Digital Printing: Poised For Growth

During the past 18 months, digital printing has dramatically increased its penetration of the book market. The recession has in some cases provided a boost to digital book manufacturing, as publishers take a harder look at their processes and cut back on inventory and waste. This growth in digital-printing adoption also has been fueled by the boom of self-publishing and the proliferation of high-speed inkjet presses, which are competitive with offset presses for much longer runs than ever before.
Digital printing and publishing market and technology research and consulting firm INTERQUEST recently interviewed 10 of the largest North American book publishers. Almost all of these publishers—nine out of 10—have some of their titles printed on digital printing equipment. They all say that they are seriously integrating digital printing into their supply chains—as opposed to using it on an experimental or occasional basis—and half say it has fundamentally changed their business.
Another recent survey conducted by INTERQUEST among leading North American book printers places "the move to shorter runs" as the No. 1 trend in the book market cited by respondents. The next most prevalent trends noted by respondents are the growth of e-books and publishers' efforts toward better inventory management.