One of the areas where digital printing has being having significant success is that of book printing. There are many examples throughout the world where publishers have seen the benefits of using digital printing for some book production. The concept of very short production runs, even for runs as low as one copy, together with the elimination of inventories of printed books, and the real benefit of never having books go out of print because of high initial print run production costs, is very appealing.

For many years companies have been talking about the potential of printing books on demand in the bookstores, but nothing feasible for the task has been available and deliverable. Well, that may now have changed.

We find many suppliers of digital printing including IBM, Kodak, Océ, Nipson and Xerox offering solutions for digital book printing. It is not only the printing equipment they offer, but also the workflow and the complete solutions in the area of finishing that ensure automation from concept to finished book delivery.