Digital Printing: How It Will Benefit Readers, Publishers and Booksellers

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Digital Printing: How It Will Benefit Readers, Publishers and Booksellers LOGOS 13(1)_CRC 9/4/02 12:04 PM Page 25 LOGOS Digital printing: How it will benefit readers, publishers and booksellers Jeff Nock In the over 500 years since Gutenberg’s discovery, almost all books have been produced by letterpress or, later, offset or lithography printing. Publishers, bookstores, librarians and readers require books with print quality and fidelity of illustration that, until now, only offset printing could provide. In the last ten years, technology from companies such as Xerox, IBM and Océ has created digital printers able to As founder of the POD and print text as effectively as offset presses. Until e-textbook business of netLibrary recently, however, the production of color covers of Boulder, Colorado, Jeff Nock and halftones in the book block was below publisher and user standards. Also, like all new technology is a pioneer in the development of products, the digital printers have been so expensive digital printing. Before joining that, even if the quality of colors and halftones had netLibrary, he worked for not been an issue, unit costs were too high. thirteen years in publishing, Today the quality of digital printing has printing and book distribution, improved, so that publishers are accepting it for even the most complex books. While halftones including a spell as CEO of have not yet achieved 100% of the quality of offset, EPX/Denver. Nock has a they are close to it. Color in the book block is pos- Bachelors degree in Political sible, but not economically viable, and probably Science from the University of won’t be for three to five years. In a recent test, netLibrary converted a book from the University of Colorado and a Masters in Massachusetts University Press to a high-resolution Business Management and digital file. The file was then pulled securely via the Marketing. Internet by Bookmobile, a digital printer in St Paul, Email: [email protected] Minnesota. Metadata for the book was sent with the file. Without having any paper version of the book or its cover, Bookmobile was then able to print the book in a fashion remarkably similar to the original offset version. Bruce Wilcox, Director of the University of Massachusetts Press, said: “I think it looks very good. The illustrations may not be quite up to the standard of traditional offset printing, but certainly they are good enough for us to feel comfortable selling the book to our cus- tomers as a Print On Demand/short-run reprint.” Prices for digital printers have come down. Binding equipment is becoming less expen- sive. Cutter options are plentiful. Prices for all three 25 LOGOS 13/1 © WHURR PUBLISHERS 2002 LOGOS 13(1)_CRC 9/4/02 12:04 PM Page 26 Jeff Nock types of equipment will continue to drop, and the and is clearly going to run out of stock in days or volume of short-run, digital book printing will ipso weeks, digitally produced books can be printed in a facto increase. While today an offset print run of day or a week. Even if the book is selling so fast that 2,000 6” x 9”, 300-page paperback, with a color it appears that an offset run might be more eco- cover costs approximately US$2 a unit, printing nomical, digitally produced books can economically 200 of the same book digitally costs from fill the gap between the time a title goes out of US$3.02–$5.10 a unit. This means that for a little stock and the time when the offset run becomes over US$600 at the front or back end of a title’s available. life, the publisher can have 200 copies printed, One of the accepted rules of thumb in rather than pay US$4,000 for a 2,000 run. This publishing is that if a book sells more rapidly than does not mean that offset printing is going away. predicted, customers will wait a month for addi- For titles of which at least 1,000 copies will be sold, tional supply. The reality is that, although many offset remains more efficient. But for titles that will customers do wait for their books (or have to in not sell 1,000 copies and for those that have the case of students), there are many who do not. exhausted their initial offset run, and have an ongo- Print On Demand largely eliminates lost sales of ing demand of less than 1,000 copies, digital print- this kind. ing is a more economic model. Additional publisher benefits of digital * * * * * short-run printing include the reduction or elimi- nation of returns, which now range from 5% of What will happen next? Large book pub- sales for academic books up to 40% for trade. In lishers will adopt the technology via internal today’s challenging economic times, book distribu- investment, while mid-to-small publishers will tors are pushing inventory back to publishers at search out printer partners. Pearson Education, for alarming rates. Digital book printing reduces returns example, has developed its own in-house digital because it reduces inventory. Instead of printing for print facility. Traditional offset book printers such one or two years, publishers can now print inven- as Edwards Brothers of Ann Arbor, Michigan, RR tory predicted to sell in a fiscal quarter. After Donnelly & Sons of Allentown, Pennsylvania and reviewing the sales results from the first two months DeHart’s Printing Service of Santa Clara, Califor- of that quarter, publishers can go back to print with nia have invested in digital print capacity. Start-up a much more educated understanding of how many digital printers like Bookmobile of St Paul, Min- copies to print for the next quarter. nesota and Matrix Digital Technologies of Dallas, Another, often ignored, expense reduced Texas offer expertise and focus only on digital short- by digital printing is carrying costs. While publish- run printing. ers use different methods of measuring such costs, It is anticipated that publishers will even- the bottom line is a saving of fifty-five cents per tually use digital printers in the same way that they annum per book – equal to part or all of the differ- use offset printers. The art of creating consistent ence in offset and digital unit costs. Add in what is quality books remains the same, whatever the saved by the reduction in returns, and digital print- method of manufacture. Nonetheless, since the ing becomes a net saving. investment required to enter digital print is smaller Another saving is time. The normal turn- than that required to enter offset, a fusing of the around time for a book job on an offset press is roles of publishers and printers is to be expected. three to five weeks. (This can stretch to two to Already, Edwards Brothers has teamed up with three months if a hot title such as Harry Potter is Rowman & Littlefield and other publishers to oper- dominating press time.) The result is that more ate digital print facilities on site at publisher loca- books are printed than necessary because the pub- tions. This enables the publisher to manage its lisher knows that it will take a month or two to get inventory more efficiently and also to respond bet- more stock. With digital printing, turn times range ter to customer demand. At the same time, the from one day to three weeks. This time frame pro- publisher relies on the printer to provide the right vides publishers with flexibility. If the title takes off technology and printing skills. 26 LOGOS 13/1 © WHURR PUBLISHERS 2002.
Recommended publications
  • Book Self-Publishing Best Practices
    Montana Tech Library Digital Commons @ Montana Tech Graduate Theses & Non-Theses Student Scholarship Fall 2019 Book Self-Publishing Best Practices Erica Jansma Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtech.edu/grad_rsch Part of the Communication Commons Book Self-Publishing Best Practices by Erica Jansma A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.S. Technical Communication Montana Tech 2019 ii Abstract I have taken a manuscript through the book publishing process to produce a camera-ready print book and e-book. This includes copyediting, designing layout templates, laying out the document in InDesign, and producing an index. My research is focused on the best practices and standards for publishing. Lessons learned from my research and experience include layout best practices, particularly linespacing and alignment guidelines, as well as the limitations and capabilities of InDesign, particularly its endnote functionality. Based on the results of this project, I can recommend self-publishers to understand the software and distribution platforms prior to publishing a book to ensure the required specifications are met to avoid complications later in the process. This document provides details on many of the software, distribution, and design options available for self-publishers to consider. Keywords: self-publishing, publishing, books, ebooks, book design, layout iii Dedication I dedicate this project to both of my grandmothers. I grew up watching you work hard, sacrifice, trust, and love with everything you have; it was beautiful; you are beautiful; and I hope I can model your example with a fraction of your grace and fruitfulness. Thank you for loving me so well.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Society Archives
    OSA book OSA / Publications OPEN SOCIETY ARCHIVES Open Society Archives Edited by Leszek Pudlowski and Iván Székely Published by the Open Society Archives at Central European University Budapest 1999 Copyright ©1999 by the Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest English Text Editor: Andy Haupert ISBN 963 85230 5 0 Design by Tamás Harsányi Printed by Gábor Rózsa Printing House, Budapest on Niveus acid-free offset printing paper of 90g/m2 produced by Neusiedler Szolnok Paper Mill, Hungary. This paper meets the requirements of ISO9706 standard. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The coordinates of the Archives The enemy-archives (István Rév) 14 Archival parasailing (Trudy Huskamp Peterson) 20 Access to archives: a political issue (Charles Kecskeméti) 24 The Open Society Archives: a brief history (András Mink) 30 CHAPTER II. The holdings Introduction 38 http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/1999/osabook/BookText.htm[31-Jul-2009 08:07:32] OSA book COMMUNISM AND COLD WAR 39 Records of the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 39 • The Archives in Munich (András Mink) 39 • Archival arrangement and structure of the records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute (Leszek Pud½owski) 46 • The Information Resources Department 49 The East European Archives 49 Records of the Bulgarian Unit (Olga Zaslavskaya) 49 Records of the Czechoslovak Unit (Pavol Salamon) 51 Records of the Hungarian Unit (Csaba Szilágyi) 55 Records of the Polish Unit (Leszek Pud½owski) 58 Records of the Polish Underground Publications Unit
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Printing Technologies
    Edited with the trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping Introduction to Printing Technologies Study Material for Students : Introduction to Printing Technologies CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MEDIA WORLD Mass communication and Journalism is institutionalized and source specific. Itfunctions through well-organized professionals and has an ever increasing interlace. Mass media has a global availability and it has converted the whole world in to a global village. A qualified journalism professional can take up a job of educating, entertaining, informing, persuading, interpreting, and guiding. Working in print media offers the opportunities to be a news reporter, news presenter, an editor, a feature writer, a photojournalist, etc. Electronic media offers great opportunities of being a news reporter, news editor, newsreader, programme host, interviewer, cameraman,Edited with theproducer, trial version of Foxit Advanced PDF Editor director, etc. To remove this notice, visit: www.foxitsoftware.com/shopping Other titles of Mass Communication and Journalism professionals are script writer, production assistant, technical director, floor manager, lighting director, scenic director, coordinator, creative director, advertiser, media planner, media consultant, public relation officer, counselor, front office executive, event manager and others. 2 : Introduction to Printing Technologies INTRODUCTION The book introduces the students to fundamentals of printing. Today printing technology is a part of our everyday life. It is all around us. T h e history and origin of printing technology are also discussed in the book. Students of mass communication will also learn about t h e different types of printing and typography in this book. The book will also make a comparison between Traditional Printing Vs Modern Typography.
    [Show full text]
  • Northern Kentucky MARKET REVIEW 2019
    Northern Kentucky MARKET REVIEW 2019 BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE Northern Kentucky’s transformation creates new paths for prosperity, growth and opportunity Underwritten by KY 40150 KY Lebanon Junction Lebanon Permit #327 #327 Permit Published by PAID ELECTRONIC SERVICE REQUESTED SERVICE ELECTRONIC U.S. POSTAGE U.S. PRST STD PRST 601 W. Short St., Lexington KY 40508 KY Lexington St., Short W. 601 $12 GREAT THINGS Accessibility, talent and financial COME resources, broad amenities and a low cost of living make Northern Kentucky an ideal place to start FROM and grow a business. NORTH ERERNKEN N TUCKY NorthernKentuckyUSA.com Northern Kentucky MARKET REVIEW 2019 Made in NKY ...............................................................53 Table of Contents Utilities ...............................................................................57 People & Places ..................................................6 Business Services .......................................................58 Northern Kentucky Tri-ED ................................12 Headquarters ..............................................................60 NKY Chamber of Commerce........................14 Meetings & Attractions .........................................62 Northern Kentucky Arts & Culture ............................................................65 On the Cover: From left: Katie Meyer, Mandy Lehman, Area Development District ......................16 Sports & Recreation ...............................................68 Bonnie Meyer, Gordon Henry, Shwetha T. Pai,
    [Show full text]
  • & Who's Who in Printing 2018 Printing Impressions
    2018 Printing Impressions 35th Annua l Ranking & Who’s Who in Printing PIworld.com | Printing Impressions 1 2018 PRINTING IMPRESSIONS Celebrating its 35th consecutive year, the PRINTING IMPRESSIONS 400 provides the industry’s most comprehensive listing 35th Annua of the leading printing companies in the l Ranking United States and Canada ranked by annual sales volume. The listings include company name and the their annual revenue figures, so they are not location of the headquarters; parent company, included on our PI 400 list. This year, based if applicable; current and previous year’s rank- on Forbes’ ranking of the largest privately-held ings; most recent and previous fiscal year sales companies, we included Taylor Corp. and figures; percentage change in sales; primary used Forbes’ estimated sales calculation. product specialties; principal officer(s); number In addition, some very large firms that are of employees and manufacturing plants; as well ranked, notably RR Donnelley, would not, as the firm’s total range of in-house sheetfed or could not, break down their annual sales and webfed digital and conventional printing by the various print market specialties that process capabilities. we track (so, they may not appear on some of The financial information shown for the our Top 5 market segment leaders charts). PI 400 rankings was provided voluntarily by Individual printing companies that are privately-held and employee-owned firms, part of larger graphic arts networks are not and we instructed companies to not provide listed separately. In essence, to do so would be projected/estimated sales figures if their fiscal to show sales figures twice.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Book Printers in the United States and Beyond
    List of Book Printers in the United States and Beyond TOP BOOK PRINTERS IngramSpark 1 Ingram Blvd. La Vergne, TN www.ingramspark.com Support: [email protected] Australia: [email protected] International: [email protected] Print on demand printing and distribution services. A division of Ingram. Baker and Taylor Publisher Services (formerly BookMasters) 30 Amberwood Parkway Ashland OH 44805 567-215-0030 800-537-6727 www.bookmasters.com/ Bookmasters, based in Ashland, Ohio, is one of the largest providers of customized publisher services in the United States. ALABAMA BOOK PRINTERS Walker 360 (formerly EBSCO Media) 2700 Hwy 280 S. Suite 350E Mountain Brook, AL 35223 334.832.4975 http://walker360.com [email protected] Top 1% of printers in the nation with facilities in Montgomery and Birmingham. ARIZONA BOOK PRINTERS Epic Print Solutions 3346 W Catalina Dr. Phoenix, AZ 85017 480-625-4682 www.epicprintsolutions.com [email protected] Print on demand and offset printing. Nonfiction Authors Association Page 2 Rev 4/18 CALIFORNIA BOOK PRINTERS Burnett Print Group 2600 W Olive Avenue, 5th Floor Burbank CA 91505 818-653-5118 www.burnettprintgroup.com Focused on sustainability in the manufacturing of high quality print materials. Corporate Color Printing 17855 Fitch Irvine, CA 92614 714-464-6705 or 800-495-0322 www.4printing.net [email protected] After 28 years, a printing company should know how to not disappoint the people who place faith in them. We only accept jobs we know will make you satisfied when our work is under your review. DeHart’s Media Services 6586 Whitbourne Dr. San Jose, CA 95120 408-768-1575 www.deharts.com Whether our customers need a small print run, supported by our short-run digital print technology—also called Print on Demand (POD) or their needs are better suited to direct- to-plate offset technology, DeHART’s offers complete print solutions—including complementary products, software manufacturing, and packaging—to meet our customer’s requirements.
    [Show full text]
  • Self-Publishing and Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries Robert P
    Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Purdue University Press Books Purdue University Press Fall 9-15-2015 Self-Publishing and Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries Robert P. Holley Wayne State University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons, and the Collection Development and Management Commons Recommended Citation Holley, Robert P., Self-Publishing and Collection Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries. (2015). Purdue University Press. (Knowledge Unlatched Open Access Edition.) This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Self-Publishing and Collection Development Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries Charleston Insights in Library, Archival, and Information Sciences Editorial Board Shin Freedman Tom Gilson Matthew Ismail Jack Montgomery Ann Okerson Joyce M. Ray Katina Strauch Carol Tenopir Anthony Watkinson Self-Publishing and Collection Development Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries Edited by Robert P. Holley Charleston Insights in Library, Archival, and Information Sciences Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana Copyright 2015 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Cataloging-in-Publication data on file at the Library of Congress. Contents Foreword i Mitchell Davis (BiblioLabs) Introduction 1 Robert P. Holley (Wayne State University) 1 E-Book Self-Publishing and the Los Gatos Library: A Case Study 5 Henry Bankhead (Los Gatos Library) 2 Supporting Self-Publishing and Local Authors: From Challenge to Opportunity 21 Melissa DeWild and Morgan Jarema (Kent District Library) 3 Do Large Academic Libraries Purchase Self-Published Books to Add to Their Collections? 27 Kay Ann Cassell (Rutgers University) 4 Why Academic Libraries Should Consider Acquiring Self-Published Books 37 Robert P.
    [Show full text]
  • Northwest Newsletter Vol 54, No
    TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL 84403 S Ogden, UT 4500875S E Tom Burchard, Circulation Socie ofNorthwest FederationMineralogical Northwest - 2913 Newsletter VOLUME 54, NO. 7 Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies AUGUST 2014 ties NFMS Annual Meeting August 15, 2014 4 pm U.S. Paid Postage Non Permit No. 9 Permit No. ID 83318 Burley Hermiston Conference Center, - Profit Profit Org. Hermiston, Oregon See you there ! ! ! Hatrockhound Happenin’ It’s almost time to circle up your wagons and come on down to the biggest little show in town. We hope you have gotten your advanced registration in so you will be ready to relax and enjoy the What’s Inside: show. If you have sent in a registration and haven’t received anything yet, Judi will be gone from July 12-August 5, so there will be a lot of catching up to do upon her return. NFMS Meeting . 1 We are excited about the offerings we have for you as you enjoy the show. On Friday, Ed VPs’ Reports . 3 Thornton will be doing a presentation on Data Assisted Mineral Identification and Greg Tolbert will Bulletin Aids Report . .4 inform about the law of rock, fossil, and mineral collecting. The annual meeting will take place at Editor’s Rockpile. 4 4:00 on Friday. Public Lands Report . .5-6 Saturday is a jam-packed day. First thing, at 8:00 is the Editors’ Breakfast. At 10:00 there Juniors’ Activity . .7 will be an ALAA meeting. After the meeting, you won’t want to miss John George, Executive Club Shows .
    [Show full text]
  • Alessandro Ludovico
    POSt- DIGITAL PRINT The Mutation of Publishing since 1894 Alessandro Ludovico ONOMATOPEE 77 In this post-digital age, digital technology is no longer a revolutionary phenomenon but a normal part of every- day life. The mutation of music and film into bits and bytes, downloads and streams is now taken for granted. For the world of book and magazine publishing however, this transformation has only just begun. Still, the vision of this transformation is far from new. For more than a century now, avant-garde artists, activists and technologists have been anticipating the development of networked and electronic publishing. Although in hindsight the reports of the death of paper were greatly exaggerated, electronic publishing has now certainly become a reality. How will the analog and the digital coexist in the post-digital age of publishing? How will they transition, mix and cross over? In this book, Alessandro Ludovico re-reads the history of media technology, cultural activism and the avant- garde arts as a prehistory of cutting through the so-called dichotomy between paper and electronics. Ludovico is the editor and publisher of Neural, a magazine for critical digital culture and media arts. For more than twenty years now, he has been working at the cutting edge (and the outer fringes) of both print publishing and politically engaged digital art. ISBN 9789078454878 90000 > 9 789078 454878 POSt- DIGITAL PRINT The Mutation of Publishing since 1894 Alessandro Ludovico ONOMATOPEE 77 1 2 contents Introduction. 7 Chapter 1 – The death of paper (which never happened). 15 1.1 Early threats to the printed medium.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital on Demand Printing Environmental Advantage
    Progressive, Profitable Printing The digital on-demand printing environmental advantage Digital on-demand printing enables reductions in the environmental impact of production printing, while offering benefits to both commercial printers and publishers and their customers. A more sustainable approach to printing Digital on-demand printing is more flexible and often more efficient than traditional offset printing. It can offer multiple benefits to commercial printers and publishers and to their print buying customers in terms of reduction of waste and carbon footprint and cost. It can help to achieve this in multiple ways: • Drastically reduced printing process waste. • Printing economics that allow cost effective short print runs – Enabling ‘on-demand’ printing that can help to minimize overruns and cut the number of redundant prints. • Variable data printing – Facilitating more customized and targeted printed material that can often require less paper to print. • Reduced print transportation – Digital on-demand printing’s ability to eliminate redundant prints, combined with attractive short print run economics that facilitate distributed printing closer to the point of end use, can together help to cut the carbon footprint of print transportation. With digital on-demand printing, commercial printers and publishers can reduce environmental impact and increase profitability by reducing waste and costs in their own operations. At the same time, they can engage with their customers to develop more efficient print buying strategies and reduce their environmental impact – and potentially also their costs. HP analYsis indicates that Enhanced profitability through reduced waste shifting to digital printing Digital on-demand printing eliminates several stages of the set-up and changeover processes associated with offset printing that are not only time consuming but also inherently generate high levels of substrate waste.
    [Show full text]
  • Beacon #2 What It Means to “Self-Publish”
    Beacon #2 What it means to “self-publish” The term “publishing” refers to the editing, design, production, and marketing of a book. The term “publisher” refers to the individual, organization, or company that controls and pays for those activities. Until recent years, the only high-quality method for producing a “real” book was to use an offset press – a high-speed device that transfers an inked image from a plate to a rubber blanket, and then to the multi- page printing surface. Most “traditional” book releases are printed this way, because the process is very fast (books can be mass-produced) and once the press is set-up, the actual cost of printing each book is very low (pennies per copy). However, the plates required to print any given book are extremely expensive to create and set-up initially, so offset printing is only practical when thousands of books will be printed in one press run. This huge up-front cost is part of why mainstream publishing companies are usually hesitant to take a chance on a new or unknown author. After all, when a new book fails to sell, they lose a lot of money. Authors who are willing to take a chance on themselves (i.e., edit, design, produce, and market their own books) are considered self-publishers. Historically, self-publishing involved a highly specialized set of tools and skills that very few authors possessed. So a new form of business, called a subsidy press (or vanity press) emerged. Authors (who could afford to) paid these businesses to handle all or part of the publishing process for them.
    [Show full text]
  • Silver City Public Library Guide to Self-Publishing Resources
    Silver City Public Library Guide to Self-Publishing Resources There are many possibilities for aspiring authors to publish their work independently. Authors can self-publish in various formats—print, e-book, or audiobook. When working with any type of publishing service, make sure to find out what legal rights you are granting the service provider to your work. As an example, the agreements for Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing request permissions to distribute the work globally. However, they state that the authors retain the copyright. The Silver City librarians and self-publishing panelists are not lawyers, so our ability to offer guidance is very limited. Companies for Self-Publishing e-Books, Print, or Audio Lulu www.lulu.com Publish e-books or printed books. Overview of printing: www.lulu.com/create/books Overview of e-books: www.lulu.com/create/ebooks Terms of service can be found at www.lulu.com/about/legal Draft2Digital draft2digital.com Publish e-books or printed books. An overview of how to use their services: www.draft2digital.com/steps Terms of service can be found at www.draft2digital.com/terms-of-service BookBaby www.bookbaby.com Publish e-books or printed books. Overview of print: www.bookbaby.com/book-printing Overview of e- books: www.bookbaby.com/ebooks Terms of service can be found at www.bookbaby.com/terms-of- service Smashwords www.smashwords.com Details about e-book creation are at www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords Terms of service can be found at www.smashwords.com/about/tos Mercury Heartlink (Stewart Warren) Assistance with design, layout, e-book creation, and print-on-demand: www.heartlink.com/publishing.htm 505-881-2499 Author Solutions authorsolutions.com This company runs Booktango for e-book publishing (see below), and offers print self-publishing too.
    [Show full text]