Banta Corp.

Midway to the Digital Age
December 1, 2004

The prep department in this plant (in Menasha, Wisc.) has been in operation almost 60 years, so a lot of history precedes us, and the transition from conventional to digital was not without its pain and discomfort—it did not happen overnight. We began the transition in the late '80s, but with the vast technological challenges we encountered in linking the old with the new, we couldn't take digital workflow seriously until the early '90s. There were primarily two workflows at that time—supplied film and Opticopy camera imposition for converting laser pages into plate-ready imposed film. We were "tinkering" with single-page film (output on a

Offshoring and the Global Marketplace
October 1, 2004

Offshoring has taken on new meaning in recent years. The Web, electronic file transfer, advancements in foreign technology and faster, better ways to communicate globally have all stirred the waters of opportunity for tapping the American marketplace from overseas. A global marketplace has swelled beyond what many expected. For some, this means greater opportunity, savings and growth. For others, it means the promise of more jobless Americans, more abandoned factories, more unfair labor competition. For many book publishers, specifically, it means more options for manufacturing books cost-effectively. It means new options for digital content creation, design and editorial. It means increased profitability, growth

Banta Expands Va. Distribution Center
August 1, 2004

Banta Corp. expanded its Harrisonburg, Va., distribution facility to accommodate new business, spending $6.5 million to extend the facility by 179,000 square feet. The company expanded the center to 433,000 square feet and added 20,000 full pallet locations, conveyor belts and returns processing equipment. The distribution center connects to Banta's print facility where finished products are moved from the bindery to the distribution center using self-guided vehicles. The added space improves the efficiencies at the facility, including reducing fulfillment and transportation costs, says Dwayne Black, VP of operations for Banta. The addition increases Banta's processing capability to 5,500 cartons of books and materials a

Top Book Manufacturers the Complete Listing
June 1, 2004

In compiling the Top 30 Book Manufacturers for our print issue (May/June), some privately held companies, whose revenues may have qualified them to be ranked, chose not to participate. In order to recognize all the book manufacturers surveyed for the ranking, BookTech editors compiled this alphabetical listing. Ambrose Printing, Nashville, Tenn. Alcom Printing Group, Harleysville, Pa. Balmar Inc., Falls Church, Va. Banta Corp., Menasha, Wis. Bertelsmann Arvato, New York Bolger Concept to Print, Minneapolis Burton & Mayer, Brookfield, Wis. Cadmus Communications, Richmond, Va. Carter Printing, Richmond, Va. Cavanaugh Press, Baltimore Cedar Graphics, Hiawatha, Iowa CJK, Cincinnati Commercial Communications, Hartland, Wis. Courier Corp., N. Chelmsford, Mass. Dickinson Press, Grand Rapids, Mich. Dollco Printing, Ottawa Dome Printing, Sacramento, Calif. Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Mich. EP

Reach for the Top
August 1, 2003

As the world turns, so does the book manufacturing industry. International affairs brought both pessimism and hope to an industry still in the throes of a sputtering global economy. On the upside: a new Harry Potter title and Hillary Clinton's memoirs have legions of readers shelling out cash at bookstores nationwide. Indeed, the Association of American Publishers, Washington, reports U.S. book sales rose 5.5% in 2002, to $27 billion—proving once again that, no matter how bad things seem, you can't keep a good book down. Or a good book manufacturer. Despite competitive market conditions, high unemployment, war in the Middle East, a dearth of

In With the New
November 1, 2002

Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services is the world's largest publisher of products focusing on addiction, recovery and prevention. Hazelden books, video and audio programs, direct mail, catalogs and other products are sold in 32 countries - at a high rate of warehouse orders a day. With an output of this magnitude, the non-profit knew it had to upgrade its workflow management system. Hazelden had been working with two prepress vendors and a piecemeal workflow that had evolved over the years. First, each prepress vendor stored Hazelden's hi-resolution images separately in different systems, which caused duplication, versioning problems and retrieval issues. Files were not logically named

Bound To Last
May 1, 2002

For binding, it's not enough to be fast; it also has to be strong. That's why Muller Martini (www.mullermartini.com) teamed-up with digital printing provider Océ Printing Systems (www.oceusa.com). For the first time this year, Muller's AmigoDigital perfect-binding system linked to an Océ DemandStream 8090CX digital printing system with Hunkeler paper handling equipment. The result: A workflow that will produce commercial-quality paperback books in a single pass. "We maintain that quality quotient by incorporating into the AmigoDigital the same perfect binding techniques we use in our high-volume equipment," says Andrew J. Fetherman, manager of Muller Martini's Digital Finishing Division. Based on Muller Martini's

All the Rage
May 1, 2002

For Banta's Dave Schanke, customization is key to outputting end-products that suit each publisher's bottom line. It's part of a quest to marry production efficiency with high technology. At Banta (www.banta.com), this market vice president of general publishing has a client that needs to customize covers for special projects. The publisher often prints a million books each press run with versioned imprints that may total a few hundred. Schanke says, "We have the ability to do a lot of cover changes in the course of a run. In a run of 800,000, 1,100 different changes are possible." At Commercial Printing Company (www.commercialprinting.com), President

About the Top 25
September 1, 2000

1. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company is the leading North American book printer. The company's book operations provide a full range of integrated service solutions to help book publishers deliver communications to their customers. With seven book operations across the nation, R.R. Donnelley provides services such as * hardcover and softcover book manufacturing using web-offset, sheetfed-offset and digital printing technology; * conventional and digital prepress operations, including composition and page makeup; * custom publishing and print on demand; * packaging design and assembly; and * online services, in which customers' digital information is converted into Web-ready formats. 2. Quebecor World is the largest commercial

Living Digitally in a Four-Color World
January 1, 1999

When it comes to computer-to-plate printing, more printers and publishers join the ranks of the believers every day, either experimenting with CTP with their four-color jobs, or switching to it by Tatyana Sinioukov Despite some limitations, as discussed by industry professionals below, CTP for four-color book production saves time and money and offers faster turnaround and higher quality than a conventional, film-based workflow. That's why more and more printers and publishers join the ranks of the believers every day, either experimenting with CTP with their four-color jobs, or switching to it completely. According to Frank Ervin, vice president of training and technology at