Scanning pioneer wins seventh Ipex 2010 award
Pre-press scanning pioneer John Crosfield has been named as the seventh recipient of the Ipex 2010 Champions in Print Award. Three remaining award winners will be announced in the run-up to the show which takes place between 18-25 May at the NEC, Birmingham.
John Crosfield won the award in recognition of his role in pioneering the Autotron automatic register control and colour scanning technologies that he developed with his team at Crosfield Electronics.
John founded Crosfield Electronics in 1947 to design and manufacture press control equipment. The company’s first invention, the Autotron automatic register control for rotogravure presses was John’s brainchild to improve colour quality and achieve substantial material cost saving. During his tenure as Chief Executive of Crosfield Electronics, John spearheaded the launch of the Scanatron, the first colour scanner in 1959. The company went on to introduce the world’s first enlarging and reducing scanner in 1969 called the Magnascan 450, and then in the mid-seventies, the company launched the world’s first digital scanner – the Magnascan 550, followed closely by the first electronic page composition system.
Although John, a Cambridge-educated engineer, retired in 1975, a year after Crosfield Electronics joined the De La Rue Group of companies, his legacy lives on in the shape of the John Crosfield Foundation. The organisation was set up in 2000 by former Crosfield Electronics employees to honour the company’s pioneering work by assisting underprivileged students to further their education in graphic arts.
Other Ipex 2010 Champions in Print to date are Lord Bob Gavron, founder St Ives; Frank Romano, Emeritus Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology; John Warnock & Chuck Geschke, co-founders Adobe Systems; JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books and, Benny Landa, founder of Indigo.
