Rochester, NY -- At the fourth annual INTERQUEST 2009 Digital Book Printing Forum on March 24, Kodak's Kevin Joyce discussed new opportunities for book publishers to expand their capabilities and grow revenue with digital book production. Joyce and other panel participants discussed the major trends in book printing, including the prospect of moving from offset to digital printing.

 "In the digital space, books represent one of the top three fastest growing applications," said Joyce, Worldwide Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Digital Printing Solutions, Kodak. "Book publishing accounts for 25 percent of all printed pages, but only a small number of books are printed digitally, so there is tremendous potential for growth in this area."

For print service providers, digital printing provides tremendous gains in productivity. "It's a leaner process that also helps minimize the need for floor space, as complete book blocks are produced instead of signatures that need collating," added Joyce.

For publishers, the process of digitally printing short runs on demand helps reduce print overruns, which cuts down on having obsolete products and the need for costly warehousing. Digital production also enables a high degree of customization, opening up many new creative opportunities for authors and publishers, and making it easier than ever to customize book content or covers for current marketing activities.

Kodak's technologies and solutions for digital book production help publishers take advantage of these new opportunities in digital book production. The KODAK DIGIMASTER EX Production Platform, KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses, and KODAK Stream Inkjet Technology all help publishers "turn the page" on digital book production and make on-demand fulfillment and self publishing easier than ever.

The KODAK DIGIMASTER EX Production Platform offers book publishers exceptional flexibility with a wide range of robust system components that integrate seamlessly to produce high-volume black and white books. The inline folding, binding, trimming and on-demand book publishing capabilities give publishers full production power and flexibility to take on a broad array of high-value, high-volume applications-and deliver them with the quick turnaround, superb print quality, and a variety of finishing options readers demand.

Helping address the shift from black and white book printing to color is KODAK Stream Inkjet Technology, a continuous inkjet system that delivers offset class reliability, productivity, cost, and quality with the full benefits of digital printing for high-volume commercial applications. Kodak's NEXPRESS Presses help publishers address the shift from black and white printing to color in photo books, textbooks and children's books. The NEXPRESS Presses help book publishers produce consistent exceptional color quality, while incorporating higher value and higher margin photo press products into their book publishing operations.

KODAK Products are backed by KODAK Service and Support. KODAK Service and Support is made up of more than 3,000 professionals reaching more than 120 countries. It is a leading multi-vendor integrated services provider, delivering consulting, installation, maintenance and support services for the commercial printing, graphic communications, document imaging and data storage industries. KODAK Service and Support professionals are uniquely qualified to provide services that control costs, maximize productivity, and minimize business risk.