Welcome to a special educational series about digital printing solutions and technology. Here, we look at the value proposition of digital printing (and its subset, on-demand printing), and take stock of the current thoughts and practices in the publishing industry in implementing a hybrid (offset and digital) printing program. This series, brought to you by HP, is geared towards understanding shifting market trends and technology advances that impact the publishing industry.
Click through to discover how publishers can sustain profitability, reduce costs, increase efficiencies, unlock new markets and seize emerging opportunities by combining short runs with on-demand printing.
Toward a Hybrid Market
Even though the physical book market is more unpredictable than ever, “print is here to stay,” declares Stuart Applebaum, spokesman for Penguin Random House. But that doesn’t mean it is business as usual at the country’s largest trade publisher when it comes to its manufacturing strategy.
Digital Printing Moves Beyond the Long Tail
There have been great advances in short-run digital printing and print-on-demand technologies over the last decade. The manufacturers of high-volume digital presses have made huge improvements in print quality, formats, speed, and workflow.
The Next Generation of Custom Textbooks
A number of new developments and new technologies suggest that custom textbook publishing is on the cusp of a boom not seen since the early 1990s. While the overall market for higher education textbooks has been sluggish, sales of customized texts have been growing at double-digit rates for several years.
The New Supply Chain
New tools—ranging from electronic data interchange, which has become fairly standard, to new cutting-edge ink-jet technologies—have reduced supply-chain costs and eliminated steps in getting books from manufacturers to consumers.
College Students Still Prefer Print Textbooks
According to a new survey conducted by Hewlett Packard, 78% of college students prefer exclusively print or a mix of print and digital textbooks.
The Changing Book and Its Publishing Model
With previously monolithic books now (mostly) digitized and disaggregated into chapters, objectives, tests, case studies and various metatagged bits, a different publishing model is emerging.
Check back for more articles as we uncover the power (and progress) of digital printing technologies.
