on art work no longer included in tax office audits of printers
- Australian Paper builds multi-million paper machine, the first major capacity increase in Australia for more than 10 years
- Walter Alteri Printing in Melbourne first in world to install Hashimoto’s first six-coloured press
- Fuji Xerox secures $6 million contract to supply copiers to Qantas Airways
- OpenType scalable fonts for PC introduced
- PATEFA is renamed to PIAA, along with new logo
- Penfold Printing finalises contacts for supply of prepress equipment and software to the entire printing group – one of the largest in NSW
- Courtney Colour Graphics installs country’s first Presstek Pearlsetter from Heidelberg Australia
- Coverage of a magazine, Computer Generated Imaging, printed in 3D using a new optical technology
- Prime Minister (at that time) John Howard backs 200 years of printing in Australia program
- Printing industry faces $100 million loss through Asian currency crisis
- IBM offders total digital printing solutions
- AP buyers Guide on the internet goes live
- First PrintEx ’99 sees GAMAA and PIA joint organisation
- Paper prices rise to offset damage caused by the plummeting dollar
- Pakprint gets renamed to PacPrint, along with new logo
- Apple Computers radically redesigns iMac
- Böttcher Australian operation founded in Sydney
- Three chemical companies, including one from Australia, form International Pressroom Chemistry
- Business Software Association of Australia (BSAA) cracks down on piracy in the graphic arts industry

2000s…
- Indigo gets Pantone licensed
- The rise and fall of dot-coms
- Australia Post drops in on digital wave
- Amcor offloads paper division and forms it into a new company – PaperlinX
- Wikipedia
- Creative Commons
- Pacific Inks celebrates 25-year anniversary
- Heidelberg produces new handbook for graphic arts
- KBA’s new Australian team installs first sheetfed machine in Australia
- PMG launches Asia Pacific Packaging
- Hewlett Packard Wi-Fi laser printer launches
- Introduction of WordPress
- Apple takes strong bite into market
- Acrobat turns 12
- City Printing Works celebrates 100 years in printing
- Salmat sails into digital
- Three industry heavyweights come together to form Focus Paper
- David Graphics hits 50
- World first mill for Australia
- Australian Print Finishers Association established
- World’s smallest dictionary returns to Brisbane
- Konica and Minolta complete merger
- New printing safety guide launches
- Blue Star places Heidelberg Australia’s largest sheetfed order for four of its presses
- Double A paper enters Australian market
- Cyber sets up shop in Australia
- News Corp heads to the US
- Australian forest exports on the rise
- Gulmen Engineering installs first Gidue Press in Australia
- Twitter arrives
- Fuji Xerox enters digital web market
- Kwik Kopy opens first digital centre
- News Limited newspaper readership hits record 10 million a week
- Queensland Government invests in Goprint
- Kindle launches
- Victoria launches inaugural PICAs
- Ad skipping TV comes to Australia
- e-Paper threatens print
- Fed Minister calls on printers to open workplaces
- Labor promises a new role for print
- Industry standards body established for ISO in print
- Currie & Co rebrands to Currie Group
- World’s biggest printer Quebecor World Inc, battles bankruptcy
- Rudd chops MPs’ printing allowance
- E-reading arrives
- Amcor builds $400 million recycled paper mill
- Bottcher Australia turns 10
- Geon opens first digital print hub
- News Limited invests $52 million in new print centre
- ACP decides to build giant print site by 2011
- FedEx Kinkos shuts all Australian stores
- Printing industry faces higher electricity and water charges
- Australian Paper launches 100 per cent carbon neutral book paper
- Bambra Press first in Australia to install Heidelberg XL75 press
- Ricoh launches Printing Innovation Centre in Sydney and unveils new Melbourne showroom
- PIAA launches NSW sustainable print training – first in Australia
- Queensland Government endorses PIAA sustainable plan
- Percival Print and Packaging first in Australia to install KBA Rapida 106
2010s…
- Apple iPad launches
- Instagram arrives
- Fed Government reveals suppliers for $220 million print buying programme
- NSW Government commits to future use of print
- Fed Government establishes pulp and paper council
- Printing industries launch network for young players in print
- Vistaprint arrives in Australia
- Printing Industries launches new campaign to keep print in Australia
- Salmat launches nationwide print and distribution network
- Snapchat launches
- EFI raises the stakes in MIS with Prism acquisition
- Ricoh launches Australia’s first solar-powered sign in Sydney skyline
- Immigration department awards $4.2 million contract to Blue Star
- Salmat accelerates shift into electronic media
- Kindle device becomes Amazon’s top-selling product of all time
- IPMG sheds newspaper arm with sale to Fairfax
- Finsbury Green wins multi-million-dollar deal with NSW Government
- Geon prints 8.3 million ballots in one weekend in major Government contract
- EFI enters digital ceramic printing market with Cretaprint acquisition
- Currie Group installs the first B2 digital press in the region, the HP Indigo 10000
- Merger of Ryobi and MHI, resulting in the launch of Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology
- Böttcher establishes local manufacturing in Sydney
- Decline in print manufacturing performance begins
- Paper prices go up six to nine per cent
- Allkotes launches world’s first print finishing app
- Mechanical newspaper printing turns 200
- Fuji Xerox Document Management Solutions wins $4.8 million government contract
- Flash Graphics first in Australia to install Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV-HS
- Scientists print biggest solar cells in Australia
- Printers cash in on Government contracts worth up to tens of millions of dollars
- Drupa moves to three-year cycle
- Label and Tag Manufacturers Association of Australia (LATMA) and Australia New Zealand Flexographic Technical Association (ANZFTA) merge
- Wellcom wins massive Coles and Target contracts
- World first as APP retires 700ha of land
- Paper prices rise by double digits
- $1.2 million Government backed Trade Mailing business closes its doors
- Major merger sees three Melbourne printers – Ability Press, Docklands Press and Mercedes Waratah and M&M Binders merge
- Pierre Pienaar becomes first Aussie to attain Certified Packaging Professional (CPP)
- News Corp makes multi-million-dollar mailroom move
- John’s Print Centre (JPC) installs Australia’s first Océ Arizona 6170
- Blue Star rebrands to IVE
- BJ Ball acquires Access Paper
- Centrum installs largest laminator in country
- HP buys Samsung printer business for US$1billion
- AGS brings PlateWriter 3600 Pro to Australia
- First Aussie 3D printing firm Aurora Labs debuts on ASX
- Australia Post trials drone parcel delivery
- Blue Star Web first in Asia-Pacific to install Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10
- Intec Printing Solutions comes to Australia
- Outdoor audiences up by 200,000 a day
- New Digital Print installs Australia’s first Durst Tau 330 UV inkjet label press
- Press Print first to launch HP Indigo 12000 in Australia
- Lightning Source signs biggest ever order with HP for 24 PageWide T240 HD presses
- Packaging Council of Australia (PCA) merges with PIAA
- Pitney Bowes brings Riso GD to Australia
- First Australian Konica Minolta B2 digital inkjet sheetfed press sold to Minuteman Press franchisees
- Insane Signs and Print buys two Durst Rho 512R Plus in world first
- Orora expands into US market
- Signs Unique Installations first in Australia to buy Roland DG’s Camm-1 GR Series vinyl cutter
- Introduction of robot-assisted sheet-fed offset presses
- Böttcher merges with Brissett Rollers
- Paper volumes hit 30-year low
- Fairfax and Nine merge
- Böttcher and Brissett in major merger
- Intermedia acquires Australian Printer
- Australasian Catalogue Association, TSA Limited, and Australasian Paper Industry Association form new association, The Real Media Collective
- Mediapoint invests in Australian first with new Durst P10 250 HS Plus
- Vivad adds Australia’s first Bullmer 5m cutting table to its ranks
- Spot on Finishing installs country’s first Duplo UV Coater digital embellishing system
- Canva hits $1 billion valuation
- Böttcher opens greenfield manufacturing site in Sydney
- Currie Group celebrates 70 years in business
- PIAA renames to Print & Visual Communications Association
- Industry consolidations increase
- Printers affected by fires that affect Queensland, NSW and Victoria
- Sprinter launches
- Mezographic purchases Durst P5 250HS, first of its kind in Australia
- Big Image Australia installs country’s first MCT Gerber cutting table
- Intertype installs Fuji Xerox Iridesse press, becoming first printer worldwide to combine it with Color-Logic for metallic printing effects
- Durst officially launches Oceania operations
- USQ Ellipsis Media first company to adopt Fujifilm Jet Press 750S
- The formation of Ball & Doggett – a merger between BJ Ball and K.W.Doggett Fine Paper occurs
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