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Print on Demand (POD)
Print on demand with digital technology is used as a way of printing items for a fixed cost per copy, regardless of the size of the order from one book upwards. While the unit price of each physical copy printed is higher than with offset printing, the average cost is lower for very small print runs, because setup costs are much higher for offset printing.
POD has other business benefits besides lower costs (for small runs):
- Technical set-up is usually quicker than for offset printing.
- Once digitised, large inventories of a book or print material do not need to be kept in stock,
- Reduce storage, handling costs, and inventory accounting costs.
- There is little or no waste from unsold products.
Digital technology is ideally suited to publish small print runs of books (often as a single copy) when they are requested. The introduction of UV-curable inks, digital press technology and media for large format inkjet printers has allowed publishers, librarians, archivist, curators, artisits, photographers and owners of image collections to take advantage of print on demand.
Our POD technologies and alternative eBook publishing solutions have fuelled a range of new book-creation and publishing opportunities. We digitise the content of your book providing a ‘Digital Preservation’ without degradation to the original binding utilising Kirtas book scanning technology which has been scientifically proven to be gentler than a human hand whilst turning each page.
For authors, librarians and owners, the potential benefits of POD publishing are several. They include editorial independence, speed to market, ability to revise content, and greater share of royalties kept compared with traditional publishing.
Maintaining Availability – Among traditional publishers, POD services can be used to make sure that books remain available when one print run has sold out but another has not yet become available, and to maintain the availability of older titles whose future sales may not be great enough to justify a further conventional print run. This may prove to be useful for publishers with a large back catalogs of older works, where sales for individual titles may be low, but where cumulative sales may be significant.
Niche Publications – Print on Demand is also used to print and reprint “niche” books that may have a high retail price but limited sales opportunaties, such as specialist academic works. Book Scan Bureau may be expected to keep these specialist titles in print even though the target market is almost saturated, making further conventional print runs uneconomic.
Variable Formats – Print on demand also allows for books to be printed in a variety of formats. This process, known as ‘accessible publishing’, allows books to be printed in a variety of larger fonts, special formats for those with vision impairment or reading disabilities, as well as personalised fonts and formats that suit individual needs. This has been championed by a variety on new companies, the current market leader being Book Scan Bureau.
The unit per-unit cost is typically greater with POD than with a print run of thousands of copies, it is common for POD books to be more expensive than similar books that come from conventional print runs, especially if that book is produced exclusively with POD instead of using POD as a supplemental technology between print runs.
“Not only are we fast, we are one of the best” – Managing Director – Richard Hollingworth
When it comes to producing books, speed is not our only strength. We work fast but we also pay close attention to craftsmanship, conducting several control checks on each book before they are distributed to our clients.
Our sharp graphics and crisp text make it virtually impossible to distinguish our on-demand books from offset copies. Our facilities are equipped with the most advanced technology in the world delivering great products in the most efficient and effective manner and we are committed to continuous improvement as new innovations prove viable.
‘Bring books back to life’
