Production of educational material is revolutionised thanks to digital printing

The costly and time-consuming method of printing educational material can be significantly improved by utilising digital printing on demand (POD) technology, according to leading document management and printing expert Oc'e South Africa.

Oc'e South Africa national product manager for wide-format printing systems Jaco Smit points out that traditional study textbooks are uneconomical to print using the industry-standard method of off-set printing, if only a limited number of copies are required.

“To cover the preparatory cost of the offset process, such as prepress, plate making and make-ready on the printing press, an output of a few hundred books would result in either a high cost per book or an overall loss,” he explains.

Smit points out that this problem is compounded by the fact that the production costs are paid in advance, and cannot be fully recouped until the last copy has been sold. What's more, the costs of storing the books in a warehouse add further financial pressures. “The development of digital printing and specialised offset litho equipment designed for short runs are an answer to this problem. Now, it is possible to print very short runs or even a single copy at a realistic and competitive price. Oc'e is an important player in the book market, with production machines that fit every need,” he continues.

Smit believes that POD is a logical evolution of the widespread use of computers and the development of digital printers. “Instead of storing books as physical items in warehouses, they can be printed at the moment that someone requires them. POD is therefore a technology, and not a type of publishing business.”

POD uses digital technology including printers, and can produce one book - printed and bound - within a matter of minutes, notes Smit. “POD eliminates two large expenses involved in book publishing, namely warehousing and the financial risks of printing a large quantity of books,” he explains. “The traditional supply chain of books is wasteful, with around 30% of books being returned to the publisher. With POD, a copy of a book is created after the order is received, therefore slashing wastage.”

Smit does, however, note that the POD model does not work for every type of book. “Paperbacks from the best-seller list are obviously purchased by a large amount of people. The preparatory costs of the traditional business model are only a fraction of the total cost, resulting in an overall price that is too low for short-run and PO equipment.”

For niche markets such as educational printing, however, POD offers great opportunities. “In the business of academic textbooks, a title would be discontinued if the sales dropped below a certain level. Thanks to POD, hundreds of thousands of titles have been brought back into production,” says Smit.

In the traditional print model, material is printed and subsequently sold. With POD, this is the other way around, as the book is sold before it is printed, says Smit. “This has a major impact not only on production, storage and waste, but on the complete process. It means that before the words are printed on paper, the exact audience of the material is already known.”

He points out that this offers extreme levels of flexibility, where tailor-made content can, for example, be produced in a book that looks exactly like any book - with an attractive cover, solid bindings and an ISBN number. “Using POD, universities have a powerful tool to diversify themselves in course offering, in attracting new students and in positioning the core values of the institution.”

Smit notes that from an academic point of view, the reach of students, researchers and other audiences can be significantly improved using POD. “Since the costs of digital copies are independent of the quantity, it is possible to make books almost immediately available - not just nationwide, but worldwide - reaching much larger target audiences,” he explains. “What's more, deans of faculty and heads of departments can add courses to the curricula of the school that were previously discontinued due to the lack of study material.”

In addition, Smit points out that POD books never go out of run, thereby eliminating availability constraints. “Academic publications can remain competitive, without the concerns about economies of scale. Many higher education institutions were early adopters of digital printing systems, and have successfully used these for the production of reports, campus guides and administrative statements.”

Smit concludes by adding that POD offers benefits for regions that do not have access to high-speed Internet. “Without access to high-speed Internet, the opportunities of Internet are very limited. Printing on demand is an excellent remedy for universities in even the poorest regions in the world, to benefit from the technological advances of learning methods.”