Printing Industries of America (PIA) has awarded Dan Gelbart the 2008 PIA Robert F. Reed Technology Medal. Gelbart, often credited as the father of modern computer-to-plate (CTP) technology for printing, accepted the award at a luncheon during the 2009 Technical Association for the Graphic Arts (TAGA) Annual Technical Conference in New Orleans on March 16.

Gelbart, who co-founded Creo Products Inc. in 1983, developed a number of CTP technologies over the years and played a key role in the transition from an analog, film-based workflow to the digital platemaking systems found in most shops today. Throughout his career, Gelbart was motivated by developing technology from the best of electronics, optics and precision mechanics, a passion that contributed significantly to more than 70 patents in plate handling, direct on-press imaging, flexographic methodology, process-less flexography and more. In that vein, Gelbart’s technological innovations and successes helped to grow Creo, which was later acquired by Kodak in 2005; Gelbart retired from Kodak in 2008.

Gelbart’s efforts have been recognized previously both within the scientific and research community and the graphic arts marketplace. He earned the B.C. Science Council Gold Medal in 1986, a GATF (now Printing Industries of America) InterTech Technology Award for Innovative Excellence in 1994 and the Gold Medal from the Institute of Printing in 1999.

First awarded in 1974, the Reed Medal perpetuates the memory of Robert F. Reed (1905-1973) whose contributions to the understanding of the lithographic processes and materials are considered the most significant and important made by any man of his time.