Muller Martini

INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today announced a rich and diverse lineup of speakers and panelists for its second Frankfurt Digital Book Printing Forum. The full-day educational forum focuses on trends and opportunities in digital book manufacturing.

Digital book printing overall is experiencing double-digital growth. The recession, although unwelcome in all quarters, has provided a boost to digital book manufacturing as publishers take a harder look at their processes and cut back on inventory and waste. Since digital printing market- and technology-research firm INTERQUEST's last major survey of the market, conducted in late 2007, the industry has seen widening adoption of digital book printing for short-run inventory management, and a growing interest in distribute-and-print to defray shipping costs and cut time to market—as shown in INTERQUEST's recent report, "Digital Book Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast (2010-2015)." A new generation of high-speed inkjet presses is also coming onto the market, promising lower cost, faster production speeds and higher print quality—all of which open the door a bit wider to digital book printing.

Printers generally like to talk about investments they’ve made in print technologies—offset or digital. Perhaps that’s because it suggests they’re doing well and that they’re investing in their customers’ businesses. Besides, talking about a slick, new machine that requires little to no makeready time and gets up to color with minimal effort is sexy. Well, comparatively speaking. The clunkier “back-office” equipment found in the typical finishing department is perhaps not as provocative, but talk to most any book printer or trade binder, and they’ll likely confide that the bindery machines are the real workhorses. Indeed, investing in the bindery is just as important

First Installation of Wireless RFID System in U.S. Library Deployed The first-known totally wireless Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system in a U.S. library has been successfully deployed at the Prairie Trails Public Library (www.PrairieTrailsLibrary.org), located in Burbank, Ill. The wireless system provides the library with the flexibility of moving its self-check units to the most convenient areas of the library, even if those locations change over time. The decision to go wireless was made during the planning stages of the RFID installation, when Checkpoint Systems Inc., the Thorofare, N.J.-based company that planned the installation of its Intelligent Library System (ILS), realized that the

Book publishers are keeping their fingers crossed that 2005 will be the year the industry shakes off the period of stagnation that has coincided with the U.S. economic downturn. The domestic market continued to remain essentially flat in 2004, but industry insiders are hopeful that the market will soon show growth. The shift toward more flexible production schedules, and resurgence in educational and reference titles will likely be the engines that drive any industry upswing. Another trend in 2005 will be publishers aiming to enhance profitability by leveraging the cost benefits of digital printing and international sourcing. Setting the Stage for Growth

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