The Globe and Mail has been named one of the world’s best-printed newspapers.

On Wednesday the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, known as WAN-IFRA, named The Globe to the top 80 of its International Newspaper Color Quality Club for 2012-2014. Those 80 newspapers are chosen from a membership of more than 18,000 publications worldwide. Montreal’s La Presse was the only other Canadian newspaper named to the club, which recognizes the highest-quality printed products in the newspaper world.

The Globe was also rated No. 2 in the world for heatset colour printing, which is used for more glossy paper. It is a process by which a heat source evaporates the oils in the ink, drying it more quickly. The ink rests on the surface of the paper, rather than being absorbed.

The Globe made significant changes to its printed product in October, 2010, after signing an 18-year, $1.7-billion deal with Transcontinental Inc., which then made state-of-the-art upgrades to its printing presses. The equipment allowed every page of The Globe to be presented in full colour, with some pages printed on glossy, magazine-quality paper – including its cover, thereby guaranteeing readers ink-stain-free shirts as they carry the paper under their arm on the way to work.

Phillip Crawley, The Globe’s publisher and CEO, said the paper’s investment in printing, and the resulting colour quality, has strengthened its competitive advantage. “It has enabled our brilliant designers to be even more bold and imaginative, and we know from our readers and advertisers that they really appreciate the visual impact of our pages,” he said – “especially the glossy sections.”

Membership in the Color Quality Club is determined every two years. With the exception of its Prairie edition, The Globe is printed at five Transcontinental plants across Canada in Vancouver, Calgary, Vaughan, Montreal and Halifax. The editions selected by WAN-IFRA were taken from Transcontinental’s Vaughan, Ont., plant.