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Tablet sales showed their first sequential decline ever in the second quarter of this year, according to research firm IDC. Apple sold fewer iPads than expected in its most recent quarter. Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader sales fell 20% in the fiscal first quarter ended August 20, two months after the company announced it will no longer make color versions of Nook, only black and white ones. And analysts are worrying about whether smartphone profit margins can hold up as buyer fatigue sets in.

Ebooks get a lot of attention, but there is another publishing world that exists in parallel with the commercial publishing world we see and know. It is the shadow world that evolved from the copier and later the digital printer — for the first time, individuals could make their own books.

We know that books printed digitally have tended to be, like the old stitch about newspapers, black and white and read all over. For most of digital printing's existence, producing professional four-color books just wasn't possible; you had to use offset. But the times they are a-changing, and technological advances are making the production of full-color books in longer short runs more feasible and economical than ever before. The advent of sheetfed digital printing brought us the ability to print full-color books in very short runs—it was responsible for opening up the high-growth photo book market. Now "4-up" and roll-fed "printer/presses" are further changing the full-color publishing paradigm.

Before we go further, let's define some terms, as printers are, in essence, quite different from presses. Printers regenerate the impression for each copy from a digital file, which allows them to use electronic collation and print the pages of a book block in order. Presses, on the other hand, use a physical image carrier (a plate) to reproduce large printed sheets which are folded into signatures, gathered and bound. But printers become, in essence, presses when either the sheet size or output speed starts to approach the specs of an analog reproduction device (aka a press). A "printer/press" is my term for printers that have many characteristics of a press.

February 14, 2013 – Ghent, Belgium – HP Indigo owners at Dscoop8 in Nashville, Feb. 21-23, can see, first-hand, the quick turn-around and quality benefits that HP SmartStream Solution Partner Enfocus delivers in its Switch automation and PitStop preflight and optimization products. Enfocus representatives will demonstrate the integrated HP Indigo and Enfocus solutions in Dscoop8 exhibit #819.

“Software that helps print shops realize the promise of such powerful and finely tuned digital print systems is in great demand among HP Indigo sites,” says Alex Hamilton, Director of Business Development at Enfocus.

Close on the heels of the launch of its e-book store in Brazil, Amazon announced the launch of its Kindle e-book store in China last Thursday. With the Kindle devices already authorized by the country’s radio regulator, the Amazon Kindle hardware series may soon go on sales in the country. The company however has not yet disclosed a launch date or any plans to launch the devices.

[PRESS RELEASE] Chelsea, MI – With the addition of several new pieces of printing equipment, Sheridan Books, Inc. has rounded out its print service offering to include digital inkjet capabilities as well as offset, and digital toner based printing. Each piece of equipment installed brings new capabilities to Sheridan Books and ultimately more efficient print solutions to publishers.

Surface. iPad. Nook HD. Kindle Fire HD. iPad Mini. The list goes on and on. Consumers can try to escape the onslaught of new tablets, but they are inescapable.

Apple, Sony, Samsung, Asus, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Barnes & Noble are among the many companies that have developed at least one tablet. Some of these companies are attempting to expand the market with the so-called tablet hybrids, which take advantage of Windows 8.

If you've been following the printing world—and if you're reading this column we've got a hunch that you have—you know that advances in digital printing have transformed the technology from the world of the small-run to a viable print-on-demand option for publishers of all sizes and stripes. But don't be fooled: Digital and offset lithography remain quite different beasts.

Toronto, ON, August 16, 2012 - Six months after announcing the addition of an HP T350 digital inkjet press on its production floor, Webcom announces an upgrade of the press to an HP T360 that will increase capacity of book printing by 33%. Improving the speed of short-run inkjet output has a direct correlation to capacity - at a premium during peak publishing seasons.
 
“An increasing number of our customers are turning to inkjet printing through our BookFWD program for its flexibility and short run cost-efficiencies,” stated Webcom President and CEO, Mike Collinge.

Dolan Printing, a full-service print solutions provider, announced today the purchase and installation of an HP Indigo 5600 Digital Offset Press.  Dolan Printing has taken the first of many steps in a strategic plan to provide customers with high value, effective print and communication products and services.