According to Hartman, manufacturers are continuing to raise POD standards. "I am aware of concerns retailers have for selling POD products, but these concerns should be alleviated as a continued emphasis is put on quality," she notes.
Calling all consumers
Mirroring the current POD trend, Tri-Ad Litho has found success in the corporate arena, but how has the printer fared in the consumer market? "We are doing a lot of vanity publishing, about 30 to 40 titles a month," says Makuta. "The workflow is the same. We work with an editing shop; they create a PDF of the book and the PDF comes into the system via the Internet, as a rule. Then we process through the DigiPath. We then try to impose them to get the best mileage out of the DocuTech." The company produces POD books that range anywhere in size from 64 to 200-plus pages, with two- to four-color covers. Using a semi-automatic Vijuk perfect binder, the operator is able to produce between 250 to 300 books per hour.