The UK arm of Lightning Source is moving into colour book printing, offering the premium colour book printing service immediately and rolling out its standard colour offering over the summer.
Until now publishers wanting colour books for Lightning Source have had them shipped from its US facilities, adding days to the process. Now the aim is to process and deliver a paperback colour book in two days. David Taylor, senior vice president, content acquisition international, Ingram Content, says: “Publishers need to be looking at every option to ensure that books can be immediately available to people who want to buy them. The on-demand printing of colour books in the UK will allow many thousands of publishers with whom we already work more options to get high-quality, colour books to the market quickly.”
The Milton Keynes operation is gearing up for the change, talking with publishers about the new service. The premium offer is based around a two-day turnaround for paperbacks shipping in two days and hardbacks in four days. If shipping from the US, delivery has been ten days. Printing is handled on an HP Indigo 7600.
The aim is to introduce new customers to the idea of print on demand as well as increasing the scope of the service to existing customers, Lightning Source explains. The immediate candidates are STM and educational publishers that require colour illustrations in books. Elsewhere within the Ingram Content group, the company is rolling out an on demand print and fulfilment service for journal publishing including subscription handling. This will be spread across other locations the company says, with the UK an obvious move.
The UK plant is also gearing up for the arrival of the Canon-Océ 3700 inkjet continuous feed press that will provide the standard colour service. Pricing on this will be marginally above black and white printing, while the cost to use the premium service reflects the difference in quality.
The move comes as Pureprint has shown that top quality book printing is possible using the Indigotechnology, using its B2 format Indigo 10000, and as CPI Books expands the customer base for its T350 continuous feed inkjet press at Anthony Rowe.
Indigo 7600 is used for premium colour service.
