Application and development trend of on-demand pri

With the development of digital technology and network technology, many new terms have appeared in the publishing and printing industry, such as: network publishing, on-demand publishing, regularly coated with a thin layer of molybdenum disulfide smooth grease; Regularly check the transmission status of the sprocket, print books on demand, publish e-commerce, print on demand, etc. The solution of some practical problems related to these new things ultimately depends on the development of on-demand printing technology

first, the concept and characteristics of on-demand printing

the realization of on-demand printing is based on the development of digital and networking technology, which rises with the development of digital printing technology. It is a printing method based on digital technology. It adopts a modern digital printing machine with precision and high automation control, and can complete the real-time printing method of variable data printing. On demand printing can print the most ideal number of products in the most urgent time and the shortest possible time, and the content can also be selectively processed according to the object (customized according to customer requirements). In the publishing industry, on-demand printing is a new printing technology that enables publishers and authors to print books as needed at any time. It is not to say that a book can be printed immediately at any time of need

features of on-demand printing:

1 The traditional processes of proofing, plate printing, plate printing, plate hanging, rubber blanket washing, homing adjustment, ink balance, test run and so on are omitted; Shorten the printing cycle, improve the printing speed, and realize instant printing; And there is no cost sharing. The cost of consumables of hazardous materials caused by single metal fatigue from the first sheet to countless lines is basically unchanged, so a very small amount of printing can be achieved

2. On demand printing relies on digital technology, communication technology and network technology, which can realize remote printing and proofing

3. It uses digital information, which is not convenient to save. It can be output many times. It can also modify or reorganize the content according to the requirements of customers, and output selectively to realize personalized services

second, the development and problems of on-demand printing in foreign publishing industry

in the 1980s, desktop publishing systems have been relatively common, but the final products are still obtained by film plate making and printing. Therefore, the printing staff must first make plates, and then install them on the printing drum to start printing. In order to obtain printing materials with stable quality, it is necessary to test the process, and the printing materials produced in this process are all waste products. With four-color printing, this process is more wasteful than monochrome printing. Therefore, in order to share the cost and achieve certain economic benefits, hundreds or even tens of thousands of copies of a book must be printed at a time

in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the emergence of high-quality digital printing machines changed this situation. Unlike traditional printing, digital printing machines are controlled by computers to spray ink directly onto paper, similar to laser printers. In this way, the commissioning process is omitted and waste is reduced. This technology has attracted the attention of printing professionals, who found that it makes it easy to print documents in the required quantity without the requirement of 500 or 1000 initial printing volume. This technology was used in commercial printing, initially for printing such documents as handmade mountains and analysis reports, which have a small number of prints and are often modified

however, is the application of on-demand printing in the publishing industry as simple and beautiful as imagined? This is not the case, during which there have been many problems. It is mainly about technology and cost

1. The size of books printed on demand is usually fixed. Although this format has been gradually accepted, it is not suitable for the collection of all varieties. The book format of traditional printing and publishing is diverse and widely recognized by everyone. Meet a variety of book publishing requirements. Moreover, the binding method of books printed on demand is also relatively limited, and it is difficult to bind books that are too thick or too thin

2. Today, the cost of color digital printing is still high. In addition to the cover, if the book is also printed in color, the cost of the book is very high and it can't be sold at all. Therefore, most on-demand printing companies do not provide color printing for books. Then there is the on-demand printing method. The quality of the pictures in the book is not as high as that printed by the traditional printing method

3. On demand printing a beautifully polished insert that cannot be printed and bound in a book

4. The reprint procedure is complex. When a book printed on demand needs to be reprinted after a small amount of printing, you must first determine whether you have the right to reprint it. If so, you must have written proof. Then, when republishing, do you have the right to republish in other forms, such as electronic version, audio-visual version, etc. Special attention should be paid to the copyright of the pictures in the original version. Sometimes you need permission to reprint from the copyright owner

5. For the digitization of existing books. When reprinting books that have already been printed with on-demand printing, the first thing to do is to digitize the contents of the books. At present, there are three methods of digitizing book content: simple scanning, scanning with optical coincidence recognition software (OCR), and re typing. The first method is to scan the content of the document in the form of pictures, which can not recognize the text, and the quality is low. Such digital documents are printed on demand, and the quality is not as good as the original. The second scanning method can recognize characters and modify typesetting. Unfortunately, OCR technology is not very perfect, with a certain error rate, which also has a great impact on quality. The last way is obviously time-consuming and laborious, and it will make mistakes. So digitalization is not an easy thing

6. Printing costs. For a large publisher, the average printing cost of printing 10000 paperback books with about 200 pages is about $1 to $1.50. The printing cost generally accounts for 10% - 15% of the retail price, and sometimes even less. In this case, the retail price of the book is between $10 and $15. The same book, printed with on-demand printing technology, costs about $4.5 to $5 per volume. Of course, there is no storage fee and no inventory for books printed and published on demand. However, the retail price of books printed and published on demand cannot be calculated by the same proportion. If calculated in the same proportion, the price will be as high as $31.5 to $50. And the higher the cost, the higher the profit margin, the limited space for discount, which is not conducive to the promotion of books

III. The situation and problems of on-demand printing application in domestic publishing

the application of on-demand printing in domestic publishing industry is only for short edition books, which can only be regarded as short edition printing at best, and does not reach the height of on-demand publishing. At present, Intellectual Property Publishing House and people's time and space have applied the new technology of printing on demand. People's space-time application of printing on demand has its own foundation. Since its establishment in January 1999, based on the publishing industry, it has reorganized traditional publishing resources with information flow, and launched a web publishing platform to carry out e-commerce. The intellectual property publishing house itself is the legal unit that publishes patent documents and books. The printing of patent documents and books is characterized by many varieties, small batches and strong timeliness. The selection of on-demand printing of such books will also strive for higher annual output, which is most suitable

although the application of on-demand printing in domestic publishing industry has just started and has little practical experience, the problems faced by its development are foreseeable. First of all, we also have problems abroad, even worse. In terms of cost, China's equipment and technology need to be imported from abroad, and the cost is obviously higher. Moreover, the digitization process of books in China is slower than that in foreign countries, and the variety of digital books is extremely limited. The network coverage rate of our country is also quite modern. If we want to obtain orders with the help of the network platform, we need to further accelerate the network construction of our country. China's publishing industry is still protected, lacking the awareness of free competition and innovation, and is not very active in approaching new technologies. The middlemen who promote the marketization of books are also too single. In addition, the rampant piracy in China is a huge problem. Because of this situation, some publishing houses, for the publication of a new book, prefer to take the risk of printing more at one time and quickly occupy the market with a large number of genuine editions, rather than use on-demand printing to test sell some of them first, so that pirates can take advantage of it

IV. The Application of on-demand printing in the publishing industry has a bright future and a bumpy road

from the unique advantages of on-demand printing and the problems faced in the application of it in the publishing industry at home and abroad, our conclusion is that the prospect of on-demand printing and publishing is bright and the direction is correct, but its application is bumpy and the process is long. The development of society always depends on people's continuous development and solution of problems, and then new problems will appear and be solved again. On demand printing technology is a new technology to solve the existing problems. Although it is not mature, it meets the needs of social development and is the inevitable direction of progress. With the continuous progress of technology, as people continue to solve the problems in development, it will mature and be widely used. But we have to admit that this process is long. The development of any new thing needs time. Before adopting the new technology of printing on demand, we should carefully analyze our own situation, and do not blindly adopt it, but we should not stop without concern. When the time is ripe, we should boldly adopt it. We have reason to believe that the future of on-demand printing and publishing is still bright