A story that spans 5 decades

The success of GEC dates back almost half a century. To be more precise, 3 October 1959, the date that marked the beginning of the GEC adventure.
GEC has come a long way since then, but has retained its original spirit: after Drupa, it is the most complete showcase of technologies for graphic arts and converting, and addresses all areas of industry, from offset printing to cardboard converting, from binding to prepress, from converting to flexography and screen printing, from plates and inks to paper and cardboard.

Flash over 5 editions

GEC ’59
Ever since the first GEC, it has been a show with an international reach. A truly international event: 378 are the foreign attendees, not only from Europe but also from the United States, USSR and Hungary.

GEC ’69
It is the year of Man’s landing on the moon, the triumph of technology over nature. Technology also has the main role at the 2nd GEC, where absolute novelties for the period are on display at the exhibition, especially in photocomposition and electronic imaging.

Gec ’79
The 3rd GEC had more than 1,000 exhibitors, the majority of whom were foreign exhibitors. It is the first Western exhibition visited by an official delegation from the People’s Republic of China. As a result of this visit, an Italian facility provided gravure printing in China.

GEC ’87
The strong acceleration in technological innovation has left its mark and the interval between one exhibition and another is reduced.
With the advent of ever smaller and more powerful personal computers, the electronics revolution inaugurates a new cycle: word processing systems gain momentum, Desk Top Publishing and PostScript are created. 

GEC ’94
Digital technologies lead to integrated data management systems, and integration between pre-press and printing becomes much closer.
A total of 49% of the exhibitors comes from 25 countries: companies with a keen interest in the Italian printing industry, which has been able to triplicate its investments in technologies during 1984-1994.