Inkjet’s Age
In Search of
Short-Run Books
The technologies and trends in production inkjet book printing.
Xerox is helping drive the onshore book publishing opportunity forward with innovative inkjet
presses, including the new Xerox Trivor 2400 High Fusion Inkjet Press. The press enables high-quality
color inkjet printing on offset coated stocks with no pre- or post-paper treatments, and allows print
providers to expand their inkjet media range to produce cost-effective, higher-value personalized jobs
such as direct mail, catalogs, magazines, and color books.
By Toni McQuilken
Production inkjet equipment has changed nearly every facet of the print
industry in some fashion, so it should come as no surprise that book production
is no diff erent. Today’s publishers are under the same cost and time constraints
that have impacted other sectors for years now, and they are starting
to look for solutions. Inkjet off ers a compelling story when it comes to the ability to
produce, on demand, the exact number of books needed, rather than being forced to
produce—and then warehouse and hope the sell—massive quantities up front.
“Publishers need ways to manage
what has become an increasingly complex
lifecycle,” noted Will Mansfi eld,
director of worldwide product marketing
& category management, Kodak
Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division.
“Th e number of titles is exploding, with
multiple formats required for each title,
and delivery times are becoming more
and more compressed. In such a fl uid
business environment, publishers are
under tremendous pressure to reduce
costs and waste, and drive procurement
effi ciency and sustainability improvement.
Publishers also need to extract
maximum value from their entire list of
titles, in order to maximize revenue.”
And, agreed Jonathan Edwards, VP
global business development, Xerox,
“Big leaps in production inkjet technology
off er lower operating and machine
costs, better image quality, higher
capacities, and smaller footprints than
the off set devices traditionally used for
book printing. With this technology,
book printers can effi ciently produce
runs of one to 1,000 units, in their local
markets, within 48-hour turnarounds.”
“Digital printing allows for on-demand
production, which cuts down
on obsolescence and extra books.
Extremely fast turn times, oft en in the
range of hours to a couple of days, have
put added pressure on book manufacturers
to embrace inkjet. Inkjet can
handle the fast turn times with vastly
improved effi ciency,” said Rob Malkin,
business development executive, Inkjet
Technologies, Ricoh USA.
Th is matters, because the production
book market is growing. “Digitally
produced book pages in Western Europe
and the U.S. will grow at a compounded
annual growth rate of 12.3% between
2014 and 2019, surpassing 160 billion
pages in 2019. Th is will largely be driven
by more aff ordable inkjet technologies,
according to Production Digital Page
Forecast for Western Europe and North
America, Caslon, 2015,” noted Edwards.
“We believe the number of books
printed with digital technologies has
more than doubled since 2010,” agreed
Mansfi eld. “Yet off set production still
accounts for around three-quarters of
worldwide book sales. Th e market for
short-run books is growing and will continue
to do so for many years to come.”
“Publishers want to reduce inventory,
and, as previously mentioned, technological
improvements are driving
higher quality and helping open up new
markets,” agreed Malkin. “Digital book
reading technology has leveled off . Yet,
that technology has also continued to
drive more physical book production
to—and especially to inkjet printers.”
All about that tech
In particular, the explosion of continuous
feed production inkjet presses with
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