BOOKS Who publishes and who <strong>print</strong>s? PRINTONDEMAND-WORLDWIDE is one of the new breed of book <strong>print</strong>ers that is blurring the lines between what a <strong>print</strong>ersdoes and what a publisher does. As a <strong>print</strong>er it is entirely digital, earning an award from Océ for innovation in Digital Book Printing. Last year the Peterborough company installed its first VarioPrint 6250. It has added a second and a VP 6350 as part of a drive to automate production as much as possible. Touch points have been cut from 16 to four in the last 18 months. <strong>The</strong> company actively seeks to <strong>print</strong> for self published authors, offering a series of modules to help get words in to <strong>print</strong> and sponsoring the Authors’ Lounge at the London Book Fair. But it is not all about <strong>print</strong>ing. <strong>The</strong> company arranges conversion of text to THE SWITCH TO PRINT ON DEMAND and towards digital <strong>print</strong>ing has caught many of the traditional finishing equipment suppliers off balance. <strong>The</strong>se are now scrambling to adapt to the new conditions in book production, but in the meantime a new flush of companies has been behind highly innovative technology that is starting to meet the requirements of mirco <strong>print</strong> production. AT THE LARGE END, MAGNUM is typical of this new breed. It developed a gathering and book block line for high speed web <strong>print</strong>ing. Its initial design will cope with web widths well beyond presses that exist on the market. It has been highly successful where inkjet webs have been installed around the world. Muller Martini is the leader among the traditional equipment suppliers, having been early to market with Sigmaline. This is 18 May 2011 www.<strong>print</strong>businessmagazine.co.uk Andy Cook of Printondemand-Worldwide says: “A few years ago most <strong>print</strong>ers were <strong>print</strong> on demand. Now customers want multiple formats and distribution and retail services.” ebook formats, it has partners across the world, it handles distribution and fulfillment and naturally offers a <strong>print</strong> on demand service through its BookVault. Andy Cork, managing director, says: “A few years ago most <strong>print</strong>ers were <strong>print</strong> on demand. Now what customers want is multiple formats and the distribution and the retail services. “At the Book Fair we decided to support new authors because the big publishers are not interested in them and will not talk to them. It has been a roaring success for us. For most publishers the Book Fair is a <strong>show</strong>case event, for <strong>print</strong>ers it’s about new business and for us it’s about lead generation. It’s possible that one or two of the authors that have come here may go on to have huge success and will remember us.” <strong>The</strong> end of the line Muller Martini Sigmaline takes control of the digital press. now a complete production system able to produce book blocks, perfect bound books and magazines and to control the digital press it operates in line with. This is essential as any mistakes during binding will require a re<strong>print</strong> that the finishing section can trigger. KOLBUS HAS NOW ANNOUNCED its KM200 as its first response to finishing digitally <strong>print</strong>ed books, coping with different pagination titles in sequence provided all retain the same format. It is intended for <strong>print</strong>ers producing higher total volumes of books, though made up of short individual runs. At the bottom end come the hand operated units from fastbind or Unibind aimed at the photobook creator and then the single or four clamp binders from Horizon, CP Bourg, Duplo, Watkiss and others that offer short run operation but with a relatively manual operation. THE SCRAMBLE LIES BETWEEN these two poles. German, British and Italian companies in particular are devising automatically adjustable three knife trimmers, case making and casing line machines, end paper gluers and all the other components needed for a fully automatic adjustable digital book production line. Elements are in operation but as yet the industry has not settled on a <strong>favourite</strong>. Steve Giddins, managing director of Perfect Bindery Solutions in Oxford, sells a wide range of such devices, no less than three three-knife trimmers for example. Digital on demand book <strong>print</strong>ing is where his company specialises. “I don’t want to compete with Kolbus or Muller Martini,” he says. “<strong>The</strong>re is a big growth in digital book production and we are being pushed more and more into being able to cope with one-off book production, below ten copies now rather than short runs below 200 copies which was standard only a few years ago.”
SHORT RUN • ON DEMAND PERSONALISED on STAND C246! � Foil Blocking � Wiro Binding � On Demand 3KT � Photobooks Steve Giddins and the Team 01993 840077 CREATING THE SOLUTIONS YOU NEED AT A PRICE YOU CAN AFFORD! www.binderysolutions.co.uk � Casing-in � Personalised Children’s Books On Demand
Change language