中文Print21, the Australian printing industry’s journal of record, has gifted the Australian Museum of Printing 18 bound volumes documenting the first two decades of printing in Australia, New Zealand, and internationally during the 21st century. The donation strengthens the Penrith-based museum’s growing archive of rare and historical material.
Each red-bound volume holds the magazines published in a single year. The set came from Yaffa Media in Surrey Hills, the erstwhile publisher of the industry association magazine for the past nine years, under current editor Wayne Robinson. Ownership has since transferred to the Visual Media Association, successor to Printing Industries, which asked Robinson to temporarily return from retirement to resume the editorship.
The magazine’s lineage is intricate. Initially launched in 2001, Print21 was licensed by Printing Industries to Melbourne-based Niche Media under Nick Dower, which published Grafix magazine with Peter Kohn as editor. Before that, the title and its pioneering news website were owned and published by bluelinemedia under founding editor and later publisher Patrick Howard.
Former editors include Simon Enticknap and well-known industry identity and consultant Andy McCourt. Across its history, Print21 has prided itself on being the journal of record for the industry, hosting notable gatherings such as the ANZ drupa and Ipex industry barbecues in Germany and England. It continues as a thriving record of print in both print and online, with contributors drawn not only from the Australian association but also from PrintNZ under its new publisher, the Visual Media Association.
The volumes join a remarkable collection at the museum, including bound copies of the Sydney Morning Herald from the 19th century and a facsimile edition of the Gutenberg Bible, alongside a rich trove of historical newspapers and documents that illuminate the industry’s past. Alongside authentic working letterpress presses, Linotype typesetting machines, a vast collection of lead typefaces, and Walkley award-winning photographs, the recently renamed Museum is increasingly regarded as a unique industry icon.
Bob Lockley, the museum’s president, said it is going from strength to strength as more people recognize the value of preserving print history and craftsmanship. He stressed that in a digital age it is important, for both the industry and the public, to understand the long craft history behind the printed word. The museum welcomes visitors from schools and industry associations alike to show how printed material was created over more than 300 years.
Lockley runs a schools program in which students handset type and learn how many current terms originate in printing history. He recounts pupils declaring a typeface to be a Microsoft font, only to be told the design predates the software company by centuries. Poster-making workshops also prove popular with community groups, with volunteers John Berry and Steve Boyd contributing craft-based skills.
The donation matters because it captures a transitional era. The first two decades of the 21st century saw print confront digital disruption, the rise of web-to-print, and the gradual integration of software into every corner of the craft. Having that period bound and archived ensures future researchers and apprentices can trace how an ancient trade adapted to a networked world.
For an industry often focused on the next machine or the latest substrate, the museum and Print21’s contribution are a reminder that craft knowledge accumulates. The volunteers who maintain the collection, including Scott Telfer and Angus Scott alongside Lockley and Howard at the presentation, embody a commitment to passing that knowledge forward.
As printing continues to evolve, institutions like the Australian Museum of Printing provide continuity, anchoring a fast-changing industry to the craftsmanship that made it possible. Print21’s gift ensures the early digital century of print will not be forgotten.
Source: Print21 (original article: Print21 adds to history of Australian Museum of Printing, by Wayne Robinson, October 14, 2026).
There is a quiet urgency behind this donation that the industry rarely acknowledges. The first two decades of the 21st century are already slipping out of living memory, and the records of how print navigated the digital transition are scattered across defunct websites, abandoned servers, and the hard drives of retirees. Binding two decades of Print21 into physical volumes is a deliberate act of preservation against that entropy, ensuring a future apprentice or historian can hold the evidence rather than hunt for it. The museum’s schools program, where children discover that upper and lower case predate any software company, performs a different kind of preservation: keeping the craft literate. In an age when printing is often reduced to a button on a screen, institutions like this remind us that the trade carries three centuries of accumulated knowledge about type, ink, and impression. Print21’s gift is therefore more than archival generosity; it is a bet that an industry which forgets its own story will struggle to explain its value to the next generation of makers and customers alike.
