Short-Run Hardbacks Become Economically Viable
For a century the economics of the hardback have rested on a single assumption: volume. Case binding rewarded scale so ruthlessly that a print…
Printing & Production
The Reader TimesFrom manuscript to finished book: the craft, technology and business of making print.
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Mushroom-Based Packaging Reaches Trade Publishing
The most interesting material in book manufacturing this year is grown, not made. Mycelium packaging — the engineered root structure of fungi, cultivated into…
Waterless Offset Gains Ground in Continental Europe
In an industry where the word “revolution” is spent freely on matters of marketing, the offset printing press is having a genuine one —…
Cover Finishes: Soft-Touch Costs Fall Below 10% Premium
For years the soft-touch laminate has been publishing’s quiet class signal — the velvety, fingerprint-magnet finish that marks a book as premium before a…
Print Week Lead Times Stretch to Eight Weeks for Q4
The fourth-quarter book season — publishing’s annual Everest — is approaching with a warning from the production trenches that deserves the trade’s full attention.…
Digital Foil and Spot UV Without Dies
The most quietly liberating technology in book finishing this decade has no blade. Digital foil and spot-UV systems — which apply metallic shine and…
Sustainable Inks: Soy vs. Algae, the Industry Chooses Both
The ink on next season’s books will come, increasingly, from a field or a pond. The printing industry’s decarbonisation of its most visible consumable…
NFC Tags in Print Runs Enable Anti-Counterfeit Checks
The humblest object in the book — the page — has quietly acquired a radio. Near-field communication tags, the same technology that lets a…