In-Print Update

href="Bob">mailto:bneubauer@napco.com">Bob Neubauer

It's hard to believe, but this was the seventh year I coordinated the judging of the In-Print contest. In all that time I've seen a lot of good-quality in-plant work pass through my office. And all I can say is, I'm glad I don't have to judge it.

This year we had an almost entirely new crew doing the judging, and I think they were in a state of shock once they realized the difficulty of the task they had signed up for. Because it's hard—really, really hard—to pick winners when the work is so good.

Hey, wipe that proud grin off your face. Not everyone's entries were perfect. A lot of otherwise great work was marred with dropouts, roller marks, uneven folds or misaligned crossovers. I mention this so that perhaps next year you'll find these flaws before our judges do.

Want more insight? O.K., entries with multiple parts, say stationery submitted with a matching envelope and business card, have a greater chance of being eliminated (multiple parts = multiple chances for flaws).

More? How about this: In categories that group black-and-white, spot-color and four-color work together, four-color work virtually always wins.

And here's the best tip of all: Enter the non-offset categories. This year we added a host of categories—28, in fact—to give in-plants who do a lot of work on copiers and digital printers a chance to enter their work. But out of the 562 entries we received for In-Print, just 56 were in the non-offset categories.

I know why it turned out that way. People looked at all the items they produced, and the offset items looked much better so they entered them, overlooking their nice color copier jobs.

Truth is, the competition is much more fierce in those offset categories. Many excellent items don't win prizes. When the quality is equally good, judges look at other factors, like degree of difficulty.

Meanwhile, in the non-offset categories, with far less competition, some in-plants won multiple prizes.

So the secret is out. Next year, enter the non-offset categories.

I could offer a whole lot more tips—but then, I already have. There are about seven years' worth on our In-Print Web site. So clip out this column, check out our Web page and start saving samples of your best work today for In-Print 2002. Let's make it even harder for those judges next year.

For the latest In-Print info, including a list of winners, visit our In-Print site.