Printing on demand: a new market niche.

In the business world as recently as 10 years ago, we relied on print almost exclusively for the organization's formal communication. It was slow, involved, and mostly one-way, and as the surveys always seemed to tell us, our one-size-fits-all approach wasn't very effective.

We printed a huge quantity of publications, then searched for expanded audiences to lower our cost-per-thousand. What didn't get used was stuck in a basement or warehouse.

Despite these considerable limitations, print's death has been greatly exaggerated. The fact is print still does -- and probably always will do -- some things better than electronically distributed information.

For example:

* Print generally offers more attractive and readable design.

* It is easier for the reader to refer to any time, any place (like on the bus).

* The message has greater sense of permanence.

* Print can serve as a roadmap to what too often is online confusion (the way a TV guide does with television).

* A sense of family can be created by the physical presence of a magazine, especially when spanning distances and cultures.

Today the limitations of print -- long cycle times, high costs, little flexibility -- are being changed through a phenomenon called print on demand (POD). Like almost everything that is pushed along by technological improvement, POD is changing rapidly.

Print On Demand-What Is It?

Print on demand simply means printing publications when and where the need exists. In its simplest form, it's the ink jet or laser printer connected to your computer. With more elaborate systems, you can use the electronics and Page Description Language (PDL) in your computer to transfer your publication's specifications down the hall or anywhere in the world to print out for a distant local audience. By printing for local audiences, rather than one huge amorphous one, you wind up, in essence, printing many short runs rather than one large one. The changes in technology are making short runs more economical and of better quality than has been possible before. In the bargain, you save the time and expense of postage. No more lengthy and expensive pre-print preparation for a large offset printing press.

Technology is segmenting the printing market-creating a bunch of new niches -- and communicators can use those niches to make their messages -- more effective and their budgets go further. The biggest breakthrough was linking these various types of imaging devices-ink jet and laser printers, digital duplicators, copiers-through page description language, to desktop publishing systems. With the click of a mouse, instructions for paper stock, quantity and other options are transmitted to the imaging system to be queued up and printed.

The greatest change began at the low end of the market with black-and-white output devices imaging relatively simple newsletters and booklets. But creative editors and artists are working to bring to the print-on-demand arena, color, varied-size paper stocks and other features usually available only through longer-run offset printing.

Mimeograph machines go high tech

Digital duplicators represent an outgrowth of the old mimeograph machine technology, although vastly improved. This technology offers short-run, low-cost copies with spot color in a hurry. The reproduction at 300-400 dpi (dots per inch) is not high quality, but digital duplicators can be linked by PostScript for direct computer-to-printer simplicity, to deliver better quality than provided by scanned-in copy. Bindery operations, including trimming, collating, folding and stitching are done off-line (not incorporated into the printer). Two manufacturers dominate the digital duplicating market, Riso end Gestetner.

Discover Publishing in Palo Alto, Calif., a print shop that publishes weekly sermons and other religious information, switched from photo offset printing to a Gestetner CopyPrinter 5375 digital duplicator that allows it to print from 250 to 1,000 copies in-house on demand of some 1,600 different booklets each month.

"We used to have to print a lot of copies to bring down the cost-per-copy," says Gloria McGriff, publishing manager. "But then we wound up spending money storing the extras. Now we print only what is needed. Also, with the offset press, we had to keep it going all the time to make it economical.

"Now it takes about an hour to produce a two-color job, and we ship them around the world, wherever they're needed."

The company with the largest market share in digital duplicating is Riso. "I run 1 1/2 million copies a year on my Riso equipment," says Ken Grymala, owner of PrintWorks, Manassas, Va. Grymala prints two-and three-color brochures, often for government clients, many of whom have undergone downsizing and don't require long press runs.

"Now they want us to print and send off 250 flyers to Taiwan or Japan-they don't need 10,000 copies anymore," says Grymala. "At 1,000 copies or less, the Riso equipment prints at 60 percent the price of offset."

Kodak offers electronic printing system

Kodak sized up the print on demand market and created a system called Lionheart that includes server software and printer drivers for linked PCs and Macintoshes. They connect, using Post Script-compatible or other standard PDL files, to one of two printers Kodak offers, the 1392, a black-and-white model, or the 1580, which can add accent coloring.

Kodak's Lionheart System is a mainstay at Northern Trust Bank, Chicago, where they use the technology to print on demand a wide variety of newsletters, booklets, brochures and other printed pieces for internal and external audiences. Three Lionheart 1392 systems handle some 60 percent of the bank's in-house printing, according to Keith Johnson, who heads up their printing operation. The newsletters, for example, are black and white, 8 1/2- x 11-inch and printed in quantities of from 300 to 7,000. All are done on 70 lb. bright white recycled stock and are collated and stapled right on the machine.

Other more elaborate or involved projects are printed in-house on offset equipment or are sent out. And that's the real breakthrough with printing on demand. It offers the opportunity to segment print needs and adapt them to newly evolving equipment and technologies to do the job better, faster and cheaper.

Full color laser copiers deliver high quality

The big improvement to laser printing technology in black-and-white models is an increase to 600, 1,200,and even 1,800 dpi resolution, allowing for better photo reproduction as well as improved rendering of fine lines in smaller typefaces.

And, many of these printers, both black-and-white and full-color models, can now handle tabloid-sized (11- x 17- inch) pages. Bindery operations are done off-line.

Full color laser copiers provide high quality, but per-copy cost is higher than with most other forms of imaging. Costs for full color copying, however, have been coming down steadily since the systems were first introduced. And a strong demand is being exhibited by business. A recent survey by Hewlett-Packard Company indicates that a majority of American corporations are moving to color printing. Some 75 percent of management information system managers queried said that the businesses they support have acquired, or plan to acquire, color printing capabilities in the near future.

Christopher Purcell, multimedia designer at Deloitte & Touche, headquartered in Wilton, Conn., uses a Canon CLC550 color laser copier as the primary output device to print on demand a variety of highly creative, short-run proposals his department produces under tight deadlines.

Combining his creative skills with a high-end desktop publishing system linked to the Canon, Purcell can virtually match, on short run publications, the color, quality and format flexibility of large offset presses -- and at a fraction of the cost.

For quantities of 25 to 30 proposals, which is the average number Purcell's department produces, his system is ideal. The Canon can print full color on both sides of the page.

He designs the proposals, using a magazine style layout for maximum impact and visual interest. To make his publications stand out, he prints on a variety of paper stocks, then finds unique ways design the cover using offbeat paper stock such as corrugated Kraft paper or vellum. The Canon can print 400 x 400 dpi on sheets up to 11 x 17 inches, permitting a variety of sizes and formats, such as a fold-out 8 1/2- X 11-inch with color on both sides. Trimming down a standard sheet size allows full color bleeds, and by staggering smaller sheet sizes and inserting vellum sheet separators, the documents distinguish themselves from the cookie-cutter variety often associated with on-demand printing. The documents are then bound together using Wiro-Binding.

"We have graphic standards that we adhere to," Purcell says, "but that doesn't prevent us from using our design skills to create memorable work. The technology available today allows us to create memorable work in a matter of hours and at a significant cost savings. Offset doesn't make much sense in short-run printing. What we've saved with the color copier and graphic work stations has pretty much set up our department."

Purcell also uses his system to create publications in other languages, again at a great savings compared to sending them out. Although any roman-alphabet language is easily accommodated by a standard system, languages like Japanese are another story. Apple's Kanji-talk and QuarkXpress' Kanji-Quark combine to form a system that is relatively easy to use. Purcell recently completed a project and delivered the document in both English and Japanese. Kanji-talk allows you to type in the word phonetically; it then displays up to six versions of the Japanese character for you to choose from. Some characters are not appropriate for a formal business document. "I had a writer who was fluent in Japanese sitting at my elbow to check the translation as I went," Purcell adds. "It's important to have any translation checked by a native speaker of that language."

Xerox's Network Publisher

The print on demand system that can make print communication rival the speed -- and even the cost -- of electronic is the Xerox DocuTech Network Publisher. It is an electronically linked copier that can create a 12- page, 11- x 17-inches folded to 8 1/2- x- 11-inches, saddlestitched publication at the rate of 135 pages per minute. And, the best part is that copiers can be networked at company sites anywhere in the world to produce simultaneous copies without the costs and delays of the postal systems.

Xerox produces its own employee publication -- Xerox World -- using this system. It's done eight times a year with a circulation of 76,000.

According to Debra Farrell, Xerox Document Solutions consultant, "It costs U.S. $38,000 to print and distribute 76,000 Xerox World newsletters." And that, says editor Joe Varilla, is about what it used to cost just to print -- not also distribute -- the publication using offset.

The system's limitations are that it doesn't reproduce color (although that no doubt will change soon), and while it does reproduce halftones, it is better suited to line art. Since the bindery operation is built-in, it pretty well dictates the finished publication size of 8 1/2 -x 11 inches. Clearly, it doesn't match the quality and flexibility of offset, but in reduced cycle time and cost, DocuTech has little competition.

And, as Xerox World clearly demonstrates, it's possible to design a high-impact publication without benefit of editorial color while keeping to the 8 1/2 x 11- inch format. Varied column widths and paper stocks, imaginative line art, screens and other editorial devices help create a highly readable publication.

At Exxon Company USA, Houston, Texas, Pete Poulsen, ABC, uses the DocuTech system to create employee directories. In the days before printing on demand, he printed the directories using offset, and by the time a year had passed, they were severely out of date. Now, using his page layout program, and communicating through PDL to the DocuTech, he can make changes at any time and print out copies of the directories as needed, always up to date and correct. The cost of the directories, Poulsen says, compares very closely to those produced using offset.

What's ahead?

As electronic communication continues to put pressure on print, you can expect further print on demand improvements, especially in terms of higher quality reproduction and lower costs. Also, ever-increasing postal costs almost guarantee that transmitting digital information around the world, to be printed on demand locally, will represent better communication value than mailing completed publications.

Also, the linkup between desktop computer and printing device -- combined with the trend toward more short-run, targeted publications-makes it more likely that the future will see more in-house publication production. The most likely place for this to happen is in the communication department, so it has obvious implications for staff and budgets.

In short, print isn't dead, dying or even seriously wounded -- it's just going to be done differently. For those who stay tuned in, it represents a genuine opportunity.

                  Digital Duplicators      Full Color Laser Copies
Paper Size         4" x 6" to 11" x 17"           11" x 17"
Speed              130 pps per min.             2-3 pps per min.
Color / B&W         2-3 spot colors               full color
Bindery Built-in          No                         No
Resolution          300-400 dpi                  300 x 300 dpi
Best suited for     Newsletter/Booklets          Very short runs
Contact             Riso 508/777-7377            Hewlett-Packard
                    Gestetner 203/863 5499       800/725-0900

                        Kodak Lionheart           Xerox DocuTech
Paper Size               11" x 17"                   11" x 17"
Speed              92 single side pps per min.    135 pps per min.
Color / B&W        "accent" coloring available          B&W
Binderoy Built-in            Yes                        Yes
Resolution                 300 dpi                    600 dpi
Best suited for      Newsletters/Booklets       Multi-location Mags
                                                    and Newsletters
Contact              Kodak 800/255-3434                  Xerox
                                                     203/968-3217

Cliff McGoon is a writer/consultant with offices in San Francisco and Palm Springs, Calif.