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Digital printing's short-run, on-demand capabilities address many of the emerging production and distribution requirements of book publishers. In particular, digital printing enables publishers to economically serve lucrative smaller markets, as well as meet rapid replenishment requirements by combining with offset technologies to create more demand-based models.
Digital printing does, in fact, continue to grow at a rapid pace. According to industry analyst firm InfoTrends, overall U.S. revenues for digital presses in the high-volume, "1M+ average monthly impressions" category is expected to grow from $3.5 billion in 2006 to $13.5 billion by 2010. Further, a report from The Industry Measure IM Printing, #25, Spring 2007, indicates that more than half of all graphic arts companies now provide some form of color or monochrome digital printing in-house.
Yet digital print has yet to completely escape the myths that grew out of its early days. But those were eons ago in technology time and, in many ways, remind us of the early discussions of web offset versus sheetfed.
Buyers complained that web presses didn't produce quality work, and there weren't enough high-grade papers available, to name just a few of the most common criticisms. As technology evolved and usage increased, however, many of those concerns either disappeared or were minimized. The market also came to understand that there was a variety of web equipment—heatset, coldest, narrow web, and wide web—that served different purposes, and had different printing characteristics.
To some degree we are in a similar place with digital printing technologies. Although the 1990 introduction of the Xerox DocuTech 135 was a major breakthrough, quality levels and speed relegated early digital printing systems mainly to lower-end, black-and-white production in short run lengths.
The good news is that current presses —along with related support software and supply industries—have virtually eliminated earlier concerns. The bad news is that the industry is still working at dispelling these common myths about digital printing:
It's Too Expensive
Digital printing actually makes short-run color more cost competitive than ever. The real cost of digital color printing declined significantly over the past several years. That's good news for book publishers, because the industry needs effective short-run solutions. Consider that H.R. Bowker statistics show an overall market increase from 68,175 titles in 1996, to a staggering 291,920 in 2006, a 428 percent increase. Yet research reported by Nipson America Inc. indicates that 50 to 60 percent of active soft-cover titles sell fewer than 2,500 copies per year.
Digital printing can also reduce returns costs. Although return rates vary by segment, they account for an estimated 20 percent of professional books, and nearly 50 percent of mass-market paperbacks. Filling inventory requirements—especially for big-box retailer customers—tends to cause overprinting of initial runs. Inventory, shipping in and out of the distribution centers, and pulping costs can be considerable.
Digital printing allows publishers to print economically in shorter runs, and develop more demand-based fulfillment strategies. Increasingly, publishers use digital print systems for initial runs to test the market, move to offset if warranted, and then use digital for rapid replenishment needs.
Publishers are also working with independent printers to provide a comprehensive on-demand printing and distribution service for selected backlist, and many out-of-print books. In these scenarios, the publisher supplies files to the printer, who produces and fulfills paid orders—generally placed by bookstores—for a book or books. The publisher can update files from time to time if desired, but otherwise remains passive in the transaction process. In this case, digital printing is providing a cost-effective production system that allows publishers to build an additional revenue stream.
Print Quality Is Poor
Today's image quality measures up well against offset. Advances in both dry- and liquid-toner systems enable presses to achieve quality 1200 dpi resolution and digital halftone screens. The point is that digital equipment has progressed significantly in the last 18 years, with choices ranging from small devices costing approximately $40,000, to high-volume color machines like the Xerox iGen3, to medium-production presses like the HP Indigo 1050, and copier-based solutions such as the Konica Minolta 850.
Arguments can be made for each technology within the digital print category, and obviously a lot depends upon the specific application. Even in one-color work, where the details of charts, graphs, and images are critical, printers must be careful to use the technology best suited to the quality output demanded by the content.
The takeaway is that technology exists to meet most customer quality requirements, and we are coming ever closer to printers and publishers feeling confident making technology decisions based upon production requirements such as book dimensions and run length, rather than quality requirements.
Paper Choices Are Too Limited
Beginning about four years ago, a wide range of new digital papers and product lines were introduced with more color options, and a wider range of basis weights, sizes, textures, and finishes. Although some technical issues remain, the paper manufacturing industry is continuing to rapidly develop papers with improved runnability, printability, and fitness for use in the new generation of production digital presses.
Digital Print Is Small Potatoes
Lots of printers, particularly large printers, still see digital print as low volume, and even a distraction to their core objective of filling larger presses. Digital printing is growing significantly as the future of book publishing rapidly moves toward an order-to-fulfillment production model. Research and consulting firm Caslon & Co. reports that monochrome digital printing in the overall market is growing at a 15 percent annual rate, and color at more than 50 percent. Digital color printing sales surpassed monochrome for the first time in 2006, though color still comprises only 6 percent of the total digital-page volume.
With overall book industry sales expected to grow about 4 percent annually during the next few years, many printing and publishing professionals expect digital printing, which now accounts for less than 5 percent of overall book production, to grow at an annual rate exceeding 25 percent.
Finally, keep in mind that digital printing also has the ability to help customers tap new markets that can eventually require long-run capabilities, making it the perfect partner for any print shop looking to grow.
Martin Cournoyer is a general manager specializing in short-run book printing for Transcontinental Printing (www.transcontinental-printing.com), which offers a full range of print production and distribution services.
author: By Martin Cournoyer