Lightning Source Is a Source of Innovation

At the 18th Annual Galaxy British Book Awards ceremony in London, Lightning Source UK—a subsidiary of La Vergne, Tenn.-based Lightning Source Inc., a provider of digital publishing support and print on demand services—was honored with the Nielsen Bookdata Award for Innovation in the Book Industry. The company was recognized for the success of its Pilot Large Print Initiative, which makes books available on-demand in large-print format for the visually impaired. The initiative is the first of its kind in the publishing industry.

“We’re absolutely delighted to win the award for innovation in the book industry,” said David Taylor, senior vice-president of global sales for Lightning Source. “This is a great application of print-on-demand technology, which makes any book available in large-print format. Less than 1.5 percent of books published in the United Kingdom are currently available in large print. Our unique ability to print a single copy of a book when we get an order allows publishers to make many more titles available in this format with minimal risk and investment. A book can be reformatted into a large-print size and the file held in our library until we get an order.”

Since November 2005, Lightning Source UK has partnered with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), a London-based organization that champions people with sight problems, to provide large-print-format books for visually impaired individuals worldwide. The RNIB campaigns through its Right to Read initiative to make all books available in accessible formats, such as large print and braille, for visually impaired readers.