(Watch the complementary webinar to this article, presented by Elizabeth Gooding, Mary schilling, and Ralf Schlözer.)  

The markets that first adopted inkjet, customer communications and direct mail, were quickly transformed through the ability to streamline operations, combine jobs of many sizes, and eliminate waste. The effectiveness of inkjet is based on the ability to impact the complete manufacturing process for printed products.

“If the vendors get the offer right, printers will invest,” said Sean Smyth, print technologist and consultant with Smithers. “In books, they have largely won by offering more efficient book manufacturing rather than just book printing. For example combining workflow to batch titles, printing then finishing automatically to deliver book blocks for binding. Cost comparison of manufactured books rather than printed sections makes economic crossover at higher volumes against litho. When a print product is digitally manufactured it makes pure print cost comparison less of a barrier.”