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With all the talk about print-on-demand, digital printing and the future of the publishing world, it is easy to forget that we got the books to produce here and now, and we need to know the best way to produce those books today, this week. Okay, we only have 5 minutes, so let's dive in.
Three Ways to Print Books
There are actually three different technologies to print books, all widely used. Let soon run them down and see where every corner is look.
- Printing – This was the main method to print from the first days of Gutenberg to the middle of the twentieth century. In one way or another, type, pictorial engravings, or etched metal plates made from photographic originals are then inked and paper is rolled over them, the transfer of The image on the paper, one sheet at a time. Printing technology has led to large, automated presses. You can see how versatile this method had become busy, because all other forms of print for over 400 years overshadowed. Printing is still used for very fine limited edition books, and in areas of the world where electricity is unreliable. A printing press powered by a foot pedal can run many years with only a lubricant, and has no current need.
- Offset – The development offset printing at the beginning of the twentieth century was fueled by the accidental discovery that an image transferred to paper covered by a rubber cylinder was actually sharper then the image of the original type. This offset image gave rise to the name offset. With the advent of industrial applications of photography and the advances in paper plate making materials, photo-lithography, was making printing plates by photographic process, offset printing press to catch up. In sheet-fed offset, paper is fed the press and printed one sheet at a time. In web offset, specialty presses used for printing from a large roll of paper which, as it travels through the press, the web form which it is named. At the end of the press the paper is cut into individual sheets. Bindery equipment to fold, trim and assembling the job is often created at the end of the press so the printer to a printing project will be completed in a time of blank paper to a finished product, assembled job.
- Digital – Digital printing, the result of a marriage with a computer-controlled high-speed copying machine to the computer-operated bindery equipment, is the fastest growing form of printing today. Computer servers keep separate, but coordinated digital files for the book cover and interior text block. On request of the operator or a computer instruction, the files are downloaded to the end of the printing press and image with toner in the same way your high-end copier copies images. The resulting pages are combined with a color picture cover. The whole book is cut and pasted together. Some digital printing equipment can produce a whole book, color cover and all, in just seven minutes. The big difference between letterpress and offset printing, on the one hand, and digital, on the other, is that digital printing is designed to create a copy of a book at a time. The other, older methods of printing books in production stages, and only work efficiently to produce a large number of copies simultaneously.
Comparing Three Processes Press
Well, now we know about the three methods of printing, but how does that help select correct? Here is how each best printing method:
- Letterpress printing is almost exclusively used for fine, limited edition books. The characteristic "bite" of the type in the paper, and the resulting subtle texture it adds to the page is impossible with other methods. These books are usually made with luxurious materials and costs hundreds of dollars each.
- Offset printing is used for the majority of the books that today. Web offset is used for the mass market paperbacks, such as the racks are sold in supermarkets and airports, and other very large print books. Sheet-fed offset printing book provides the best quality reproduction of art and photography, and is the most flexible when it comes to the number of sizes offered for books and various types of paper available for printing.
- Digital printing is increasingly used in the print-on-demand distribution model that has become so popular. Big Book catalog publishers to fund their digital printing, saving on storage and shipping. The self-publishing phenomenon has a huge demand for digital printing with print-on-demand distribution, because almost all of the costs of introducing a book in print has been removed.
Summary: Use very fine printing, limited Collector's Edition books. Use web offset the very high volume and mass market books that do not require high quality. Use sheet-fed offset printing for print runs of more than 500 copies or where a high required quality reproductions. Using digital printing where print runs are very short or you do not need an inventory of books.
Joel Friedlander has owned businesses in graphic arts, design and book publishing, and now runs Marin Bookworks, a publishing services company where he’s helped launch self-publishers since 1994. He provides complete pre-press services including editing, interior and cover design, illustration, proofreading, and indexing. Joel is also an award-winning book designer, a self-published author, and blogs about publishing at http://www.theBookDesigner.com. He welcomes your inquires about getting great book design.
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