Agfa Graphics was the winner in the categories color management software, printing plates and pre-press equipment, systems and CtPs. This recognition highlights the company's national and international performance in different areas of printing, offering top-quality service and support to its customers.

"Once again the graphic industry honors Agfa Graphics with the Pini Prize; not just one, but even three”, says Paulo Amaral, Commercial Director, Agfa Graphics Brazil. “We always try to work very closely with our customers, helping them with any of their concerns. These awards also stimulate our teams to continue offering quality solutions to the Brazilian market hand in hand with a strong after-sales support."

The Brazilian Fernando Pini Award for Graphic Excellence was created in 1991. The name Fernando Pini refers to one of the most brilliant technicians in the printing industry in Brazil. The prize is recognized internationally both thanks to the quality level of the printed products presented and also because of the number, over 1500 this year, participating products.

“Agfa Graphics has a continued focus on transforming technology into sustainable solutions that create value for its customers, Amaral continues. “The environmental impact of prepress solutions like the ones honored today, is an important factor, yet Agfa Graphics is taking this one step further by adding total cost of operations and convenience to the equation. ECO3 stands for Eco-friendly, Economic and Extremely convenient.”

With the introduction of the Azura printing plate in 2004, Agfa Graphics pioneered with chemistry-free prepress solutions and still is the industry leader. Now technology allows to improve conventional systems to become more ECO3 as well: the new Energy Elite plates offer a best-in-class run length for no-bake positive thermal plates all aiming at heavily reduced impact on the environment, yet both mechanically and chemically compatible with today’s needs in sheetfed, packaging and heatset applications.

Recent improvements for chemistry-free applications include the chem-free violet printing plate systems for the newspaper industry, the introduction of Azura chemistry-free plates for very large-format offset applications and the Azura direct-on-press plates, that feature high image contrast as well as daylight stability and fast roll-up, thus offering a tremendous advantage when going on press.

"The recent Pini Prize endorses our investments in new technological developments, Amaral concluded. As the market requires new solutions every day, we continue developing the systems for tomorrow."