Kodak to usher in next adopters of inkjet for book printing

Print Solutions

Kodak will use this year’s drupa as a platform for driving a new generation of book printers to adopt inkjet. After a year that saw the first increase in printed book sales since e-readers and tablets disrupted this space, the company is increasing its commitment to helping printers of higher quality books – including high quality travel books, cookbooks, science journals and more – evolve using inkjet. It will be showcasing its print technologies specific for the book printing market at the Kodak Quarter (hall 5, stand F09).

'Inkjet is changing the conversation in book printing, so much so that we are now reaching a tipping point in the market where printers of more complex and higher quality books are ready to move some or all of their production to inkjet,’ said Will Mansfield, director, Worldwide Sales and Marketing – Inkjet Presses, Kodak. ‘Book printers have taken advantage of inkjet for some time, trade book and textbook printers in particular, but the speed, substrate options and image quality of Kodak’s inkjet presses now allow us to drive the market beyond where it is today and guide printers of more advanced books as they make the shift to inkjet. These are books that are printed on-demand and in short runs and sold based on the quality of their imagery and paper. We see a strong opportunity to leverage inkjet technology to spur growth in a market that’s been under pressure for some time.’

In the Kodak Quarter, book printers in all stages of their adoption of inkjet will have the opportunity to see live demonstrations of the Prosper 6000C press and a variety of post processing capabilities applicable to the book printing market including:

• Sheeting of imposed signatures with VITS International Multicut Variable Servo Sheeter.

• In line finishing with Manroland Foldline for delivery of saddlestitched products or trimmed book blocks.

• Rewinding for delivery of rolls to near line web finishing systems via GSS high speed rewind unit.

• Post coating in line for specialty book products with i-Web aqueous coating system.

Samples covering a wide range of books printed on traditional offset paper, as well as inkjet treated papers, will be available for visitors to evaluate and take away.