With three full years of PostPress magazine under our belt and work on the first issue of 2018 well underway, we paused to see the topics with which our readers spent the most time in 2017. We found that readers often check through archives of The Binding Edge and InsideFinishing – the predecessors to PostPress. The following stories, published in 2017, were the top reads for nearly 29,000 visitors to the website.

• Sheet-fed Cold Foil Finding Niche with Folding Cartons

  The use of cold foil for large-format sheet-fed applications has certainly been on the rise in the last few years. Folding carton companies have been a prime candidate for cold foil technology. Why? First and foremost, the technology in equipment, foil and adhesives has continued to improve, thereby creating an efficient workflow for carton printers. This has led to a great deal of confidence that cold foil can be a reliable decorative choice for many packaging applications.

• FSEA Announces Gold Leaf Award Winners

  Embossing, foil stamping and specialty effects can raise the level of quality, added value, shelf presence, brand recognition and security for a product. These are the types of unique and eye-catching pieces the Foil & Specialty Effects Association showcases during its annual Gold Leaf Awards Competition. The 24th Annual Gold Leaf Award winners were honored during the IADD•FSEA Odyssey, held in Schaumburg, Illinois. More than 300 entries were received from around the world, including pieces from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

• Working with Specialty UV Coatings on Press

  A longtime manufacturer of screen and offset printing presses, Sakurai USA is well versed in the challenges operators face when utilizing specialty coating technologies. With the increased growth of specialty coatings, such as profile raised UV and glitter UV coatings, operators are working with a lot more than just simple spot UV coatings.

• Avoiding Bindery Bottlenecks

  Most experienced printing professionals are accustomed to thinking that printing bottlenecks occur in the prepress department. That’s the black hole, right? Bottlenecks can occur anywhere in the workflow, and these holdups in the bindery or finishing area are rarely examined and poorly understood. This has become even more relevant with the growth of digital printing technologies and working with digitally printed output.

• The Future of Finishing: The Evolution of Print – and Printed Products – Demands a New Finishing Paradigm

  Nearly six centuries ago, German Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press. Many point to this development as the beginning of manufacturing, since inventors began looking for new ways to make production more consistent and faster. Yet, the concept of streamlined processes didn’t get the attention of most industries until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1760s. Today, the manufacturing process continues to evolve.