In the field of monochrome digital printing, there are not only black and white jobs, but also a large number of gray-graded jobs, such as printed ballots and local tax stamps, as well as various manuals and customized books. In terms of book publishing, the digital printing method fulfills the desire of teachers or professors for years to meet their dreams: to customize teaching materials according to specific needs. In the past, students had to spend a fortune to buy a textbook, but only 10% of them were suitable for the course. This phenomenon is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
Here we introduce three companies that are engaged in on-demand printing business to see how they have made the monochrome digital printing business profitable through multiple channels.
1. Ames On-Demand Printing Company Ames company's business is to print customized textbooks and books for Harcourt, Pearson and some publishers. On-demand printing is a major part of the entire company's business, that is, Ames. Can flexibly carry out printing business according to the needs of customers. Ames's vice president and general manager, Michael, said: "For us, printing on demand means being able to respond positively to customer requests, and that the speed and delivery cycle are incredible."
What is even more peculiar is that Ames has already enabled its customers (ie publishers) to deliver content according to their needs, and their appearance and feel have nothing in common with the original textbooks. The company edits new textbooks or books and prints them according to the customer's requirements.
Michael explains: “Our company has a web-based customer publishing system, the BookBuild system. With this system, teachers or professors can log on to our site, select content related to textbooks or books, and put each individual The chapters are grouped together to form a specific teaching material."
Before the teacher or professor selects content for the textbook, they will be required to “upload†personal authentication data. In general, the content of a textbook or textbook is the existing information or “reprocessing†information that has been transmitted through the database system in advance, and can be updated according to the requirements of the publisher.
Michael said: "Ames has put the content to be published or printed by customers on a web server. Customers place great trust in us. We work closely with customers. In fact, we have become an extension of our client organization. In other words, the textbooks are written on the Internet, and at the same time, the security of content is not compromised. Once the “books†have been compiled, they can be printed on Ames' Xerox 6180 digital press, printed in minutes, and sent directly to the bookstore or professor.
Ames company's web server stores a large amount of information in the publishing house. It is enough to form a huge digital library. The teacher or professor who writes the teaching material can pick or choose the content he needs (including biology, chemistry, English, and philosophy. As well as sociological aspects); there are also examples for research and other materials such as laboratory manuals written specifically for science courses, as well as new student guides and more.
In the digital printing business of Ames, 99% of the jobs are printed in black and white. The designed color cover is usually printed by offset printing. The final book binding is also done in Ames. You can also add some slides to your book, but the color must be printable. Michael said: "Because of the high cost of digital color printing, color printing jobs are generally not digitally printed."
He added: "Our BookBuild software can be modified and customized according to actual conditions and requirements, which is also unique to BookBuild software. When a textbook is completed, it will include catalogs, indexes, parts of content and Heads and grounds. When writing different textbooks and books, the contents of these projects have to be reformatted and the software can be completed automatically without human intervention."
Ames company has hired a famous software developer to write BookBuild software. It took about a year before it was sold on the market. So far, thousands of textbooks have been written in this electronic way, and many new and old customers have been Some customers are even older customers who have used BookBuild for more than three years. From the current situation, BookBuild publishing software is very popular, and the software is constantly being revised and upgraded.
Second, Fidlar Doubleday
The history of Fidlar Doubleday is very long. Tom Burkhardt, the company’s sales director, clearly stated the company's position and purpose: “We will make full use of new technologies, new processes and new equipment, and we will never allow any chance to slip away from our hands. "The success of Fidlar Doubleday's more than 140 years of experience has made it unquestionable for him.
In fact, Fidlar Doubleday recently built a new 65,000-square-foot printing base in Kalamazoo. This is also a major new move in the company's history, which is proof that Fidlar Doubleday is one of the largest printing companies.
In addition, Fidlar Doubleday is still a commercial printing company and the factory was built in lowa. However, there are several sheet-fed printing companies in kalamazoo, of which 25% of the company's business is related to the digital on-demand printing business.
Burhardt has been working in printing for 26 years. He joined Fidlar Doubleday in July last year. He said: “We advise and advise customers to reduce the number of prints as much as possible, and to prevent and avoid the obsolescence of publications. The cost will be significantly increased if offset printing is still used if offset printing is still used.Therefore, we introduce the digital on-demand printing business to our customers and the transition to on-demand printing as an all-digital workflow is an opportunity for us. Although the amount of print on demand printing is very small, its business volume has gradually increased. I personally believe that the printing business does not gradually decline or decline, but is in a phase of transition. In the future, we are not only printing. Business, but also the communicator of information."
When the United States took up the presidential election a few times ago, Fidlar Doubleday produced a large number of votes with digital on-demand printing technology, which enabled people to have some contact and awareness of on-demand printing, and the media also made a big announcement about it. Previously, state and local governments used offset printing to print votes, this time switching to the latest digital printing technology. Burkhardt said that after the failure of the Florida election, Fidlar Doubleday believes this is a great opportunity to provide digital printing services. Printing votes using this digital printing method is very fast, and it is not necessary to print thousands of votes for each candidate, which accounts for 40% of Fidlar Doubleday's printing business. In the past (that is, before Fidlar Doubleday provided the digital printing balloting business), the printing process of the entire ballot paper took a long time to complete due to the constant need to change the printing plate. In addition, in order to avoid the back of the dirty, you must also ensure that the ink is completely dry, which also takes some time (about 24 hours).
Like Ames, Fidlar Doubleday’s on-demand print jobs are mostly printed in black and white. The company has two digital presses, one is the Océ Demand Stream8088 and the other is the Xerox DocuTech 6135, but the color cover is It is printed on a Xerox 2060 press and then sent to the factory's binding shop for binding. Burkhardt said: “We can digitally print personalized color covers, which is also part of our business scope, but most of the print jobs are printed in black and white.â€
Now, the problem faced by Fidlar Doubleday is that the presidential campaign will be conducted only once in four years, that is, during this period the company must look for other business growth points, so Fidlar Doubleday Company shifted its focus to books, manuals, tax stamps and other short editions. Printing market. Burkhardt said: "In fact, in our current digital printing business, on-demand printing is only a part of rapid growth. What really opens the market is to apply scale-scale production while applying one-on-one sales principles. This is The real added value in digital printing This communication method is a perfect complement to Internet data acquisition strategies and other electronic data acquisition methods.
According to Armand Harpin, director of sales and marketing department of Total Printing Systmes, Total Printing Systems, printing on demand also left Newton people with a memorable impression. Total Printing Systmes is the first company in the world to install the new Scitex VersaMark digital book printing press. Total Printing's VersaMark uses high-speed inkjet technology, a total of four 9-inch inkjet heads, mainly used for short-run book printing .
Why choose the VersaMark digital press? Harpin said: "Our company's digital printing business is basically black-and-white, and the cost of each book is lower than the current offset printing methods. Printing books with the VersaMark digital press not only allows the company to occupy a certain price The advantages are able to compete with current offset printing or other printing methods, and can also reduce costs and save costs, especially when the number of prints is between 250 and 2500. In addition, the reduction in the number of prints enables the publisher to Better control over the amount of funds and the full flow of funds to reduce large recurring expenses.The VersaMark digital press is the fastest in inkjet and color toner type digital presses.
Total Printing Systems was founded in 1973 by Rich and Wendy Lindemann. It was mainly for the Newton community providing (embossed) commercial cards, letterhead, and general commercial printing services. The acquisition of Xerox DocuTech machines accelerated short-run books. The development of the printing market. Later, Total Printing Company has further developed in the field of commercial printing (including publishing). Harpin believes that investing in VersaMark digital presses is a key step for the company. He said: "We believe that there is a huge business opportunity in the field of short-run book printing. The acquisition of VersaMark digital presses will expand the scope of the company's business and expand its business. The company’s market share is very favorable, and with VersaMark digital presses, our company becomes a truly short-run book printing company, able to provide customers with a complete set of solutions, including the storage of print and digital data. and many more."
In particular, “Print on Demand†means one-to-one sales within Total Printing, and Harpin said: “Our goal is to provide customers with the solutions needed for book publishing. Up to a maximum of 5,000 copies.†For 1-250 print jobs, Total Printing uses DocuTech printing; for 250-10,000 copies, a small rotary offset print is used because once printed. With more than 250 copies, the cost of printing with DocuTech will be high. This is one of the reasons why Total Printing chose the VersaMark digital press. The VersaMark digital press is capable of printing jobs between 250 and 5,000 copies, at a low cost and with good quality. At this time, printing with the VersaMark digital press is the most economical and most suitable.
VersaMark's digital presses can print at speeds of up to about 500 feet per minute. This speed is about the same as the speed at which small offset offsets are printed. Even faster, this is crucial. And VersaMark digital presses can also automatically post (that is, get a signature at the end of the machine, and then only need to bind these posts.)
Harpin believes that this kind of short-lived printing can ensure the timeliness of information, and it can also give publishers greater control over the quality of the book and the right to choose. He said: "A 400-page book with 500 to 1,000 copies, when printed on a narrow web press