POD (print-on-demand) began in India within the late nineties. Some say POD began round 1999 when Xerox launched its Safida. Nevertheless it was a decade later that it grew to become a staple a part of the trade.
Himanshu Pandey of Avantika says digital print noticed traction round 2005 onwards. Authors, publishers, and occasion organisers had been the primary ones to get a draft copy out of a digital press to proofread. They had been those who demanded POD.
Avantika invested in a Canon 1135 in 2010. Since then, the corporate has been including finesse to the system. This included automating the circulation of print work from order consumption to printed product by automating the circulation of labor by way of their fleet of presses. This meant configuring the system to make manufacturing choices for POD based mostly on dimension, amount, media, and web page depend.
Across the identical time Avantika was making its transfer, guide main Repro bought a Kodak Prosper. This was an enormous turning level for POD. Initially, Repro deployed sheetfed digital machines for guide printing. They’d IBM machines, later they moved to Kodak Digimasters which had been black and white sheetfed units.
The purpose is the Repro workforce gained expertise earlier than they migrated to inkjet. Additionally concurrently, they labored on a strong software program regime to handle content material. This meant the elimination of as many touchpoint steps as doable. What struck me was how the on-premises answer related on to print and ending units. A person interface was arrange and managed by way of internet browsers. The online consequence: a number of ranges of entry privilege for various customers (together with abroad prospects).
However POD continued to stay a distinct segment. 200 books had been the common run. The Indian POD mindset was that of a industrial printer; despite the fact that there was a digital engine on the shopfloor, it was a khichdi of every little thing. Totally different fashions and a number of raisons d’êtres. One or two dared to exceed their prospects’ expectations with same-day or next-day dispatch. Regularly, that was the aspiration. To ship a bespoke, personalised product in the identical timescale that an off-the-shelf product could be picked and shipped. This grew to become the purpose as a result of that’s what the guide fraternity sought.
Again then, as it’s now, everybody agreed that POD performs an vital position in stock planning. And those that applied a digital print programme have benefitted. It was frequent sense. All these points about working capital administration and stock woes. Increasingly more gamers centered on the cost-benefit evaluation of enormous print runs versus a number of quick runs. Nevertheless it did not translate into numbers. Regardless of being backed by an enormous guide publishing trade, there weren’t greater than ten severe POD gamers in India who had been leveraging the expertise.
An trade veteran, who has labored with two of the largest digital press producers advised me, the POD enterprise began in 2003, however the turning level was 2018. He stated, “I do not suppose 2010 or 2012 had been the inflexion level. I assume it began to come back collectively when the Indian authorities put an embargo on refurbished machine imports in 2017. The jobber market exploded after that.”
Trade pundits concur with this view that POD for industrial printing grew to become mainstream solely within the final 5 years. The explanations are elementary. a) The volumes are on the rise for digital print; b) The fee to print is decrease; c) The expertise is inspiring confidence to make sure migration from offset; d) Inkjet could ship (sure lastly) its promise.
The digital press producers are bullish they usually see momentum in 2024. Our numbers at PrintWeek point out 2,300 digital presses. All toner. Riso (inkjet) and inkjet Atexco internet presses (three inkjet presses) will not be included on this checklist of two,300 digital presses. And so, when it comes to gear dimension (income of apparatus bought in a 12 months), that is estimated to be Rs 450-crore final 12 months CY 2023. It’s being touted because the highest-ever CY.
2024 guarantees to ship far more. What explains the turnaround? Primarily, 4 developments. One is the variety of machines; two is volumes per machine; and three, that is the D for Drupa 12 months. And eventually, binding.
Within the early days of POD, the main target was on the pre-press and the press. Nevertheless it took aeons (at instances longer than offset to produce the books). The printing press sat within the centre of the POD universe. The post-press was offline and the binding (very often) was in a distinct location. An on-premise answer was required, which connects on to ending units at an inexpensive value. One thing that takes into consideration the imposition, sheet dimension, press and different components. Increasingly more gamers began to understand that binding is the true glue between paper and the reader. That it may save a variety of effort in particular person setups, and likewise keep away from frequent factors of error. Thus, saving time and labour effort, permitting extra books per day to be rotated, and lowering waste and remakes.
The Covid years had been a turning level. There was an enormous demand from teaching institutes. In fact, they contributed to the mono volumes. I set out on a Sherlock Holmes mission. To analyze a bit in regards to the 1000’s of teaching class establishments. Extra importantly, to grasp their POD requirement. All I gathered is anecdotal proof about training hubs like Kota, Hyderabad, Baroda, and many others. As they are saying, watch this area for extra…
One factor is obvious. In a world of such dizzying change, nothing is definite. In fact, all those that predicted the printed guide have reached the top of an period, have been proved flawed.
The standard guide has come a good distance from a minimal threshold of 1,000 copies to 200 copies and even a single copy now. The problem of projecting portions in publishing is kind of tough, not like FMCG. One drawback is one can challenge the print amount based mostly on the info we’ve got of the variety of copies bought within the final three months, six months or one 12 months. However this is not going to assure that the tempo would be the identical for the following three months, a reader can change his thoughts.
The 2024 version of the New Delhi World E-book Truthful in February revealed a shift. A bestselling title doesn’t translate into 100,000 copies. Whereas publishers are uneasy about divulging the quantity, “A bestseller in India means 3,000 to five,000 copies.” All the info factors to decrease volumes and extra SKUs.
As Neeraj Jain, managing director at Scholastic India, stated whereas addressing a gathering throughout the India E-book Mission in Delhi, “The India E-book Market Report 2022 pegs Rs 98,920 crore for the print guide market by 2024-25. It was Rs 30,660-crore ten years in the past.” He stated consequently, there’s an try to create a world-class publishing infrastructure in India by way of heavy investments. This contains upgrading the infrastructure each within the giant quantity (offset) in addition to low volumes (print on demand).
A pharma specialist shared with me, “Trying on the success of POD in books, we might see an analogous development in packaging. A number of packaging consumers complain of warehousing prices and sectors akin to pharma destroy hundreds of thousands of unused or redundant packaging yearly. The POD mannequin could educate us vital classes.”
And in the end, that is the moot query. Is POD lastly poised to unleash its blockbuster standing in 2024…
Ramu Ramanathan is editor at PrintWeek and WhatPackaging?
